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From: doug@certes.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: 12 - 50 Mip Amiga 2000 CoProcessor?
Message-ID: <8707150750.AA18086@unisoft.UNISOFT>
Date: Wed, 15-Jul-87 03:44:55 EDT
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Posted: Wed Jul 15 03:44:55 1987
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			12 to 50 MIP Amiga 2000 CoProcessor?


Definicon has developed an IBM PC board using Sun's new "SPARC" 12 MIP RISC
CPU, which would be *very* interesting to see in an Amiga 2000. Cost is $2995,
or $4500 including Weitek 1.6 Mflop (single precision Linpack) floating point
chips. The cost includes a C compiler derived from Sun's compiler. The board
includes 1 Mbyte of 55ns RAM. It runs "on any IBM-PC under MS-DOS 2.0 or
higher". Board is available 60 days ARO.

"Definicon's proprietary software will run on the chip, providing a psuedo-
Unix software layer. Unix-compatible applications programs can run above this
layer in the RISC coprocessor. All I/O and system-level calls are passed to
the host processor's Intel CPU." I have no information as to exactly what
"psuedo-Unix" may mean.

Definicon currently offers a 68020 board for the IBM PC, for somewhere around
$1500 (I forget the exact price).

The SPARC processor is the engine used in Sun's new Sun 4 workstation. The
current Sun 4 uses 10 MIP 20,000 gate Fujitsu gate arrays. The reason that the
Definicon board is 12 MIPS compared with the Sun 4 10 MIPS is that the
Definicon board includes an interleaved cache. Sun claims the Sun 4 to be
equal to a VAX 8800 in performance. The 8800 is around 5 times as fast as
the more common VAX 11/780. And Definicon claims their board is 20% faster
than *that*. This would be something like 20 times as fast as the Amiga's
68000 processor.

Sun has also contracted with Cypress for a full-custom VLSI chip version of
the same processor, which will hit 20 MIPS and will be available by fourth
quarter 1988. This will be a 0.8 micron CMOS process.

And if you think _that's_ fast, Sun has contracted Bipolar Integrated
Technology to produce an ECL version of the Cypress chip, to be available in
1989. Claimed to be 50 to 100 MIPS (the story said 100, but 50 is implied,
so I'm not sure about that, but either way it's fast!)

All three versions of the processor are to be fully compatible with each other.
How would you like a 50 MIP board plugged into your Amiga??? Even the currently
available 12 MIP $4500 board sure beats the $39,900 for a Sun 4. Although of
course the Sun comes with Unix and a high resolution screen, while the Amiga
does not.

Source: Mon Jul 13 EE Times, page 4.

Glossary (to anticipate followup questions):
	cache -- a small amount of very fast memory added to a cpu board to
		buffer the larger amount of slower (and cheaper) RAM.
	Gate Array -- a chip consisting of a two-dimensional array of logic
		gates. The array layout is standard, but the interconnections
		between logic elements is customized for particular
		applications.
	high resolution -- On the Apple 2GS, 320 by 200; on the Amiga,
		640 by 400. On popular workstations, 1024 by 1024. For
		high end graphics folks, 2048 by 2048. It's all relative.
	MIPS -- Millions of Instructions Per Second. A popular measure of
		speed, often criticized for being overly simplistic and hard
		to use to meaningfully compare radically different types of
		computers. Can be misleading by a factor of two or even worse.
	Mflops -- Millions of FLoating Point instructions per second. Similar
		to MIPS.
	RISC -- Reduced Instruction Set Computer. A relatively new
		architectural fad that achieves higher performance via
		simplicity rather than complexity.

Doug Merritt		ucbvax!unisoft!certes!doug

Copyright 1987 Douglas R. Merritt. All rights reserved.