🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1358@bnr-rsc.UUCP>, schow@bcarh61.bnr.ca (Stanley T.H. Chow)
writes:

> > Intel has gone the SuperScalar route. Their i960CA is said to be
> 66 MIPS @ 33 MHz. They have put the cleverness into multiple
> execution units.
> 
> Here is the $64,000 question:
> 
>    Which part is easier to integrate into a real system? 
> 
> Please note that we have concrete real examples here. Theoratical
> discussion is nice, but real data-points are more interesting.

Here is a "real data-point".  Heurikon Corp. (Madison,WI) is now selling
960CA boards with on-board SCSI, Ethernet (82596), 4Mb DRAM (near-zero
wait-state, i.e. 1-0-0-0 read, 0 ws write), multiple serial lines, VME
bus interface, VSB bus, and more for $2995 in quantity 100.  All this
fits on a standard (small, not Sun-sized) VME board.

> Other interesting question:
> 
>    Which system has a larger "domain" over which it actually
>    achives quoted figures?

The 960CA is an embedded controller.  It contains 4-channel DMA,
dynamic, per-region bus sizing, sophisticated interrupt control, etc.
I would suspect that it would perform admirably in most embedded
applications.  The MIPS R6000 is a *system*.  It runs UNIX very well,
apparently.  The 960CA does not now and will never run UNIX, as it
lacks a memory management unit.

S. McGeady
Intel Corp.