Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!bcase
From: bcase@cup.portal.com (Brian bcase Case)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: I gots a ego too [was:  Criteria]
Message-ID: <18710@cup.portal.com>
Date: 23 May 89 18:53:00 GMT
References: <231@ross.UUCP>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 50

>I'm afraid I'm going to have to use the same excuse as John for writing
>this article.  After reading the first article above, I was also stirred
>up.

Well, the jury has given its verdict:  I was wrong in complaining about
John Mashey's long, marketing-oriented posting.  Since this court's
decision applies to all citizens, I now have the same freedom to post
stupid stuff (i.e., the same stuff I have always been posting!).

>Our design team has personnel with the following credentials:
>-  Designers of the only commercially available 40Mhz RISC processor
>   (Cypress Semiconductor's CY7C601).

Seems reasonable.

>-  Designers of the 68000 processor family (including the 68030 and 68040).
>-  Designers of the 88000 processor family (besides the founders).

Could be, I dunno.

>-  Designers of the 29000 processor.

Hold on!  First off, "designerS", plural, seems wrong to me.  Now, I was
only a part of the 29000 architcture team for the first 3 years and two
months of the project, so maybe I'm not an authority, but the person to
whom you refer is not, to my knowledge, a designer in any way of the
Am29000.  He might be a really great guy, smartern all get out, I don't
know, because he didn't work there while I did.  He did some work on a
follow-on to the 29K, but not on the 29K.  Please don't be so liberal in
your interpretation of the facts.

I am not flaming you or the person who was at AMD (and Moto before there).
I am just calling you on what I believe to be a factual error.

There seems to be a trend in the microprocessor world:  anyone who ever
worked at the company within a certain number of years in an engineering
capacity was a "designer" of the XXXXX microprocessor.  I mean, I have
seen or heard "designer of the 68000" attached to so many names that I
can only guess that the 68000 was produced by Cecil B. DeMile.  This
seems unfair to those who really did have a major part of the action.

>I apologize for taking up comp.arch space with this article, but I
>am a member of Ross's design team, and I take it personally when
>people imply that me and my company lack the expertise needed to
>design high-performance microprocessors.

Well, I apologize too.  But we have set a tone for comp.arch, and now
we have to live with it.

And, as always, we pass the savings on to you! -- David Letterman