Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!oliveb!mipos3!omepd!mcg From: mcg@mipon2.intel.com Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: Criteria ... [really: are N designs better than 1?] Message-ID: Date: 30 May 89 01:19:38 GMT References: <2368@ogccse.ogc.edu> <1464@cfa.cfa.harvard.EDU> <141@dg.dg.com> <19088@winchester.mips.COM> <674@pitstop.West.Sun.COM> Sender: news@omepd.UUCP Reply-To: mcg@mipon2.UUCP (Steven McGeady) Organization: Intel Corp., Hillsboro Lines: 35 In article <674@pitstop.West.Sun.COM> jwest@pitstop.West.Sun.COM (Jeremy West) writes: > > >A large number of comp.arch readers are interested in embedded >realtime and a large number of SPARC designs are in this category. >For them an integer unit is all you need. I take the points about >availability of full chipsets at hign clock rates. In this late response I wish to avoid the protracted debate (name-calling?) currently happening between SPARC and MIPS advocates. Let me say simply that, as a contended in the embedded processor market (with the Intel 960), I do not believe that many people are taking SPARC seriously as an embedded controller. The chips require too much board space and support logic, they require a cache (almost always out of the question for embedded designs), have unpleasant code expansion characteristics, are too expensive, and have too little development support (e.g. no In-Circuit Emulators) for most embedded applications. Having said that, the same is pretty much true for MIPS. This is not a reflection on the quality of their architectures for the workstation world. It is a statement about their (current) *implementations* in the embedded world. I suspect that Sun is beginning to attempt to position SPARC in realtime and embedded markets: a) as a fallback position in case they don't succeed as thoroughly as they hope in the workstation market; and b) because the volume of design wins and chip sales in 32-bit embedded control is (conservatively) 10x the workstation market. This is the same strategy that drove AMD to move the 29k out of workstation land, as well as Weitek and the XL8xxx, and (of late) National and the 32k series. S. McGeady Intel Corp.