Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen From: davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.COM (Wm E Davidsen Jr) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: RISCizing a CISC processor Message-ID: <3009@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> Date: 7 Dec 90 16:54:28 GMT References: <9012070105.AA02416@hcrlgw.crl.hitachi.co.jp> Reply-To: davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.com (bill davidsen) Distribution: na Organization: GE Corp R&D Center, Schenectady NY Lines: 33 In article kls30@DUTS.ccc.amdahl.com (Kent L. Shephard) writes: | Both processors have performance better than 1st generation RISC ie. | the first SPARC from Sun. (The 460 was the first.) I've heard that | the i586 will be out around '92' and will be super scalar. (But that | just rumours.) As editor of the 386-users mailing list I see a lot more rumors than almost anyone else in the world, and believe fewer ;-) A number of magazines have reported that Compaq and IBM are pushing Intel to get the 586 out in 91 because clone makers like AST are talking about making RISC based clone PCs. Mars Microsystems makes a SPARC clone with 386 added running DOS which certainly looks like a step in this direction. Note what I said about belief, this is not written in stone, but I hear it from a lot of people. As to the 586, the only consistent thing I hear is that there will be on-chip support for windows. I don't know if that means MS or X, but I find it hard to believe that Intel would be so stupid as to do anything which wouldn't at least be highly useful for both. And I would also suspect that the number of customers for the 586, at least initially, will be greater for UNIX than DOS. That may be true of the 486 now, I don't know. Assuming that the 586 does have support for windows in general, the price of performance will go down again. One chip with FPU, MMU, and windows hardware takes les {power, space, pins, glue chips} than any multichip solution. That could lead to some killer workstation class machines at PC prices. -- bill davidsen (davidsen@crdos1.crd.GE.COM -or- uunet!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen) VMS is a text-only adventure game. If you win you can use unix.