Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!wuarchive!hsdndev!husc6!genrad!stardent!wright
From: wright@Stardent.COM (David Wright)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Anything wrong with the i860
Keywords: hardware interlocks, automatic pipeline, flow-through pipeline
Message-ID: <1991May16.225539.3381@Stardent.COM>
Date: 16 May 91 22:55:39 GMT
References: <1991May7.145407.18417@midway.uchicago.edu> <3486@charon.cwi.nl> <1991May15.152456.4246@dvorak.amd.com>
Organization: Stardent Computer Inc
Lines: 53

In article <1991May15.152456.4246@dvorak.amd.com>
pteich@cayman.amd.com (Paul Teich) writes: 
>In article <3486@charon.cwi.nl> dik@cwi.nl (Dik T. Winter) writes:
>| In article <1991May7.145407.18417@midway.uchicago.edu> rtp1@quads.uchicago.edu (raymond thomas pierrehumbert) writes:
>|  > Alliant uses it in their shared-memory machines (800 & 2800)
>| FPS and Stardent (will) use it as computational coprocessor (I think).
>
>The Anderson Report, April 1991
>
>  "Stardent has discontinued the Stardent 500 Stiletto workstation family.
>They had problems with the vector unit integration of the MIPS R3000 and
>Intel i860 processors.  Stiletto customers are being offered the new 750
>system as a replacement..."

>
>RISC Management, March 1991
>
>  "Another company apparently having difficulty with the i860 is Stardent
>Computer. ... Stardent has been working on an i860-based replacement for the
>former Stellar product line, but, like Stratus, must be questioning
>whether to continue."

I'm an OS engineer, not an official spokesman for the company, so
let's be clear that I've now established deniability, OK?  That done,
a few things should be straightened out here...

The discontinuation of Stiletto had nothing to do with defects in the
i860 or the i860 being a bad processor.  (No, I am not going to
discuss why it was cancelled.)

We are NOT questioning whether to continue our i860-based product
line.  Quite the contrary.  This week, Stardent announced three new
models based on the i860, one of which contains a nifty graphics
accelerator that contains i860s of its own.  And we certainly have
plans for future systems based around the i860 and its successors.
(Intel has been a pretty good outfit to deal with, as far as we're
concerned.)

So don't believe everything you read in the papers.  (Or do believe
everything, but then be prepared to be contradicted a lot.)

><blatant AMD self-promotion deleted>

No, the i860 is not perfect and the trap code can be kind of a pain,
but it's a pretty slick chip, even if the floating point is a bear to
optimize.

  -- David Wright, not officially representing Stardent Computer Inc
     wright@stardent.com  or  uunet!stardent!wright

"In accordance with our principles of free enterprise and healthy
competition, I'm going to ask you two to fight to the death for it."
  -- Monty Python