🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <125@ssp1.idca.tds.philips.nl> roelof@idca.tds.PHILIPS.nl (R. Vuurboom) writes:
>In article <20149@winchester.mips.COM> mash@mips.COM (John Mashey) writes:
...
>There's an interesting architectural
>> connection: Edge's business is selling very-high-end
>> 68K-compatible boxes built from (I think) CMOS gate arrays, i.e.,
>> boxes OEMed to cover the high end of your line, if you're 68K-based.
>> (i.e., this is a strategy somewhat similar to NexGen's for the 386,
>> I think).  Any postings of data might be useful.

>In other words, rumours of Edgcores demise are - at the very least -
>premature/overly optimistic (depending on your point of view).
Good: one never knows about rumors, which is why I posted it...
(It's hard for me to tell, since we don't really run into them, what's
going on.)

>Now for some data:
Thanx!

>The E2000 CPU runs at around 15-16 VAX mips sustained.
Any chance you (or anybody) could post any benchmarks? This is of architectural
interest, as I note, because it makes an interesting comparison of
different implementation approaches of the same architecture.

>We get about 4x performance improvement over our 25 Mhz 68030 model.
>The machine can currently support 96Mb physical memory (4 triple Euro
Must be 128MB!
>32 Mbyte boards) but can be configured to 1 Gbyte physical memory when
>the (4M) chips become available.
......more data.....

Note that this is one of the first extant examples of building a more
powerful top end beyond a widespread VLSI micro architecture.
Others include the NexGen, the DG ECL 88K (both of which have articles
in the Spring COMPCON, I think: maybe somebody would cite the articles,
and maybe authors would care to summarize them?), the Prime ECL 486,
and the PRISMA GaAs SPARC.

This is in interesting trend, which is just the opposite of earlier efforts,
i.e., people have often done VLSI CMOS versions of earlier
supermini & mainframe architectures.  [Maybe some citations from VAX-land,
and, if possible, there's that new Unisys chip that fits into a PC/AT box,
but runs their mainframe software.]
-- 
-john mashey	DISCLAIMER: <generic disclaimer, I speak for me only, etc>
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