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From: srm@nsc.UUCP (Richard Mateosian)
Newsgroups: net.micro.16k
Subject: Series 32000 part numbering history
Message-ID: <1610@nsc.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 16-Oct-84 16:00:26 EDT
Article-I.D.: nsc.1610
Posted: Tue Oct 16 16:00:26 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 17-Oct-84 06:09:28 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: National Semiconductor, Sunnyvale
Lines: 116

*         The response to my offer to recount the history of Series
          32000 part numbering was large, so I'm posting the story.

          Right from the beginning (1978) the design objective for
          National's new microprocessor project was to produce a 32-
          bit vax-like "mainframe in silicon" with floating point sup-
          port and demand paged virtual memory.  Since the Z8000 and
          68000 were only rumors at that point, some imaginative per-
          son dubbed it the 8096 to one-up the 8086.

          It was soon realized that the plan was much too ambitious to
          be undertaken without intermediate steps, and the present
          division of the architecture into CPU, MMU, and FPU was con-
          ceived.

          Partly to simplify design and packaging of the 3-chip set,
          partly to avoid outdistancing the market (as happened with
          National's unsuccessful 16-bit IMP), and partly out of con-
          cern for the problems of users migrating from 8080 designs,
          three versions of the CPU were planned:

               The NS16008 would have a 16-bit version of the archi-
               tecture (16-bit registers and addresses) and a mode in
               which it could execute 8080 code directly. Its data bus
               would be 8 bits.

               The NS16016 would also be a 16-bit version of the
               architecture. It would be the same as the NS16008, but
               it would have a 16-bit data bus. I do not remember
               whether it had a provision for 24-bit addressing.

               The NS16032 would have a full 32-bit architecture and
               implementation but with a 16-bit data path to memory.

          You can see that the part numbering became illogical here. The
          NS16008 and NS16016 followed the pattern to which we have
          reverted today with the Series 32000: aaxdd means aa-bit
          architecture, dd-bit data bus. Under that scheme, the
          NS16032 would have been called the NS32016, and that is what
          it is called now.

          The original plan was a good one for the time it was con-
          ceived, but delays combined with rapid market changes to
          force rethinking, and in May 1982 when the "NS16000 Family"
          was introduced it consisted of the NS16032 CPU, the NS16081
          FPU and the NS16082 MMU. Only the "misnumbered" NS16032 had
          survived, while the NS16008 and NS16016 had been placed "on
          hold".  The idea of three different bus widths survived, but
          in a new form. This time all three CPUs would have the same
          32-bit internal architecture and implementation, but with
          8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit data paths to memory.

          With the new CPU lineup, the numbering confusion became
          worse. It was decided that the new 8-bit bus version would
          be called by the old number, NS16008, even though the new
          part had a full 32-bit architecture and internal implementa-
          tion and no 8080-code execution capabilities. The 32-bit bus
          version was called the NS32032.

          This confusion was reduced when the NS16008 was renamed
          NS08032 in 1983.  Now the numbering scheme was consis-
          tent, but it had flipped over, so that aaxdd had become
          ddxaa. Of course, now there was no connection at all to the
          name NS16000 Family, and in 1984 we bit the bullet and
          adopted the name Series 32000. At that time, we reverted to
          the aaxdd ordering, so that the three CPUs became the NS32032,
          NS32016, and NS32008. All of the other NS16000 Family chip
          numbers had been of the form NS16yyy, and these were all
          changed to NS32yyy, giving us the NS32081 FPU, the NS32082
          MMU, the NS32201 TCU (clock chip), the NS32202 ICU, and the
          NS32203 DMA.

          With the change to Series 32000, most of our support equip-
          ment was also renamed/numbered, so we now have the Sys32
          development system. For that system, different /-suffixes
          (e.g., Sys32/10) will denote different models. The current
          models all run Genix on the NS32016. Our emulators are
          designated ISE-dd, where ISE-dd emulates an NS320dd. Our
          evaluation boards (except for the no longer produced DB16)
          all have similarly descriptive numbers.

          In addition to this renumbering of current parts, we took
          the opportunity to renumber future products that we had been
          giving out limited information on. When the NS16000 Family
          was introduced in 1982, we referred to a high-performance
          CMOS implementation of the entire architecture on a single
          piece of silicon as the NS32132. It was to be the next CPU
          released. Our current plans call for a succession of CPUs,
          all designated NS32x32. What we used to call the NS32132
          corresponds most closely in this new scheme to what we are
          now calling the NS32532. The new NS32132 is much closer to
          the NS32032. The NS32332, which will be introduced next
          year, is a major reimplementation of the architecture. We'll
          be releasing information on that part fairly soon.

          You may be wondering what happened to the designations
          NS32232 and NS32432.  The NS32232 never existed, except in
          concept. All of its proposed new features have been incor-
          porated into the NS32132 and NS32332. As for the NS32432, we
          foresaw a naming problem there. People tend to refer to the
          NS32032 as "the '032", and they have started calling the
          NS32332 "the '332".  We felt that there would be no end of
          confusion caused by introducing a part that could not avoid
          being referred to as "the '432", since as some of you no
          doubt remember, there was a microprocessor architecture with
          that designation released a few years ago by another semi-
          conductor company. In fact, there is a net.micro.432!

          Speaking of net names, you may ask why net.micro.16k is not
          renamed net.micro.32k or something of the sort. I've asked
          the same question, and I've been told it's too much trouble.

          So that's the whole story. Aren't you glad you asked?
-- 
Richard Mateosian
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