Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!sri-unix!cowan@udel-relay.arpa From: cowan@udel-relay.arpa Newsgroups: net.micro Subject: MicroVAX Message-ID: <17034@sri-arpa.UUCP> Date: Wed, 29-Feb-84 21:36:42 EST Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.17034 Posted: Wed Feb 29 21:36:42 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 4-Mar-84 03:32:35 EST Lines: 16 From: Ken CowanI have seen the MicroVAX announcements from DEC. Customer shipments of prepackaged systems are supposed to begin in March. I haven't heard anything about the availability of the chip set. The comparison to the VAX 11/780 couldn't have been for the whole system. The MicroVAX is Q-bus based, which slows the system. It also runs off of a winchester that is much slower than the disks shipped with 11/780 systems. There are also some memory management things done in software, most notably the page table translation; which is done in hardware (microcode?) in the 11/780. However, the MicroVAX sounds like a super machine if you are running an LSI-11/23 size application that needs to grow to 32-bit virtual address type architecture.