From owner-freebsd-hackers Sat May 24 04:43:05 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id EAA22294 for hackers-outgoing; Sat, 24 May 1997 04:43:05 -0700 (PDT) Received: from haldjas.folklore.ee (Haldjas.folklore.ee [193.40.6.121]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id EAA22289 for ; Sat, 24 May 1997 04:42:51 -0700 (PDT) Received: from localhost (narvi@localhost) by haldjas.folklore.ee (8.8.4/8.8.4) with SMTP id OAA06266 for ; Sat, 24 May 1997 14:42:03 +0300 (EEST) Date: Sat, 24 May 1997 14:42:03 +0300 (EEST) From: Narvi To: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: New x86 on the Block Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-hackers@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Well, it seems that more and more "advanced" x86 compatible processros are coming down on us. Though not available yet (expected in the second half of this year), IDT (they make MIPS processors) seems to have grown a new branch to make x86 processors. They say they will be targeting the sub-$1500 market with a processor that is better that PMMX at the same Mhz :-) Features: 1) Large caches. Yes, I mean it - both of the L1 caches are 32K, that is, 64K total. The placement algorithm is LRU 2) RISC - the thing is internally RISC, everything is translated to RISC intstructions 3) Simplicity - a) only 5.4 million transistors (K6 - 8.8) b) Simple branch-prediction c) No Out-of-Order, perdictive execution, etc. 4) Cool - 10.5 watts of heat @ 3.3V. 5) Crappy FPU - they almost say so outright. See www.centtech.com Sander PS. I am not in any way conneted with them.