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From: aduncan@rhea.trl.oz (Allan Duncan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: VME bus comments
Message-ID: <2586@trlluna.trl.oz>
Date: 13 Jan 91 23:46:23 GMT
References: <17197@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Sender: news@trlluna.trl.oz
Lines: 23

From article <17197@cbmvax.commodore.com>, by daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie):
> 
> That tends to be true.  You do get good Zorro II bus designs for the Amiga,
> but since that bus is so slow, it's no big deal.  Same with the basic ISA
> bus, I imagine.  VME has been around for a long time, and the mere existence
> of PCs has forced the performance of VME devices up the scale of things,
> both in performance and cost.  And PCs have only recently grown 32 bit multiple
> mastered buses, while most VME systems have been doing that for some time. So
> sure, VME (and Multibus, etc) are more mature.  They pretty much have to be,
> at those prices.

Not to forget that on the full blown VME systems there is the VMX (or
whatever it is designated) to handle 32 bit local inter-board stuff, so
that the VME bus is only being used for global transfers and I/O.  The
processor(s) and local memory accesses are kept of it.
A bit like the Amiga with its chip and fast bus.

_And_ the specs were worked out by the prospective vendors before they
went to market, so it is free of mindsets, and most boards are compatible.
Allan Duncan	ACSnet	a.duncan@trl.oz
(03) 541 6708	ARPA	a.duncan%trl.oz.au@uunet.uu.net
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