Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ingr!b11!lhughes From: lhughes@b11.ingr.com (Lawrence Hughes) Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms Subject: Re: I860 & I960; When will be able to write winapps which use them? Summary: i860 stuff Message-ID: <9240@b11.ingr.com> Date: 29 Oct 90 20:29:33 GMT References: <1990Oct26.052223.14642@eng.umd.edu> Distribution: na Organization: Intergraph Corp. Huntsville, AL Lines: 59 I am just about to complete putting together a system based on the Hauppauge 4860 board (the PC that ate Chicago....) - just a few comments on it: 1. The board looks very nice - and works quite well (at least the 486 side does - will shortly be able to try out the 860 side) 2. It has both a 486 and i860 (both running at 25 MHz - suspect they will have 33/33 MHz version soon), and up to 64 MB of DRAM that can be addressed by either processor - although you can only populate 16M with currently available 36-bit JEDEC SIMMs - still kinda pricy, too - gotta use 36-bit wide due to board design, and in pairs, at that - board has a 64-bit bus and DRAM pool. 3. While you can boot DOS on the 486 side (all I've been able to do so far), there are NO tools or support i860 access for DOS/Windows/OS2 or any other non-UNIX system - they have implemented something called APX that cohabits with UNIX V/386 and allows loading/running/debugging of basically UNIX aps on the 860 side. You can get cross 860 C, assembler and linker from either Metaware (as we did) or from Greenhills, that run on UNIX V/386 and load and run via APX. 4. They also have a really nice sounding EISA frame buffer, 32 bit x 1 MPixel (i.e. about 1184 x 884), which requires a pretty fancy monitor. It is about $2000, if I recall. Ours should arrive within 2 weeks (just now starting to ship). 5. The total cost of this system (4860, 16M, frame buffer, 330 MB SCSI drive, VGA + monitor, 60 MB cart tape, Intel UNIX V/386, APX, C/860, etc.) is up to about $18K - still good deal compared to Intel 860 development system (386 system with plug-in 860 board) at $25K... 6. I will be mostly working with this system under UNIX/APX, and will be bringing up X windows ASAP - but I have thought about what a socko Win 3 system the 860/frame buffer would make... Basically, this is still not a system for the novice, but if you speak UNIX and can eat microsoft DDKs for breakfast, you might be able to use it to do some Win 3 stuff... on the other hand, I'm rather impressed with the 860 so far, and am willing to bet that within 3-4 years the 486/860 combo will be as common as the 386/387 today... maybe sooner if some bright guy comes up with good tools and mechanisms to harness some of that power (half a Cray I?) from DOS/Win3... I think Hauppauge has done a great service to the industry by doing pioneering work like this - hope their bet pays off... support 'em! Hope this gives anyone interested a little better idea of what's happening on the 860 front... as for the 960, forget this little fella unless you have a real interest in embedded controllers - not really a general purpose CPU... Wanna talk disk controllers? laser printer controllers? robotics? look into the 960. Wanna talk turbo-charged DOS/UNIX systems? stick with the 860. As for running DOS on 486 and UNIX on 860 on same box... good luck... not real likely.. on the other hand, a multi-processing UNIX that runs on both 860 and 486, and can support DOS virtual environments under UNIX... now you're talking! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lawrence E. Hughes | ASK MR. MATH - He knows MORE than you do! Remember, Intergraph Corp. CR1100 | He's not a REAL Doctor: "I have a Bachelor's Degree, Huntsville, AL 35984 | in MATH!" * uunet!ingr!b11!lhughes * (205) 730-4167