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From: grr@cbmvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: I've Got The Microprocessor Blues
Message-ID: <1389@cbmvax.cbmvax.cbm.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 10-Feb-87 18:23:32 EST
Article-I.D.: cbmvax.1389
Posted: Tue Feb 10 18:23:32 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 12-Feb-87 01:44:04 EST
References: <840@astrovax.UUCP>
Reply-To: grr@cbmvax.UUCP (George Robbins)
Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA
Lines: 40

In article <840@astrovax.UUCP> sutin@astrovax.UUCP (Brian Sutin) writes:
>Where does one look for information about the various microprocessors, such
>as comparisons, etc, from a hardware standpoint?

Various electronics industry trade magazines publish occasional comparisons
and comparitive articles.  Unfortunatly, this stuff tends to die off by the
time the devices are in common use.  Check if you university library has
back issues of such magazines.

There is also a moderatly useful, but out of date Osbourne book on 16-bit
microprocessors.

>                                                              I was
>considering the TI family of 99000 chips because they have a single chip
>version, a fast version(25Mhz), come on a 40 pin dip, address 256k without
>memory mapping, and have a sixteen bit word.  I don't know anything about
>the instruction set.

I've worked with the 990* chips.  Simply put, not worth the effort.  They
are an outgrowth of TI minicomputer systems that were initially designed
to show what nifty things you could do with bit-slice MSI TTL devices.
While they have some interesting features, they are, for all practical
purposes, obsolete.  As far as I know, only TI-propriatary software is
readily available and there is no unix port...

If you want to play, look at NS32000, MC680X0, and Intel 8086 chips.  If
you want to probe the future, look at the Fairchild Clipper, MIPS chips
and the Intel 386 stuff.  Intel development can be PC based, National
has some nice (almost affordable) single board systems.

>                        I loved the LSI-11 instruction set, but DEC won't
>give the time of day about it, and the address space is too small anyway.

The 68000 and 32000 both carry the PDP-11 torch farther down the road.

>Brian Sutin Department of Astrophysical Sciences/Princeton University
-- 
George Robbins - now working for,	uucp: {ihnp4|seismo|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr
but no way officially representing	arpa: cbmvax!grr@seismo.css.GOV
Commodore, Engineering Department	fone: 215-431-9255 (only by moonlite)