Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!umich!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!intercon!news From: amanda@mermaid.intercon.com (Amanda Walker) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware Subject: 68030 fabrication technology (was Re: Why 68000?) Message-ID: <1990Feb16.195520.6853@intercon.com> Date: 16 Feb 90 19:55:20 GMT References: <1990Feb11.154304.19943@smsc.sony.com> <3919@hub.UUCP> <10223@hoptoad.uucp> <1990Feb14.185659.797@intercon.com> <10277@hoptoad.uucp> Sender: @intercon.com Reply-To: amanda@mermaid.intercon.com (Amanda Walker) Organization: InterCon Systems Corporation, Sterling, VA Lines: 39 In article <10277@hoptoad.uucp>, tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney) writes: > Do I get a choice of the boxed set or the Nintendo play-at-home version? Hey, you're a techno-dude; I figure you get the Nintendo version at least :-). > Thanks for the correction. Now, I just hope someone tells Steven Levy, > who wrote in the March 1990 MacWorld that "the mighty 68030 chip isn't > available in a CMOS version" (page 54). Well, I went back and checked. Motorola ads and so on say that the 68030 is implemented in HCMOS, which I interpreted as high-density CMOS. However, just to be sure, I just pulled my 68030 data book off the shelf and looked it up. Quoting from p. 1-3 (the capital letters were their idea, not mine :-)): "Implemented in Motorola's HCMOS Technology that allows CMOS and HMOS (High Density NMOS) Gates to be Gombined for Maximum Speed, Low Power, and Optimum Die Size" So I guess that when it comes down to it, we're both right (alert the media! Imminent death of the Net predicted!). However, I strongly guess that the HC prefix on the HC68000 means that it is built with the same process, and that the power savings are greater simply because there are many fewer gates on a 68000 than on a 68030. They might be able to drop the power my going to all high density CMOS, but the die size would increase, which could make for a yield problem. Maybe Motorola is waiting to get higher yields for smaller design rules before they go to all CMOS, or maybe it just doesn't make much difference. We're starting to get out of my league here; what we need now is a VLSI person from Motorola... -- Amanda Walker InterCon Systems Corporation "Many of the truths we cling to depend greatly upon our own point of view." --Obi-Wan Kenobi in "Return of the Jedi"