Date: Thu, 08 Jul 1999 09:27:10 -0600 From: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> To: Nadav Eiron <nadav@cs.Technion.AC.IL> Cc: David Scheidt <dscheidt@enteract.com>, Yann Ramin <atrus@matadore.montereyhigh.com>, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: IA64 Message-ID: <4.2.0.58.19990708092030.0466ca00@localhost> In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.3.95-heb-2.07.990708172513.21435A-100000@csd> References: <4.2.0.56.19990708071909.03f9cda0@localhost>
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At 05:52 PM 7/8/99 +0300, Nadav Eiron wrote: >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> Funny how Intel rewrites history to avoid antitrust problems. ;-) Fact is, they wanted the i860 to be used on graphics coprocessor boards but NOT as the system's main CPU. I may still have the handouts which said so. At the presentation, I asked an Intel rep whether the i860 could be used as a general purpose CPU for a workstation; he replied that Intel WOULD NOT SELL the CPU to a company that wanted to use it for that purpose. This is illegal behavior, since it is discriminatory and an attempt to manipulate markets. But it was done nonetheless. >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). You're forgetting history. At this time, the TMS340 intelligent graphics controller was threatening to take over this market. (There were many very good one-card X servers based on that chip.) The i860 was part of Intel's response. >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. The i860 was used in a number of demonstration machines that did floating point multiprocessing, because its floating point capabilities exceeded what could be done on any x86 processor available at the time. But this wasn't considered by Intel to be a "general-purpose" market, since these machines were produced in small volumes and were ludicrously expensive. --Brett To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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