Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!cmcl2!sbcs!ameristar!rick
From: rick@ameristar (Rick Spanbauer)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: processor for graphics terminal [was: PC/AT clones with RISC cpu]
Message-ID: <1990Nov3.150202.27353@ameristar>
Date: 3 Nov 90 15:02:02 GMT
References: <1990Nov2.000650.18866@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> <0093F1A8.A28E4920@KING.ENG.UMD.EDU> <1990Nov3.052952.1786@zoo.toronto.edu>
Organization: Ameristar Technology, Inc
Lines: 22

In article <1990Nov3.052952.1786@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes:
>The two parts of this sentence are unrelated. :-)  I haven't seen details
>on the SLC, but Sun normally uses proprietary MMU designs that bear no
>relation to (e.g.) the "Sparc Reference MMU".  Worse, not only are they
>proprietary but they are Top Secret, although apparently Sun has entirely
>forgotten why, since they can't offer any rational reason for it when
>asked.

	It may be a simple reason, like not wanting users to be able to buy 
	only SunOS tapes from Sun and then run the binaries on cheap sparc 
	clones, or to make the job of clone companies harder (ie buy a SunOS 
	sources + unix guru to rewrite the MMU code). Suns choice of what they 
	consider trade secret has never been very user friendly at all - for 
	years, one couldn't get schematics, buy keyboard and power supplies 
	directly from their suppliers, get compiler, rasterop lib, ND, or MMU 
	source, etc.  We tend to pay more for our Suns, yet know less about 
	them than our Amigas, PCs, or Macs :-)  

>"I don't *want* to be normal!"         | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology

					Rick Spanbauer
					Ameristar