From SMACKINLA@cc.curtin.edu.au  Ukn Jul  6 10:50:08 1993
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Date: 06 Jul 1993 22:48:39 +0800
From: Pat Mackinlay <SMACKINLA@cc.curtin.edu.au>
Subject: Mindless dribble...
To: riscy@pyramid.com
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Firstly, I should say that I do like the idea of Waldorf producing the 
boards in principle, but I worry about what sort of cost we're going to be 
looking at to buy them. Someone mentioned a company's idea of "cost price" 
being different to an enthusiast's - a valid point. Andy, is your company 
prepared to take a _loss_ to produce these boards? That is, is Waldorf 
Electronics willing to subsidise the cost of producing them? If the cost 
climbs out of reach of the enthusiasts, you will have a much more limited 
number of programmers available...

Anyhow, on a different topic, we still need to resolve some of the system 
issues. If SMT is now an option, perhaps we could reconsider the Inmos 
framebuffer controller (forget the number)? If I remember, the chip was 
about $100 - how does this compete with the 34076+NSC solution (taking into 
account the simpler VRAM interface)?

It seems that Steve, Jerry and I are outnumbered as regards the ISA vs 
proprietry bus issue, so personally, I'll concede defeat. The other major 
issue to be resolved as far as I can see is the 3730 vs 3041 problem. I 
would _still_ prefer to see the 3730 on the board, as it eliminates any 
shared-memory problems. Also, seeing as SMT is now possible, the PQFP 
package is no longer a problem. The only obstacle to using the 3730 then, 
is it's availability. Perhaps IDT might show more interest if they were 
contacted by Waldorf Elec., who mentioned plans to produce 100 or so 
boards?

Anyhow, apart from eliminating shared-memory and memory contention 
problems, I see the 3730 requiring less development time to get going, as 
well as providing a more integrated (perhaps smaller?) board.

Comments?

Pat -- "There's only one thing left to do Mama, I got to ding a ding dang
	my dang a long ling long" (Jesus Built My Hotrod -- Ministry)
GCS d* -p+ c++ l++ m--- s+/- !g w- t- r

 
From wolff@liberator.et.tudelft.nl  Ukn Jul  6 10:56:42 1993
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Date: Tue, 6 Jul 93 16:54:22 +0200
From: wolff@liberator.et.tudelft.nl (Rogier Wolff)
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To: riscy@pyramid.com
Subject: Re:  Mindless dribble...
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two points:

1) The Inmos chip I mentioned is the G335. Inmos has been taken over by
SGS Thompson, so it features in the SGS databook. (I thought untill a 
few seconds ago, that INMOS had more or less disappeared alltogether, 
but the chip is labelled INMOS in large letters.... :-)

2) "quantities". The quantities are around 100 in the first year....
Maybe thousands later on.......

					Roger.

 
