Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!udel!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!a.gp.cs.cmu.edu!koopman
From: koopman@a.gp.cs.cmu.edu (Philip Koopman)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Re: HARRIS RTX ? and Zilog ?
Summary: an unofficial summary
Keywords: Summary needed
Message-ID: <11295@pt.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: 6 Dec 90 02:31:56 GMT
References: <1990Dec5.170506.3438@cbnewse.att.com>
Distribution: na
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
Lines: 49

In article <1990Dec5.170506.3438@cbnewse.att.com>, cwpjr@cbnewse.att.com (clyde.w.jr.phillips) writes:
> Could someone get the complete story of the Harris RTX situation
> ( Phil K? ) and post the summary. Right now I expect that it's
> still available but (marketing) de-emphasized, and won't become
> *REAL* cheap soon 'cause of Die size. That's all I've heard
> and I don't know if this is correct.
I am not a Harris spokesman (official or otherwise).  But I have
been keeping in touch, and believe this to be the current situation:
- Fred Hawkes is now in charge of RTX.  If you want _official_
   information, contact him at (407) 724-7823.
- The RTX support team is now 5 people.  This is a "transition team",
   not a permanent support staff.  In other words, the number is going
   to go down in the future.
- Harris has plenty of RTX 2000's and RTX 2001A's tested and in-stock.
   The RTX 2010 introduction has been canceled.  All planned enhancements
   and future commercial standard products have been canceled (including
   the RTX 4000).  I would be surprised if prices were reduced
   because of manufacturing and support costs.  "Unsupported" sales
   are not an option for a number of legitimate reasons.
- Some day, Harris will stop manufacturing RTX 2000s.  They have promised
   to give notice to customers to allow "end-of-life" buys.  I expect
   that this event will correlate to stopping production of 80C286's
   made on the same fab line.
- My personal opinion is that starting a new design with an RTX
   has a high risk of being left high-and-dry in some fashion.  The
   most likely problems are:  1) you will need hardware or software
   support for some obscure problem and find that appropriate RTX
   expertise is unavailable from Harris; 2) you will underestimate
   your requirements or have insufficient cash when end-of-life buy
   is announced.
- If you have the money, Harris will let you use the RTX core
   for standard-cell designs.  They will probably license the RTX
   to you for use on someone else's fab, but probably for a lot of $$$.
- I know little about the design contest, but I think that prizes for
   U.S. winners were awarded as promised.
 
> I'd also welcome any discussion of creating "generic"
> FORTH engines using FPGA's that WOULD BE affordable
> on singles quantities. I believe we are at the gate count
> with multi-functional partitioning in these type "commodity"
> parts to open this discussion.
Charles Johnsen at MISC has been working on such a design for
quite some time (JAX's article in Embedded Systems Programming
tells more).
 
  Phil Koopman                koopman@greyhound.ece.cmu.edu   Arpanet
  2525A Wexford Run Rd.
  Wexford, PA  15090
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