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From: roger@nsc.nsc.com (Roger Thompson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.nsc.32k
Subject: Re: NS32310 Vs NS32381
Message-ID: <4221@nsc.nsc.com>
Date: Mon, 20-Apr-87 01:15:13 EST
Article-I.D.: nsc.4221
Posted: Mon Apr 20 01:15:13 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 20-Apr-87 23:45:29 EST
References: <145@unsvax.UUCP>
Organization: National Semiconductor, Sunnyvale
Lines: 34

In article <145@unsvax.UUCP>, doon@unsvax.UUCP (Harry W. Reed) writes:
> 
> 	While looking at the 1986 Series 32000 databook, I've found
> reference to a 32310 FPC (Floating point controller). My question is
> "how does the 32310 differ from the proposed 32381 FPU ?".
> 

They differ in several ways ----

	1.)  We had attempted to remove all references of the 310 from
	     the data book, but alas ---- we missed in one or
	     two places.  Why remove it?  Well, the implementation
	     was one that would have interfaced the Weitek 1164/65
	     pair to the Series32000.  Unfortunately, this solution
	     turned out not to be as practical as first thought.
	     The performance gained was not sufficient enough to
             justify the added expense(from a customers perspective)
	     so that its price/performance ratio was not satisfactory.
	     We decided to stop work on this effort.

	2.)  The 32381 is an active project due out of fab in
	     the mid summer time frame. It is based on the 32081
	     but is done in CMOS and will operate at up to 30 MHZ.
	     It is a single chip solution as opposed to being
	     a multi-chip solution of the 310. The 381 supports
	     the 081 instruction set plus a few other primitives.
	     The device supports a 32 bit slave protocol.  It has
	     64 bit internal registers and supports "early
	     completion".  The ALU has been enhanced to speed
	     up adds and multiplies.  Double precision floating
	     multiplies can be done in 1 usec at 30 MHZ.


Roger