From owner-riscy@pyramid.com  Fri Aug 20 07:15:33 1993
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From: Andreas Busse <andy@resi.waldorf-gmbh.de>
Date: Fri, 20 Aug 93 12:50:05 +0200
Message-Id: <9308201050.AA13065@resi.waldorf-gmbh.de>
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To: riscy@pyramid.com
Subject: comp.sys.mips #56 - Re: R4200 pin-compatible with 486DX ?? 
Sender: owner-riscy@pyramid.com
Reply-To: riscy@pyramid.com

I found this article in comp.sys.mips:


In article <js9e6r2@zuni.esd.sgi.com>, olson@anchor.esd.sgi.com (Dave Olson) writes:
|> In <24q0idINNnk9@ymir.cs.umass.edu> doyle@gaia (Jim Doyle) writes:
|> | Windows Sources, Sept 1993 vol 1 issue 8, p25
|> | 
|> | "By the end of this year, MIPS plans to introduce a small footprint
|> | version of its new low power R4200 RISC CPU that will be 
|> | completely pin compatible with the existing Intel 486DX chips. Using
|> | a special MIPS replacement BIOS [...]
|> | 
|> | [...] and by being pin compatible with the 486, the new chip will
|> | allow system board manufacturers to retrofir existing designed with
|> | little or no component modification"   
|> | -----------
|> | 
|> | I was under the impression that NEC was fabricating the 4200 and that 
|> | it would require additional glue logic (an ASIC that MIPS also developed)
|> | to make it work with an ISA or EISA based PC motherboard ??
|> 
|> Windows Sources is blowing smoke.  The R4200 is compatible with the
|> R4000 PC (if I remember everything right).  That's a long way from the
|> Intel chips.
|> 
|> I hope their other news is more reliable.
|> --
|> 
|> The most beautiful things in the world are              |   Dave Olson
|> those from which all excess weight has been             |   Silicon Graphics
|> removed.  -Henry Ford                                   |   olson@sgi.com


What do we think about that ?

Andy
 
From owner-riscy@pyramid.com  Fri Aug 20 08:58:50 1993
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To: riscy@pyramid.com
Subject: Re: comp.sys.mips #56 - Re: R4200 pin-compatible with 486DX ?? 
In-Reply-To: Your message of Fri, 20 Aug 93 12:50:05 +0200 .
             <9308201050.AA13065@resi.waldorf-gmbh.de> 
From: Amos Shapira <amoss@cs.huji.ac.il>
Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1993 15:52:08 +0300
Sender: owner-riscy@pyramid.com
Reply-To: riscy@pyramid.com

In message <9308201050.AA13065@resi.waldorf-gmbh.de> you write:
|In article <js9e6r2@zuni.esd.sgi.com>, olson@anchor.esd.sgi.com (Dave Olson) w
|rites:
||> In <24q0idINNnk9@ymir.cs.umass.edu> doyle@gaia (Jim Doyle) writes:
||> | Windows Sources, Sept 1993 vol 1 issue 8, p25
||> | 
||> | "By the end of this year, MIPS plans to introduce a small footprint
||> | version of its new low power R4200 RISC CPU that will be 
||> | completely pin compatible with the existing Intel 486DX chips. Using
||> | a special MIPS replacement BIOS [...]
||> | 
||> | [...] and by being pin compatible with the 486, the new chip will
||> | allow system board manufacturers to retrofir existing designed with
||> | little or no component modification"   
||> | -----------
||> | 
||> | I was under the impression that NEC was fabricating the 4200 and that 
||> | it would require additional glue logic (an ASIC that MIPS also developed)
||> | to make it work with an ISA or EISA based PC motherboard ??
||> 
||> Windows Sources is blowing smoke.  The R4200 is compatible with the
||> R4000 PC (if I remember everything right).  That's a long way from the
||> Intel chips.
||> 
||> I hope their other news is more reliable.
||> --
||> 
||> The most beautiful things in the world are              |   Dave Olson
||> those from which all excess weight has been             |   Silicon Graphic
|s
||> removed.  -Henry Ford                                   |   olson@sgi.com
|
|
|What do we think about that ?
|
|Andy

On one hand it sounds like a champ - you take a conventional 486DX board,
change the CPU and viola- you have a risc machine.

But I see two disadvantages to this (as far as my lack of knowledge in
hardware permits me):

1. If you know Dave Olson you should know to listen to him when he doubts about
   the possibility of such a beast (to those who don't know the man - he is the
   guru on the comp.sys.sgi.* news groups and so I heard from someone who
   worked with him,  but I'm not sure how much strong is his h/w side).

2. Maybe more important - you are still stuck with an ISA/EISA bus (right?),
   which I understand is quite limited.  Although the argument of using
   existing hardware from your current boxes is very valid, I would preffer
   to use another bus (dunno what the options are) and hang an EISA on it if
   that's possible.


Cheers,


--Amos

--Amos Shapira (Jumper Extraordinaire) |  "It is true that power corrupts,
C.S. System Group, Hebrew University,  |   but absolute power is better!"
Jerusalem 91904, ISRAEL                |
amoss@cs.huji.ac.il                    |          -- the Demon to his son
 
From owner-riscy@pyramid.com  Fri Aug 20 09:26:01 1993
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From: Andreas Busse <andy@resi.waldorf-gmbh.de>
Date: Fri, 20 Aug 93 15:17:43 +0200
Message-Id: <9308201317.AA13278@resi.waldorf-gmbh.de>
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	id AA13278; Fri, 20 Aug 93 15:17:43 +0200
To: riscy@pyramid.com
Subject: Re: comp.sys.mips #56 - Re: R4200 pin-compatible with 486DX ??
Sender: owner-riscy@pyramid.com
Reply-To: riscy@pyramid.com

> [article deleted]
> 
> On one hand it sounds like a champ - you take a conventional 486DX board,
> change the CPU and viola- you have a risc machine.

I think it's just vaporware :-)

> But I see two disadvantages to this (as far as my lack of knowledge in
> hardware permits me):
> 
> 1. If you know Dave Olson you should know to listen to him when he doubts about
>    the possibility of such a beast (to those who don't know the man - he is the
>    guru on the comp.sys.sgi.* news groups and so I heard from someone who
>    worked with him,  but I'm not sure how much strong is his h/w side).

I don't know him...

> 2. Maybe more important - you are still stuck with an ISA/EISA bus (right?),
>    which I understand is quite limited.  Although the argument of using
>    existing hardware from your current boxes is very valid, I would preffer
>    to use another bus (dunno what the options are) and hang an EISA on it if
>    that's possible.

Hmm. You are new to the group, aren't you ?
Well, I believe we are also stuck with the ISA/EISA bus for two
reasons:

1. Most people in this group *want* an ISA bus, because
   cards are cheap and easy to find.
2. It looks like that we are going to use an existing design,
   either from NEC, Toshiba, Acer, Mips or whatever.
   They all come with the EISA bus which is part of the
   ARC specification, the only *real* product of the ACE group.


Cheers,
Andy

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