Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!haven!rutgers!apple!versatc!mips!mash
From: mash@mips.COM (John Mashey)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Rumors of death of 29K exaggerated?
Message-ID: <18558@winchester.mips.COM>
Date: 30 Apr 89 19:11:55 GMT
References: <17750@cup.portal.com>
Reply-To: mash@mips.COM (John Mashey)
Organization: MIPS Computer Systems, Sunnyvale, CA
Lines: 38

In article <17750@cup.portal.com> bcase@cup.portal.com (Brian bcase Case) writes:
>In the current (May) issue of Bite-me, er, uh, I mean, Byte magazine
>there is an article on the i860.  At the end of the fifth paragraph
>it says:

>"The RISC processor market has become so overcrowded, in fact, that
>one chip maker, AMD, has decided to pull its RISC chip, the 29000,
>out of the competition."

>Notice it says "out of the competition" not "out of the market."
>What does this mean?  Anyone from Byte or AMD care to comment?

The paragraph in question was talking about RISCs in workstations,
and mentioned SPARC, MIPS, 88K, and IBM.  When I read that, I assumed
they meant "out of the competition" for UNIX-based systems.  Certainly,
from outside, it appears that the part of their message called "The Next
Platform" has disappeared from their advertising & promotional
campaign, in favor of emphasizing the embedded control market.

Needless to say, this is very sensible, as:
	1) The 29K has zero visible presence in the UNIX market.  The single
	significant 29K UNIX design win we know of, switched to MIPS
	a long time ago.  (Not publicly announced).  Claiming to be
	"The Next Platform" under such circumstances just causes
	amusement, so it's good to get rid of it.
	2) The 29K's design made some tradeoffs that seemed aimed more
	at the controller market (as discussed in this newsgroup 1-2
	years ago).
	3) AMD is much better positioned for selling to that market,
	by strengths and history.

Of course, the controller market is pretty ferocious as well, and I have
no idea how the 29K is actually doing.
-- 
-john mashey	DISCLAIMER: <generic disclaimer, I speak for me only, etc>
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