Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!oliveb!mintaka!think!barmar
From: barmar@think.COM (Barry Margolin)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Subject: Re: Symbolics co-processor board for the Sparcstation-1 ?
Message-ID: <28945@news.Think.COM>
Date: 7 Sep 89 02:42:18 GMT
References: <1989Sep6.205843.23261@cs.rochester.edu>
Sender: news@Think.COM
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA
Lines: 19

Regarding a Symbolics co-processor that fits on the Sparcstation-1's S-bus:

In article <1989Sep6.205843.23261@cs.rochester.edu> miller@CS.ROCHESTER.EDU (Brad Miller) writes:
>obviously existing technology would make a 3"x5" card hard to do, esp.
>since one would either have to have local 40bit memory, or a cache to allow
>the local processor to get 40bits doing 32bit fetches over the S-bus. I
>don't think it would fit but maybe next generation :-)

It shouldn't be TOO long before it's possible.  That's only about a
third the size of a Macintosh II NuBus card, and Symbolics has an
Ivory card that fits there.  And they've already dealt with the
problem of accessing memory in 48-bit chunks (don't forget the ECC)
over a 32-bit bus in the MacIvory.

Barry Margolin
Thinking Machines Corp.

barmar@think.com
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