Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ncrlnk!ncr-sd!hp-sdd!hplabs!hpda!hpcuhb!hp-sde!hpcea!hpnmdla!brucek
From: brucek@hpnmdla.HP.COM (Bruce Kleinman)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: TMS320C30
Message-ID: <330001@hpnmdla.HP.COM>
Date: 21 Nov 88 17:54:11 GMT
References: <3300038@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
Organization: HP Network Measurements Div, Santa Rosa, CA
Lines: 18

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| Besides the fact that the TMS320C30 is a signal processing computer, are
| there reasons this chip hasn't been used?
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Availability is curently on a "one sample per customer" basis at $1300 a pop.

Early lifecycle aside, this a sharp chip.  It seems to be "aimed" at the
embedded marketplace, having things like...
	* an on-chip DMA unit
	* a pair of UARTs
	* on chip maskable ROM

Not that one couldn't use these on a general purpose machine; they are just
usually found on microcontrollers.  In addition to the above, a few other
noteworthy features for GP use...
	* on-chip RAM of useful size
	* on-chip FPU with excellent performance 
	* lots of on-chip buses for flexibility
	* a pair of off chip buses (a memory bus and an "I/O" bus)