Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!motcid!king
From: king@motcid.UUCP (Steven King)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Low cost Macs and The Return of Timex (was Re: Murph's VAPORWARE )
Message-ID: <4393@grape3.UUCP>
Date: 5 Sep 90 17:11:40 GMT
References: <9008270223.AA07322@lilac.berkeley.edu> <2788@corpane.UUCP>
Organization: Motorola Inc. - Cellular Infrastructure Div., Arlington Heights, IL 60004
Lines: 37

In article <2788@corpane.UUCP> sparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks) writes:
>>Another Sinclair.
>>Sir Clive Sinclair is looking for a partner to develop and
>>manufacture his design for a 200 MIP bipolar, battery
>>powered "hyper-RISC" processor than will use downloaded
>>microcode which will enable it to emulate any other
>>processor (including floating point I/O and memory
>>management).  - InfoWorld 30 July
>
>er... yeah. 200 MIPs. Emulate any other processor. ...rriiiigght!
>If he pulls this off I will probably have to dump my Amiga and
>run right out and buy one of these machines. After all, it should
>easily emulate an Amiga, hmmmm? And an IBM, and a Mac, and let's not
>forget ... a Cray! Yeah, we will have the Timex-Sinclair Micro-Cray on
>a stick!

I'd buy 200 MIPS for this thing.  Don't forget, MIPS (Million Instructions
Per Second) is not an indication of processor power!  It's an indication of,
quite literally, the speed at which a processor executes instructions.  RISC
chips by their very nature execute instructions very quickly; that's what
they're designed to do.  On the downside, you've gotta execute a LOT of
instructions to get anything done.  It's a trade-off.  Which is better, the
ability to execute instructions quickly but needing a lot of them to do
anything, or executing instructions slowly and having a single instruction
wax your car and walk your dog?  Ah, the heart of the RISC vs. CISC debate!

For the chip Sinclair is talking about, he needs RISC.  I have no doubt he'll
be able to achieve 200 Million Instructions Per Second.  I also don't doubt
that it's POSSIBLE for a single processor to emulate any other (yes, even to
emulate a Cray).  But, if it takes him 200 million instructions to emulate a
single 68000 instruction I'd say it's not worth the trouble.

-- 
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The trouble with living in sin is the shortage     | Steve King  (708) 991-8056
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