Newsgroups: comp.arch Path: utzoo!henry From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: Tektronix shutdown & move away from 88k's?? Message-ID: <1990Oct31.182519.2795@zoo.toronto.edu> Organization: U of Toronto Zoology References: <2176@lupine.NCD.COM> <42310@mips.mips.COM> <1990Oct30.164155.10708@mozart.amd.com> Date: Wed, 31 Oct 90 18:25:19 GMT In article <1990Oct30.164155.10708@mozart.amd.com> brett@cayman.amd.com (Brett Stewart) writes: >>Incidentally, why not make a MIPS PC/AT compatible? I mean, a machine >>that has an R3000 chip set instead of a 386 chip set, and is otherwise >>identical (can use the same peripherals, boards, cages, etc...)... > >Deskstation Technology has done exactly this with the Am29000... One should note, however, that the usefulness of this is greatly exaggerated. You say you want to use all those nifty AT peripherals? Well, just how do you plan to write device drivers for them? You don't get hardware docs for them. In fact, more often than not there *are* no hardware docs to be had, no matter how cozy you are with the manufacturer: there are a couple of gnomes chained in a back room who hack the 8088 assembler code in the on-board ROM until it works -- hack as in "hacked to pieces with an axe" -- and that ROM code is the only documentation on how the board really works. Rotsa ruck trying to write a driver from that. (I haven't tried this myself, but people who have tell me that it really is that bad.) -- "I don't *want* to be normal!" | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology "Not to worry." | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry