Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!encore!jcallen From: jcallen@Encore.COM (Jerry Callen) Newsgroups: comp.sys.m88k Subject: Re: Aviion and others? Message-ID: <12875@encore.Encore.COM> Date: 5 Oct 90 14:17:55 GMT References: <1990Sep27.133938.7662@unx.sas.com> <41775@mips.mips.COM> <4701@turquoise.UUCP> <1533@ftc.framentec.fr> <1014@dg.dg.com> <41929@mips.mips.COM> Reply-To: jcallen@encore.Com (Jerry Callen) Organization: Encore Computer Corp, Marlboro, MA Lines: 21 In article jdarcy@encore.com (Floating Exception) writes: >A couple of other RISC-based machines that John Mashey forgot to mention: > > Intergraph something-or-other - these guys have changed chips a couple > of times, so I'm not sure what they're using now. Aren't they still using the clipper chip set? I know they bought the chip out when Fairchild abandoned it. I'm not sure Clipper quite counts as RISC, but just what DOES that mean, anyway - no, don't answer that. :-) There are some interesting similarities between the Clipper set and the Motorola 88K. The Clipper consists of a CPU chip and two MMU chips, one each for instructions and data, with completely separate paths to the MMUs. The FPU is on the CPU chip. The bulk of the Clipper instructions are single cycle, but there are "macro instructions" which execute out of a ROM on the CPU chip, using the normal instruction set. It's an interesting chip set; I first heard about it in 1985, and I think it was ahead of its time. -- Jerry Callen jcallen@encore.com