Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!pacbell!ames!husc6!purdue!decwrl!alverson From: alverson@decwrl.dec.com (Robert Alverson) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: Why no RISC clones? Message-ID: <938@bacchus.dec.com> Date: 29 Nov 88 17:35:55 GMT References: <5030006@hpesoc1.HP.COM> Organization: DEC Western Research Lab Lines: 13 The obvious reason is that reverse-engineering a RISC would take at least 1 year. Without having your own compilers, you have to match exactly, so you have very few opportunities to improve on the original design. So why not just buy their chip instead? However, the real reason is that people who want to design RISC chips are arrogant. They are confident that they can do better--they wouldn't *want* to repeat the "mistakes" of the original designers. :) Bob