Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!ncar!boulder!atk From: atk@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Alan T. Krantz) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: 68040 where is it? Message-ID: <25146@boulder.Colorado.EDU> Date: 24 Aug 90 16:56:43 GMT References: <33156@cup.portal.com> Sender: news@boulder.Colorado.EDU Reply-To: atk@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Alan T. Krantz) Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder Lines: 45 In article <33156@cup.portal.com> mslater@cup.portal.com (Michael Z Slater) writes: > > >Just out of curiosity, does anyone out there know when Motorola is >>supposed to be delivering the '040 in mass quantities?? I heard >>there was some problem with the FPU a while back but that it was fixed >>and things were ready to roll. So what's happening now? > >General sampling will be announced real soon now, with production this >fall. It appears that the latest rev of the silicon has fixed the >significant problems. > >Michael Slater, Microprocessor Report mslater@cup.portal.com >707/823-4004 fax: 707/823-0504 Would someone be willing to give me a fairly good contrast between the following chips in terms of speed: MIPS RS3000 Sparc + IBM RS6000 80486 68040 Quoted bench marks don't mean a whole lot. So how about some comments on what types of problems a specific chip/computer does well. Also, how does the 68040 obtain it's speed up. Does it use pipelineing (I assume this is the case). Does it have multiple functional units operating in parallel. What about the future? Can a sparc chipset be made as fast as the MIPS (without "visible" changes to the user. I.e, reducing the number of register windows) - will a 68050 one day be 10 times faster than the current IBM RS6000 (I.,e is there room in the basic design for mass improvements).. If possible could you cc me on any followups to this message. Thanks... ------------------------------------------------------------------ | Mail: 1830 22nd street Email: atk@boulder.colorado.edu| | Apt 16 Vmail: Home: (303) 939-8256 | | Boulder, Co 80302 Office: (303) 492-8115 | ------------------------------------------------------------------