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: <3406@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> Date: 6 May 91 14:20:19 GMT References: <2548@spim.mips.COM> <1835@madnix.UUCP> Reply-To: davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.com (bill davidsen) Organization: GE Corp R&D Center, Schenectady NY Lines: 13 In article <1835@madnix.UUCP> zaphod@madnix.UUCP (Ron Bean) writes: | Perhaps the most likely motivation for | a small-run custom CPU would be for nostalgic reasons (ie, PDP-10 | on-a-chip). That way, you don't need a rational reason to do it. I think there would be a nice market for someone building a DPS-whatever (MULTICS engine) even today. MULTICS could become the PC operating system of choice for the next millenium. -- 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"