Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.UUCP (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Is the 29000 in use yet?
Message-ID: <4464@cbmvax.UUCP>
Date: 10 Aug 88 17:23:26 GMT
References: <251@quintus.UUCP>
Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA
Lines: 22

in article <251@quintus.UUCP>, ok@quintus.uucp (Richard A. O'Keefe) says:

> In article <1988Aug3.153239.8988@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
>>I'm not sure I'd bet on 1.2u CMOS beating the 29000, though:  that processor
>>is *really good* at saturating memory bandwidth.

> Which leads into my (ignorant) questions:
>     What commercially available boxes use the Am29k?  Any idea how many
>     have been installed?  How close to 17MIPS do they _really_ get?

AMD right now, at least, is marketing it as an imbedded controller.  If
the market believes that, you'd probably find it in a laser printer or
similar application, rather than in a UNIX box or some-such.  It is an
interesting chip -- I like the design philosophy.  Instead of the "let's 
throw out the micro-execution unit and hardwire our instructions" theme of
most RISCy chips, the 29K folks said "let's throw out the macro-execution
unit and make the micro-execution unit grow up a little".

-- 
Dave Haynie  "The 32 Bit Guy"     Commodore-Amiga  "The Crew That Never Rests"
   {ihnp4|uunet|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh      PLINK: D-DAVE H     BIX: hazy
		"I can't relax, 'cause I'm a Boinger!"