🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <47@nikhefk.UUCP> henkp@nikhefk.uucp (Henk Peek) writes:

>Where can I get a the current futurebus and NuBus "work" standards.
>I have only an old futurebus concept. Are there differences between
>the TI-NuBus and MIT-Nubus?
>
You can find out more infomation about the proposed IEEE P1196 standard
(NuBus), by contacting one of the following sources of infomation:

	Secretary, IEEE Standards Board
	345 E. 47th St.
	New York, NY 10017

	IEEE Computer Society
	10662 Los Vaqueros Circle
	Los Alamitos, CA 90720
	(714) 821--8380

	IEEE Service Center
	445 Hoes Lane
	Piscataway, NJ 08854
	(201) 981-1393

This information was extracted from a recent article in IEEE Spectrum Oct 86,
"A Framework For Computer Design", which dealt with the topic of buses
and bus standards.  The article listed all present and proposed IEEE
bus standards along with a short description of their typical uses.

The article has the following comments about the following buses:

NuBus IEEE P1196

	"High performance microprocessor bus with simple protocols
	 independent of processors and manufacturers"
	 Typical use: "Lean multiple microprocessor systems"
	 Originators: MIT and Texas Instruments

	 Other Comments about NuBus in article:

	"Another next-generation bus, Nubus (IEEE P1196), was sponsored
	 for standardization by Texas Instruments.  It is another high-
	 performance bus designed to be processor-independent, based
	 in part on its simplicity.  It has so many features in common
	 with Mulitbus II that a merger of the two standards was proposed
	 at one time.  However, Nubus has a leaner protocol that Multibus
	 II.  In contrast to the subsystem philosophy of both Intel and
	 Motorola, Nubus has no associated memory, I/O, or serial buses.
	 It thus has a certain appeal to potential users who favor a
	 stripped-down approach to multiprocessing."

VME IEEE P1014

	"Popluar system bus initially conceived to support the
	 Motorola 68000 processor family"
	 Typical use: "High-end microprocessor systems"
	 Originator: Motorola

Multibus IEEE 796

	"Widely used microprocessor system bus supporting Intel
	 and other processors"
	 Typical use: "Mid-range microprocessor systems"
	 Originator: Intel

Multibus II IEEE P1296

	"High-performance microprocessor system bus"
	 Typical use: "High-end multiple processor systems"
	 Originator: Intel

Futurebus IEEE P896

	"Very high-performance system bus independent of processors and
	 manufacturers."
	 Typical use: "Top-end multiple microprocessor systems"
	 Originator: IEEE

->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->   :)

Concerning the next generation of slotted-Macintoshes, the 27 Oct issue of
InfoWorld in 'Notes from the Field' had these rumors and comments:

It is reported that the slotted-Mac will have at least 6 Nubus slots, but
some versions may have a dozen. (Yes) Apple has made provisions for a
MS-DOS card that uses an Intel 80286 that will run DOS as a task. (I
understand that this is being done in cooperation with the same people
who provide the Phoneix BIOS.)  The slotted-Mac will run either the Mac
operating system or a version of Unix System V with Berkeley 4.2 BSD
extensions.  With Unix, they'll throw in C, Fortran-77, and Assembler and
make MPW Pascal an option.

Infoworld also reports that slotted-Mac won't appear until March 86.
Three months later, Apple would fix the slotted-Mac so it can do 
multitasking with the Mac operating system running under Unix.  The
article goes on to say the Mac would use a 25-MHz 68020 with 68881
floating point coprocessor. The Mac would also use a special memory
management chip (MMU) to make multitasking operate faster than if it was
done by the 68020.

Regarding displays, Infoworld reports Apple will sell two displays initially,
both with 680 by 480 pixel resolution.  One will be a 12-inch monochrome
monitor and the other a 13-inch color monitor. At introduction will be a
special video card for driving the displays in true gray scale.  Later,
they'll move up to a pair of 19-inch monitors, one monochrome and the other
color.

So there is the latest from Infoworld regarding the next generations of
Mac's...

   ____    ______   _____      _____=====        Cliff Huff
  / __ \  | _____| |_   _|   _____=========	 cch@sei.cmu.edu
 | |__|_| | |__      | |   _____=============	 Software Eng. Institue
 _\___ \  |  __|     | | _____=================  Carnegie-Mellon Univ.
 | |__| | | |____   _| |_  _____=============	 Pittsburgh, PA 15213
  \____/  |______| |_____|   _____=========	 (412) 268-6382
			       -----=====
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