Xref: utzoo comp.misc:2435 comp.arch:4889
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!Michael_MPR_Slater
From: Michael_MPR_Slater@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: comp.misc,comp.arch
Subject: Re: Japanese 32-bit micro can be a 68020 or 80386
Message-ID: <5626@cup.portal.com>
Date: 19 May 88 05:01:38 GMT
References: <2006@sugar.UUCP> <53583@sun.uucp>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
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XPortal-User-Id: 1.1001.4222

The chip you are referring to is VM Technology's VM8600S.  My understanding is
that the chip does NOT have a writable control store; it is designed so that
the instruction set can be easily modified by recoding the PLAs, but it is not
user-modifiable.

Calling it a 386-compatible is also misleading.  It is 386-real-mode compatible
--not protected mode-- in that it does not have the MMU functions.  Thus, it is
not useful as a 386 replacement; its more of a fast 8086 replacement.

The designer of the chip is Masa Shima, who designed the 8080, Z80, and Z8000.
He recently left as head of Intel's Japanese R&D facility to start VM, in
partnership with K. Nishi, head of ASCII Corp and former VP of Microsoft in
Japan.

As usual, the trade press screwed up this story.  The Microprocessor Report
newsletter has the real story.  (I suppose I should admit that I'm editor and
publisher.  I'll gladly send a free sample issue on request.  The newsletter is
written for designers of microprocessor-based hardware; in the past, it has