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From: mike@UC780.UMD.EDU (Mike Santangelo)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Re: Snakebytes (HP process technology)
Message-ID: <1991Apr17.153036.27373@ni.umd.edu>
Date: 17 Apr 91 15:30:36 GMT
References: <40812@cup.portal.com>,<32580016@hpcuhe.cup.hp.com>,<00947104.8B2D8080@KING.ENG.UMD.EDU>
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In article <00947104.8B2D8080@KING.ENG.UMD.EDU>, sysmgr@KING.ENG.UMD.EDU (Doug Mohney) writes:
>In article <32580016@hpcuhe.cup.hp.com>, linley@hpcuhe.cup.hp.com (Linley Gwennap) writes:
>>  While HP's IC
>>fabrication processes are very good, they are not out on the "bleeding
>>edge", so there's plenty of room for future improvement.  (For bleeding
>>edge, try TI's 0.8 micron BiCMOS process!)
>
>Can you (without lotta headaches) put HP-PA on Gallium Arsenide <sp>?
>
>>To clarify another inquiry, of the three large chips (CPU, FPU, MC) in
>>the Series 700, two are fabbed by HP.  The FPU is fabbed by TI in a 0.8
>>micron, two metal-layer CMOS process. 
>
>So the TI floating-point goodie is the most expensive chip sitting in your box,
>due to the fabrication process, among other things? (TI: Good, but pricy) Could
>you offer a Real Cheap Snake (snakette?) with a goal of 20MIPS/5K given the
>current technology? 
>


Rumor has it that HP will indeed introduce a "snakette" and a 90Mhz
version of the current systems in the Fall.


>> While Hitachi is not involved in the Series 700, they have licensed the 
>>PA-RISC architecture and are
>>expected to produce PA-RISC chips in the future.
>
>Will they be offering complementary low-end machines to the Snake? Have any
>other companies considered licensing PA-RISC? 
>

I don't think Hitachi is in anyway involved with the snakes and doesn't plan
to be.  They will introduce their own line as I recall sometime in the not
so distant future.

>
>     Signature envy: quality of some people to put 24+ lines in their .sigs
>  -- >                  SYSMGR@CADLAB.ENG.UMD.EDU                        < --
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Michael F. Santangelo                 + Inet: mike@uc780.umd.edu
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Academic Computing UMUC               + Bnet: MIKE@UC780
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