Date: Thu, 8 Jul 1999 17:52:43 +0300 (IDT) From: Nadav Eiron <nadav@cs.Technion.AC.IL> To: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> Cc: David Scheidt <dscheidt@enteract.com>, Yann Ramin <atrus@matadore.montereyhigh.com>, freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: IA64 Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.3.95-heb-2.07.990708172513.21435A-100000@csd> In-Reply-To: <4.2.0.56.19990708071909.03f9cda0@localhost>
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On Thu, 8 Jul 1999, Brett Glass wrote: > > Not so. Intel sold it as an embedded design, and *actually refused* to sell > it to any manufacturer who wished to use it as a general purpose CPU on > any significant scale. Intel allowed MicroWay to build boards which used > one or more i860s in combination with an x86 in the same machine, but they > actively discouraged the development of any i860 products that would > cannibalize their precious x86 monopoly. The parts just wouldn't be available. > > I attended an Intel presentation at the time when the i860 was released > which emphasized this. There's little info on the i860 on the web (it was discontinued too long ago), and I don't have its architecture reference around (library closed early today for some reason) but, hey, see this quote from this URL (remember, it's Intel, from the overview of MMX technology): http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/q31997/articles/art_2b.htm <quote>The definition of MMX technology evolved from earlier work in the i860? architecture [3]. The i860 architecture was the industry's first general purpose processor to provide support for graphics rendering. </quote> i860 - a general purpose processor. Let us check further, for instance: http://infopad.eecs.berkeley.edu/CIC/ The same... (anyway, graphics rendering on an embedded controller really makes little sense). Also, a search for i860 on Intel's site reveals some references to massively parallel machines based on the i860, used for number crunching (just like the one they have here in the department, which was not made by Intel, or Microway). The reason most of these machines combine the i860 with other CPUs is that the i860 is notoriously bad at handling interrupts and I/O, which meant that its main use was for number crunching - like a sophisticated DSP perhaps, with something else handling I/O. However, it was unsuccessful even in that niche. Besides, did you ever program for the i860? It's architecture is not that similar to that of the i960. Actually, it's far from being similar. Anyway, I can take a look at the Intel i860 Microprocessor Architecture Reference next week, when I can get to the library. I hope that's authority enough for us to settle this little dispute, if you are not yet convinced... :-) After all, it's kind of sad. The i860 had its merits (though I admit it was a bit weird to program). > > --Brett > > Nadav To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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