Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!gatech!hubcap!fpst
From: eugene@nas.nasa.gov (Eugene N. Miya)
Newsgroups: comp.parallel
Subject: Re: Byte order in tight coupled systems.
Message-ID: <1991Jun20.115227.2156@hubcap.clemson.edu>
Date: 20 Jun 91 05:20:43 GMT
References: <1991Jun18.173855.29052@hubcap.clemson.edu> <1991Jun18.193731.4911@hubcap.clemson.edu>
Sender: news@nas.nasa.gov
Reply-To: eugene@vax-amelia.nas.nasa.gov (Eugene N. Miya)
Organization: NASA-Ames Research Center
Lines: 39
Approved: parallel@hubcap.clemson.edu
Apparently-To: comp-parallel@ames.arc.nasa.gov

In article <1991Jun18.193731.4911@hubcap.clemson.edu>
kenton@decvax.dec.com (Jeff Kenton OSG/UEG) writes:
>  .  Are you sure it's too late to go back and re-design the hardware?

A quote from Wulf's book which I used in an unpublished NASA survey:

[Wulf81, pp. 276]:
.(q
In general, we believe that it's possible to make two major mistakes at the
outset of a project like C.mmp.  One is to design one's own processor;
doing so is guaranteed to add two years to the length of the project and,
quite possibly, sap the energy of the project staff to the point that nothing
beyond the processor ever gets done.  The second mistake is to use someone
else's processor.  Doing so forecloses a number of critical decisions, and thus
sufficiently muddies the water that crisp evaluations of the results are
difficult.  We can offer no advice.  We have now made the second mistake\**
\*- for variety, next time we'd like to make the first!  Given the chance, our
processor would:
.(f
\**[Wulf81]: Twice, in fact.
The second multiprocessor project at C-MU, $Cms$, also uses the PDP-11.
.)f

Do not ask for my survey.  It is hopelessly out of date (I wrote that
RISCs would be significant, and my boss at the time didn't believe me).
No one ever reads surveys anyway (I discovered this during my survey).  
That's why I did a machine readable bibliography (now that is useful,
and you can find real gems).

What is sad is that we are constantly reinventing ILLIAC IVs, reinventing
C.mmps and Cm*s.  Wulf's book is good.

	"Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it."  -- G.S.
	"Those who remember the past are doomed to repeat it."
						-- Suzanne Fuller

--eugene miya, NASA Ames Research Center, eugene@orville.nas.nasa.gov
  Resident Cynic, Rock of Ages Home for Retired Hackers
  Program Committee, Hacker's 7.0
  {uunet,mailrus,other gateways}!ames!eugene