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 \_____________________________________________________________.
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