Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ukma!nrl-cmf!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!LYNX.NORTHEASTERN.EDU!tmetro From: tmetro@LYNX.NORTHEASTERN.EDU Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: Chameleon Chip Message-ID:Date: 28 Sep 88 21:00:27 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 39 Thomas Murphy writes: > What, pray tell, is a Chamelon chip? Does anyone actually make such > an unlikely beast? Details, please. ============================================================ VAPORWARE Murphy Sewall [an excerpt] From the September 1988 APPLE PULP H.U.G.E. Apple Club (E. Hartford) News Letter $15/year P.O. Box 18027 East Hartford, CT 06118 Permission granted to copy with the above citation Call the "Bit Bucket" (203) 569-8739 Chameleon CPU. Designers may salivate - but shouldn't hold their breath - for the VM8600S microprocessor created by V.M. Technology Corp., of Tsukuba, Japan. The CPU portion of the chip has a native instruction set of 155 commands, but the company can configure three programmable logic arrays (PLAs) on the chip to translate another processor's instructions into the CPU's native instruction. A 25 MHz version of the 32-bit VM8600S already has PLAs configured to translate Intel 80386 instructions. PLAs to emulate the 68000 family and even the yet to be shipped 65832 are technically feasible. Unfortunately, samples of the microprocessor probably won't be available in the United States for about a year. - Electronic Design, June 9, 1988 (forwarded by Tom Metro) ============================================================== ___________ ./ Tom Metro \_____________________________________________________________. | _ _ | | INET: tmetro@pro-angmar.uucp --/\/\_| |_| '- DigiTell, Inc. | | ARPA: crash!pnet01!pro-angmar!tmetro@nosc.mil Newton, MA | | UUCP: [sdcsvax nosc]!crash!pnet01!pro%angmar!tmetro | |_Alternate: tmetro@lynx.northeastern.edu__________________________________|