Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!decwrl!ucbvax!UB.CC.UMICH.EDU!Tabakal
From: Tabakal@UB.CC.UMICH.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: ASIC news (the 25 Mhtz GS)
Message-ID: <6206662@ub.cc.umich.edu>
Date: 3 Oct 90 02:06:38 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 43

Well, since everyone I know, including myself, became a bit cynical
at Sculley's letter, I thought we all needed a bit of good news to
perk us up.  So, I asked Tony Fadell, the designer of the super-fast
65816-lookalike chip to give us an update.  What follows are his
words --
 
     We have done one proto run so far... We received these parts
     in July. We turned the design to our fab. company in End
     Feb. Begin Mar. of 1990. Their turn around time was so slow
     because of the way we needed the design routed. Another
     problem was that our design (gates and busses) was so large
     that we needed to rethink a few things. But we finally
     received the parts... I was beginning to get real skeptical
     of our fab but they finally pulled through. We plugged the
     CPUs into the GS and the TransWarp GS they met the necessary
     electrical and timing specs. The chips appeared to work
     however, one condition of an address mode was not being spit
     out correctly in all cases. We went back to the design stage
     and have fixed the problem. We are into the routing stage
     once again... this time we should have a much much faster
     turnaround. (approx. 3 weeks)
 
     Also we maxed out the proto at approx 17Mhz. This should be
     the same for the next protos also. Our fab company is
     starting out their 1 micron process and we already are
     preparing the conversion of the chip to the new technology.
     We have been running simulations and have found them to be
     upwards of 25Mhz.
 
     No we have not fizzled!! We are still working hard...
 
Tony says that it's okay to reprint this as much as we like.  So, spread
the word.  There may be a ][gs outrunning a Mac ][ci in the near future.
 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
    Todd A. Bakal                                All snappy sayings aside,
    U of M Apple User's Group                    !Index will be updated
    Ann Arbor, Michigan                          ASAP or my name's not... 
 
    Internet: Tabakal@ub.cc.umich.edu            FTP: ummts.cc.umich.edu
              Tab@terminator.cc.umich.edu             35.1.1.43   (PC5:)
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