Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!purdue!ames!oliveb!apple!amdcad!neptune!heinen
From: heinen@neptune.AMD.COM (Dirk Heinen)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Rumors of death of 29K exaggerated?
Message-ID: <896@neptune.AMD.COM>
Date: 2 May 89 14:32:38 GMT
References: <17750@cup.portal.com>
Reply-To: heinen@neptune.AMD.COM (Dirk Heinen)
Organization: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Austin, Texas
Lines: 82

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?

Brian,

The Byte article about the 29K's withdrawal was "news" to us
here at AMD. Byte agreed that their article was in error and will
print a retraction in an upcoming issue. In the meantime, before 
valuable net-time gets chewed up, I would like to post a letter
that Byte has sent us regarding their mistake, that will hopefully
answer all questions people have about AMD's strong commitment to the
29K.

(Note: this letter was sent to Tim Propeck - AMD VP of Corp. Marketing)
Quote
April 21, 1989

Thanks for pointing out the problem with my First Impression article
on the Intel 80860 in the May 1989 BYTE.  The paragraph that mentions
other RISC chips is misleading, to put it mildly:

	In some ways, you might tend to dismiss the 80860 as YARP--yet
	another RISC processor.  Several other RISC processor are
	already available...The RISC processor market has become so
	crowded, in fact, that one chip maker, AMD has decided to pull
	its RISC chip, the 29000, out of the competition.

That's simply wrong-- the 29K is, of course still strongly supported
by AMD.  Worse, it's my own fault; I knew perfectly well that the 29K
hasn't been discontinued, though the paragraph above certainly makes
it sound like it has.  What I originally wrote--in an earlier draft of
the article--went like this (emphasis added):

	In some ways, you might tend to dismiss the 80960 as YARP--yet
	another RISC processor.  Several other RISC processor are
	already *** competing for homes in workstations ***...The RISC
	processor market has become so crowded, in fact, that one chip
	maker, AMD has decided to pull its RISC chip, the 29000, out
	of the competition.

The point, of course, is that AMD isn't gambling its RISC fortunes in
the small (and crowded) workstation market, but is focusing on the
much larger market for embedded controllers.  I knew that.
Unfortunately, in the course of rewriting that paragraph, I
inadvertently eliminated the clear reference to workstations, thus
managing to thoroughly mangle the facts.

As I understand it, as soon as the May issue arrived in subscribers'
mailboxes, people began to call AMD, asking whether BYTE was right
and the 29K was no longer being supported.  Needless to say, this
isn't the way we like to be reminded that people trust what they read
in BYTE.

I'm genuinely sorry for the confusion and concern this has caused
among your customers.  Fred Langa, BYTE's editor-in-chief, tells me
we'll be running a correction as quickly as possible.  In the
meantime, by all means let your customers know that, yes, we were
wrong--AMD is still supporting the 29K, and I simply botched the
description.  In fact, if they have any questions, fell free to have
them call me at (415) 954-9702

Sincerely,

Frank Hayes, Associate News Editor
BYTE Magazine

UNQUOTE

I hope that clears things up, Brian.

Dirk Heinen
29K Product Line
Advanced Micro Devices