Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!uw-june!uw-entropy!dataio!pilchuck!seahcx!phred!artm
From: artm@phred.UUCP (Curmudgeon)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: WISC "impossibility"
Message-ID: <2580@phred.UUCP>
Date: 13 May 89 19:48:59 GMT
References: <38853@bbn.COM> <423@bnr-fos.UUCP> <288@ctycal.UUCP> <1140@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov> <12831@ut-emx.UUCP>
Reply-To: artm@phred.UUCP (Curmudgeon)
Organization: <12831@ut-emx.UUCP>o
Lines: 22

In article <12831@ut-emx.UUCP> nather@ut-emx.UUCP (Ed Nather) writes:
>
>The first "WISC" machine I know of was designed about 1959.  It used
>........
>microcode subroutines.  The machine  (the PB440 by Packard Bell Computer)
>never made it to market, but a prototype worked as advertised.

In a pig's eye it didn't.  Two of these beasts crunched numbers for the
Dept. of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Washington for
years.  At one time some folks there were ruminating on the idea of
designing a micro based on the PB440 architecture.  Of course this was
in an environment where everybody was still running labs with PDP8's.

............................................................................
My employers and associates take no responsibility for any opinions expressed
or implied herein.  Then again, maybe I don't either.

                                          --Art Marriott
                                            Physio-Control
                                      ...uw-beaver!pilchuck!seahcx!phred!artm
                                          (or something like that)
............................................................................