Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen From: davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.COM (Wm E Davidsen Jr) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: Mass produced custom chips Message-ID: <3394@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> Date: 29 Apr 91 16:51:34 GMT References: <2548@spim.mips.COM> <4001@inews.intel.com> <7426@auspex.auspex.com> Reply-To: davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.com (bill davidsen) Organization: GE Corp R&D Center, Schenectady NY Lines: 11 At the time there were hundreds of companies, they were producing a few hundred cars a year, at a high price, mostly by hand. And there are still a number of companies which build small runs, since there's a cutoff in the EPA regs at something like 100 or 200 unit/year. Smaller firms have less stringent regulation. If I hit the lottery one of my cars will be an Avanti... -- bill davidsen (davidsen@crdos1.crd.GE.COM -or- uunet!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen) "Most of the VAX instructions are in microcode, but halt and no-op are in hardware for efficiency"