Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!argosy!ian
From: ian@argosy.UUCP (Ian L. Kaplan)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: What's in the '586?
Message-ID: <1340@argosy.UUCP>
Date: 15 May 91 22:03:01 GMT
References: <1991May14.002130.4740@vax5.cit.cornell.edu> <42347@cup.portal.com>
Sender: news@argosy.UUCP
Reply-To: ian@bear.UUCP (Ian L. Kaplan)
Organization: MasPar Computer Corporation, Sunnyvale, CA
Lines: 57

In article <42347@cup.portal.com> mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson) writes:
>A novel method has been developed for reducing the cost of floating-point
>performance to the end user.  Each 586 has 100 bytes of EPROM for
>storing passwords unique to each chip.  When a user decides to upgrade
>to hardware floating point, he simply calls Intel and buys the password
>for enabling the on-chip FPU.  Each password is good for 10 gigaflops,
>i.e. you get 10,000,000,000 floating point operations.  (An 8-bit
>password is sufficient, because three consecutive failed password attempts
>permanently disables the FPU).  When you buy your 100th password, the FPU
>becomes permanently enabled.  This benefits the consumer because it allows
>him to buy exactly what he needs, rather than overspending on unused performance.
>It also cuts out the middleman, allowing the end-user to reap the cost savings
>of dealing directly with Intel.

  I note that this article is posted from Portal, not an iNTEL
address, by someone claiming to have knowledge and permission to
discuss the 586 "in general terms".  However, the above paragraph
strikes me as so bizzare that it makes me wonder if this is not just a
subtle joke by an iNTEL basher (and, as other posters have noted,
there are many of these) who, in his fevered mind, has come up with
something even more baroque than then 486 architecture.  If so, I
appluad the creativity shown.

  However, the world is a strange place and the notions that run
through the heads of marketing and sales people can sometimes be
astounding.  Perhaps iNTEL has had so much success that they think
they own the market, which has caused them to loose touch with reality.

  I personally cannot imagine this scheme of applying to iNTEL for a
password to use the floating point portion of the chip I already own.
Especially since I have to get one every 10GFLOPS.  I don't think that
10GFLOPS is really that much computation (at least not where I come
from, he says with a Texas drawl) and I am going to be pretty steamed
if after 6 months my computer starts doing floating point in software
(or not at all) because my "floating point allocation" has run out.  I
then have to fork over more money to iNTEL until I completely buy the
"floating point capability" on the instalment plan.  Rather than deal
with this absurdity, I will buy a computer based on a MIPS chip, a
SPARC or even, horrors, the 680xx.  

  I really hope that iNTEL attempts to implement this scheme (assuming
that this is not a joke), because it will hasten the movement away
from iNTEL processors.  Many vendors are complaining about the greed
iNTEL has shown in chip pricing.  This wierd scheme will fan the
complaints into rage.  Especially when you consider that other chip
vendors will provide high performance floating point support with out
all this bother and extra cost.

  So, if this was satire, I am at least partially taken in.  If it is
for real, all I can say to iNTEL is GO FOR IT!  I will buy stock in
MIPS.

                                Ian Kaplan
			        ian@maspar.com

  I think that it should be obvious that I speak only for myself, not
MasPar Computer Corp.