Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!nuchat!texbell!bigtex!milano!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!uw-june!rik
From: rik@june.cs.washington.edu (Rik Littlefield)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: A request... (summary of responses - long)
Summary: Encore uses National 32x32, not Motorola 68020
Message-ID: <6325@june.cs.washington.edu>
Date: 3 Nov 88 17:23:38 GMT
References: <1004@naucse.UUCP>
Organization: U of Washington, Computer Science, Seattle
Lines: 21

In article <1004@naucse.UUCP>, sbw@naucse.UUCP (Steve Wampler) writes:
> The \fIEncore Multimax\fR is a parallel machine with
> 8 68020s (each running at about 20MHz).
> However, the compiler doesn't try to parallelize code unless
> it is told to do so, so most of the times are closer to that
> of a single 68020.

Encore actually uses National 32x32 processors.  Their original machine used
32032, later models 32332.  The last I checked, they had a 32532 board under
development.  The 32332 is roughly comparable to a 68020, so that's probably
what's reported here.

The comment about parallelization is correct.  Encore's compilers are
conventional, and their version of Unix just assigns separate processes
their own processors, if possible.  Hooks are provided for sharing
memory between processes and for synchronization, allowing users to
write their own explicitly parallel programs.  Some third-party tools,
e.g. Force, are available that do semi-automatic parallelization in the
easy cases, such as Fortran DO-loops with all iterations independent.

--Rik