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From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.micro.16k
Subject: Re: National's 32332
Message-ID: <6732@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 25-May-86 07:49:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: utzoo.6732
Posted: Sun May 25 07:49:56 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 25-May-86 07:49:56 EDT
References: <746@usl.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 34
Keywords: NS32000

> 1) The story I have heard (albeit from sources that I don't view as gospel)
>    is that the 32016 (in the symmetrics box) is s*l*o*w, about 1/4 a 68010.
>    Is that true?

It ain't fast.  0.25*68010 sounds a bit low, but as I recall the 32032
isn't lots faster than the 68000, so it makes sense that the 016 is slower.
It also depends on how fast one runs the clock (Symmetric has been around
for quite a while -- maybe they are running with a slow clock because of
an old design for old buggy chips) and on how fast the memory is.  And on
how much branching the code does; the 32016/32 *hates* to branch.

> 3) I've heard that the 32xxx series of CPU's are binary compatible...

Should be, from the specs I've seen.  I don't recall anything new in the
332 in the way of instructions, and the 016 and 032 are two peas from the
same pod.

> If this is true, are they pin compatible?

No.  Not even the same package:  the 016 is in a 48-pin DIP, the 32032 is
a chip carrier, and the 32332 is either a chip carrier or a pin-grid array
(I forget).  The 16-vs-32 difference of the 016 and the 032 is not as bad
as you would think, however; since the MMU needs a 16-bit bus either way,
a careful design can accommodate either a 32016 or a 32032 with a change
of socket and one PAL.  The 32332 might be 32032-compatible, again with
a different socket, if the design doesn't exploit some of the 332's goodies.
Not sure about that last, I didn't study the 332 very carefully.

In any case, there's no telling whether Symmetric has actually built their
box to permit such an upgrade.  Again, it's been around a long time; I
suspect not.
-- 
Join STRAW: the Society To	Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
Revile Ada Wholeheartedly	{allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry