Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!rutgers!cbmvax!daveh From: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware Subject: Re: multiprocessing (030 + 040) Message-ID: <21513@cbmvax.commodore.com> Date: 13 May 91 18:06:30 GMT References: <11890@uwm.edu> <21390@cbmvax.commodore.com> Reply-To: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA Lines: 52 In article mmm@reaper.Chi.IL.US (Michael Marvin Morrison) writes: >In article <21390@cbmvax.commodore.com> daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) writes: >>Especially considering that most NeXTs don't have any way to add additional >>processors, unless you want loosely coupled multiprocessing over Ethernet or >>something. >Dave should also be careful when stating that *most* NeXTs can't add another >processor too. True, that the new ones don't have an expansion bus, but a few >of the older 'cubes' were sold. One of the (5 I believe) NuBUS slots in the >cube is the processor.. so in these boxes, you could just add another. >I'm not a next advocate, I'm just stating a fact. Yeah, NeXT Cubes have four sorta-NuBus slots (NuBus protocols with CMOS level drivers and a faster bus clock), one of which contains the whole machine. These are real big cards, not the Macintosh "desktop" NuBus form factor. You could add multiple processors cards to NeXT cubes. Not knowing how many "Cubes" versus "Slabs" were sold, my judgement about "most" NeXTs may have been premature, but I can certainly see the writing on the wall and the direction they're moving in. NuBus is perfectly acceptible for multiprocessing, especially using the "firmly" coupled processor model. It doesn't support any cache coherency mechanisms, but it's fully multi-mastered, and in fact went to great lengths to appear as a true backplane, where these is no "host" processor. >>Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests" > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >Ahh!! Now we got him!! He must be perty tired by now, or does this new >rumored 'Amiga 3000 Crew' have sleeping disorders? Do they have more colors? >More slots? I don't notice any more slots, at least not on me personally. I do occasionally see more than the normally visible colors, especially when running 48 or more hours without sleep (it has been awhile, but not THAT long). >I heard they come with 4 040's running in parallel under AmigaDOS, Ooh, where do I get one... >and a 50 foot true color monitor. :-) We've been hooked up to Jumbotrons for years. Just watch a Miami Dolphins home game sometime next fall (courtesy of Joel Tessler, another member of the black jacket and cool shades club...). >Michael M Morrison /| |\ -- Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests" {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh PLINK: hazy BIX: hazy "That's me in the corner, that's me in the spotlight" -R.E.M.