mikel@bmcg.UUCP (07/19/84)
I for one am interested in the iAPX-432. It is the only production machine of its kind. I have read the full manuals, some 400 pages of them. It is the only processor that proposes to get around the singe instruction at a time bottleneck on the market. People just don't understand it yet. Also the performance data for a one GPU (General Processing Unit) system looks like a dog, but no one considers that you can put several together to make a very powerful system. No major companys are announcing products, however I think several are working in the back of their labs on something. I heard a story that a MAJOR company was looking into a 100 GPU mainframe type system. I don't think the 432 will die, it's just resting. Some small company, like Convergent Tech, will make a system and take the market by storm. The benefits that UNIX can get out of that machine would be great. Can you imagine 5 processors working to complete one process while the output is piped to another 5 or 10. If the response time is too slow for you, plug in some more processors. With a small amount of software, any network can not only transfer files, but also execute a program on another machine and sent the results back. If a small network of 10 machines were linked, each processor with 10 GPUs, and each GPU could execute 250,000 instructions per second, your programs could execute at a rate of 25,000,000 instructions per second. That is 10 times faster than a VAX-780. Also each node connected would increase the power available, not slow it down. Another problem facing the 432 is its only language is ADA, correct me if i'm wrong. This is a major problem since there is not a major pool of software or programmers. True, ADA is gaining strength but the 432 has to wait for the rest of the industry. ADA uses the power of the 432 best, but what is needed are other languages (C, Pascal, Fortran, etc...). I will try to give more information at a later date on the 432 to spur some interest. How about some inside information from someone at Intel. My information is pretty old. Mike Lesher, Burroughs Crop., San Diego. ..!bmcg!mikel