Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!ucsd!ames!oliveb!sun!ember!dre
From: dre%ember@Sun.COM (David Emberson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: MAC 88000
Summary: Low cost RISCs
Keywords: 88000 SPARC Sun Apple Mac Macintosh UNIX
Message-ID: <59913@sun.uucp>
Date: 14 Jul 88 16:29:31 GMT
References: <261@hodge.UUCP> <370STORKEL@RICE> <607@riddle.UUCP>
Sender: news@sun.uucp
Lines: 16


At this point, I would think that the high cost of the 88000 chipset would
be prohibitive for a low cost machine.  Also, the Harvard architecture,
while allowing reduced CPI in the absence of an on-chip I cache, requires
more external components.  If Apple were to do a RISC machine now, the
only processors that would meet the cost constraint would probably be the
LSI Logic SPARC or Mips cpus which will be available as macros, the Fujitsu
SPARC, or possibly the 29K.  My guess is that they will stay with 68030/40/50
for some time.

			Dave Emberson (dre@sun.com)

p.s. The only thing that Sun controls about SPARC is the trademark.  Many
licensees are already designing SPARCs of all flavors on their own.  Obviously
we have some clout, because at the moment we are the biggest consumer of
SPARC chips.  But we don't (and couldn't possibly) "control" the SPARC vendors.