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From: plinio@turing.seas.ucla.edu (Plinio Barbeito)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: PgC 7600 details
Keywords: PgC 7600 RISC
Message-ID: <2381@lee.SEAS.UCLA.EDU>
Date: 12 Apr 91 23:51:29 GMT
References: <12430@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu>
Sender: news@SEAS.UCLA.EDU
Organization: SEASnet, University of California, Los Angeles
Lines: 53

In article <12430@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu> kiki@uhunix1.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu writes:
>
>The following information is from the international edition of BYTE magazine's
>March '91 issue.  Back issues are available by calling BYTE at (603) 924-9281.
>
[...some parts of excerpt deleted...]
>
>It does have its advantages: it is faster than MOS and scales down better to
>submicron sizes.  Also, because it is current-switching rather than voltage-
>switching, it can drive low-impedance loads like CPU pins faster than MOS can,
>bringing benefits in better CPU-memory bandwidth.  PgC skirts the power con-
>sumption problem by reducing a logic transition to 0.25 volt instead of the 
>standard TTL 5 volt, which reduces the energy dissipation by a factor of 400.

Sounds good, but does this mean that standard RAM chips will be 
incompatible with the bipolar version of the PgC?  I hope this is not 
true of the other version, at least.  

>----------------------------[end of excerpt]-----------------------------------
>
>For $20, this thing sounds potent, especially in combination with the Taos OS.

Pretty amazing stuff.  This thing uses tricks to get seemingly impossible 
cycle times from normal RAM chips.  The possibility that an inexpensive
system could be built from this fast part is then far more likely.  Seeing 
the details also lends the product a bit more credence.

>I think Atari might be in a better position to deliver and support a marketable
>product based on the PgC chips, because of their experience with the Inmos 
>transputer and Helios OS, which culminated in the ATW computer.

I'm confident of Atari's ability to create excellent hardware, and
even software, but seeking them out for the strength of their marketing 
of the ATW sounds funny somewhere :-).  As far as predicting what they
will do, sometimes it's easier to disbelieve their representatives about
this than to believe them.  For example, if Leonard says that Atari will 
never use the '040, what would this imply to you:
1) that they will use SPARC, MIPS or PgC, etc. in their next machine
and port TOS/GEM to it. 
2) they are simply going to discontinue the ST/TT line.
3) they are going to use the 040 anyway but don't want to tell you now 
so you won't put off buying a TT.

Thanks for posting an interesting article that a lot of us would 
not ordinarily have access to.  We may never see an Atari product out
of this, but at least you have helped to establish the PgC as a credible
option ($20 for 160MIPS still sounds a bit off the far end, though).  


plin
--
----- ---- --- -- ------ ---- --- -- - -  -  plinio@seas.ucla.edu 
Is this the TV news?  I thought I was watching a soap opera!