Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!mslater From: mslater@cup.portal.com (Michael Z Slater) Newsgroups: comp.sys.intel Subject: Re: i860 Message-ID: <20243@cup.portal.com> Date: 9 Jul 89 04:05:04 GMT References: Organization: The Portal System (TM) Lines: 21 >Does anyone have any up to date information about the new Intel i860 >chip as our department is thinking of investing in a parallel machine based >around 4 such processors. We also need 16MB of fast memory on each chip so >that they may be used separately to run our code which involves very large >matrix manipulation......is this configuration possible now and if not when >can we expect to see such items in the U.K. The i860 is still in a very early sampling stage, and the only chips that have been distributed are quite buggy. Intel officially will only say that they are on schedule for general sampling in the third quarter. I've been told that first silicon on the "B" step, which is hoped to fix the bugs, came off the line last week, and I haven't been able to find out how it is working. If you're looking for a system in the next 6 months or so, I wouldn't consider the i860. I'd expect it to be a year before systems are shipping with reasonable software and short bug lists. Michael Slater, Microprocessor Report mslater@cup.portal.com 550 California Ave., Suite 320, Palo Alto, CA 94306 415/494-2677 fax: 415/494-3718