johnrk@mot.UUCP (John Koehring) (03/07/85)
I am looking for information regarding the interfacing of
*currently available* floating point processors to the
M68000 family of microprocessors. If you have any experience,
thoughts, pointers, etc. in this area please *mail* them to me.
If enough interest is generated, I will summarize to the net.
Thanks in advance,
John Koehring
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ucbvax!arizona!asuvax!mot!johnrkjohnrk@mot.UUCP (John Koehring) (03/07/85)
O.K. Before everybody goes off the deep end wondering what a
Motorolan is doing looking for information regarding interfacing
*currently available* floating point processors to the M68000
family of microprocessors, let me explain. This is for my
personal information. I realize that Motorola is currently shipping
samples of 68881's and I applaud my coworkers in Austin for their
success. But I also realize that there are those people that in
the past wanted to use 68000's, required very fast floating point
operations, but were not able to wait for the 68881. I am curious
what they have done. Consider this question asked from a historical
perspective.
Boy, ask an innocent question . . .
John Koehring
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ucbvax!arizona!asuvax!mot!johnrkhenry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (03/11/85)
> ...But I also realize that there are those people that in > the past wanted to use 68000's, required very fast floating point > operations, but were not able to wait for the 68881. I am curious > what they have done. Many of them got this handy little application note from National explaining how to interface the 16032's FPP chip to the 68000, and did so... [sound of gnashing teeth from the direction of Austin] -- Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry
davet@oakhill.UUCP (Dave Trissel) (03/17/85)
In article <5210@utzoo.UUCP> henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) writes: >Many of them got this handy little application note from National >explaining how to interface the 16032's FPP chip to the 68000, and >did so... [sound of gnashing teeth from the direction of Austin] [...Gnash...Gnash...] Gnash? Well not exactly. Actually the apnote business started with Hal Hindenberg (sp?) at Digital Accoustics in Orange County who started some time ago building add-on boards for Apple 8-bit systems with 68K on them. He didn't want to wait for our MC68881 (which is just coming out now) so his only other option was to get interested in National's NS16081 Floatin-point unit. He published an Appnote in his notorious newsletter with the basic schematic and later condemed National for trying to keep it a secret. (Don't worry, he hits Motorola just as hard.) Needless to say, we at Motorola weren't jumping up and down convincing customers to hook on a National chip to our 68Ks. However, after some time elapsed management views softened and we actually prettied up our own version and made copies to give out to customers when necessary. There wasn't much demand since we have a blazing software single-precision floating-point (not IEEE though) which satisfied a lot of customers, and the delays on the national chip also kept the pressure off somewhat. Its interesting to hear that National may be giving out an apnote now as well. Motorola Semiconductor Inc. Dave Trissel Austin, Texas {ihnp4,seismo,gatech}!ut-sally!oakhill!davet