Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cbmvax!jesup
From: jesup@cbmvax.commodore.com (Randell Jesup)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Dynamic internal state
Message-ID: <10237@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Date: 18 Mar 90 21:45:22 GMT
References: <32937@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> <132903@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> <36999@mips.mips.COM>
Reply-To: jesup@cbmvax (Randell Jesup)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
Lines: 16

In article <36999@mips.mips.COM> mark@mips.COM (Mark G. Johnson) writes:
>In CMOS microprocessors, dynamic logic is used all over the place.  That's
>one of the reasons why there is a datasheet spec for minimum clock frequency:
>to refresh these dynamic nodes.  Generally, microprocessor circuits are
>designed to refresh dynamic nodes every cycle.  A quick and incomplete
>peek at databooks reveals:

	Not everyone goes dynamic.  The RPM-40 was fully static, on purpose.
This makes debugging a processor easier, and makes certain things simpler.
It also makes the chip less susceptible to radiation-caused-upset, and
deterioration.  (The RPM-40 was 1.25u CMOS).

-- 
Randell Jesup, Keeper of AmigaDos, Commodore Engineering.
{uunet|rutgers}!cbmvax!jesup, jesup@cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com  BIX: rjesup  
Common phrase heard at Amiga Devcon '89: "It's in there!"