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From: north@Apple.COM (Don North)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: why wait for wdc or asic? 32-bit 6502's already exist!!!
Message-ID: <40792@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 7 May 90 18:27:01 GMT
References: <9005061648.AA00952@apple.com>
Organization: Apple Computer, Inc.
Lines: 42

In article <9005061648.AA00952@apple.com> $CSB211@LSUVM.BITNET (mark orr) writes:
>
>anyway, the title of this article is correct. thirty-two bit
>6502's already exist (and have existed since late '87)
>
>the chip that i'm referring to is the arm - acorn risc machine.
>it is a risc chip with an instruction set deliberately designed
>around the 6502 - actually the instruction set is a superset of
>the 6502. it was designed for the archimedes a310 computer in
>england, which was previewed in the october 1987 issue of byte.
>
>the archimedes was designed to be a high-performance replacement
>of the acorn computer (bbc micro) which uses the 6502 as its main
>processor. it is also operating system compatible with the bbc micro.
>
>AND AS FOR THE ARM - "IT'S DESIGN DELIBERATELY RESEMBLES A
>6502 BROUGHT UP TO DATE WITH SHORT, FAST INSTRUCTIONS AND A
>SUPERFAST INTERRUPT RESPONSE TIME" THE ARM CAN ALSO ADDRESS 64
>MEGABYTES OF RAM.

I think you've mistaken 'cultural' with 'binary' compatibility.  In no
way is the ARM a binary compatible superset of the 6502/65816 processor
series (ie, like the 65816 is to the 6502).  It's architecture does reflect
some interesting optimizations/tradeoffs in the instruction set design
to achieve very good performance (ie, >1K dhrystones/MHz clock rate).

Radius uses this chip in their MacII/NuBus graphics accelerator to good
effect.  The Acorn Archimedes machine (for which the CPU was originally
designed) is also a pretty hot performing box.

VLSI Technology sources the chip in the USA under the part number
VL86C010.  Even more interesting is the follow-on part VL86C020; this
part principally adds an on-chip 4K byte cache to allow building reasonable
cost 20MHz+ systems, without requiring sub-50ns DRAMs.
-- 

Don North   -----   Apple Computer, Inc.   -----   Advanced Technology Group

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