pja@usl.UUCP (Pete Alleman) (04/25/86)
[eat WHAT??????] Does anyone have any experience with National's ICM-3216 boards?? For those who are not familiar with this product: The set consists of two boards, the first has the processor, 4 rs232 ports, a parallel interface, and a SCSI interface. The processor is a 10Mhz 32016 with MMU, FPU, TCU, and ICU. The second board has the memory. Two memory boards are available, 1Mb or 4Mb. Both memory boards use 150ns DRAM for operation with no wait states. On the software side, National offers their validated port of UNIX System V Release 2.0. This port has implemented demand paged virtual memory. Overall, it appears to be an impressive system with a very reasonable price tag. The processor with 4Mb of ram and UNIX will run about $3,300. Add a SCSI disk drive and a power supply and you have a powerful 4 user UNIX system. I am looking for anyone who has used these boards and put a system together. Pete Alleman ihnp4!ut-sally!usl!digitran!pja
faunt@spar.UUCP (05/09/86)
There was an article in mod.computers.workstations <8604291207.AA19518@caip.rutgers.edu> that said there was a 4.2 available for this board (or set?). Does this board(s) have a standard buss?
spraggs@mprvaxa.UUCP (John Spraggs) (05/12/86)
The 3216 is available with System V presently. Rumours do include the possibility of 4.2. The data/address expansion buss between the CPU and memory boards is proprietary. I don't know if OEMs will be making use of it. An I/O buss called 'Mini-bus' has had sufficient information released to allow designers of add-on graphics boards, etc. to proceed with design. It would appear to be a fledgling standard. The SCSI mass storage interface is the most 'standard' of the lot. John Spraggs
gbs@voder.UUCP (05/15/86)
In article <253@spar.UUCP>, faunt@spar.UUCP (Doug Faunt) writes: > There was an article in mod.computers.workstations > <8604291207.AA19518@caip.rutgers.edu> that said there was > a 4.2 available for this board (or set?). Does this > board(s) have a standard buss? The following description is taken from the ICM-3216 data sheet dated December 1985: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MiniBus MiniBus is a high performance, synchronous 16-bit bus with full support for multiprocessors, complete with parity on address and data lines and physical addressing of all MiniBus masters (8 maximum). The MiniBus interface is provided through the MiniBus Interface Controller (MBIC). This single CMOS LSI compatible component attaches directly to the NS32016 bus and provides the complete bus interface. MiniBus is not designed to compete with any of the 32-bit buses whose purpose is to satisfy the bandwidth requirements of multiple 32-bit processors. Rather, it is intended to provide a low cost, low power, low real estate bus with similar multiprocessor system characteristics on a smaller scale (16 bits of data, 8 masters). Virtually all the LSI peripheral chips to support LAN's, disks, terminals, floppies, tapes, GPIB and other system requirements are designed in 8-bit or 16-bit widths and are cheaper and more convenient to implement on a 16-bit bus when bandwidth permits. MiniBus is designed for these types of applications and provides very cost effective solutions in these situations. The MIBC is available to the customer for design of custom boards. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The connector used for the MinBus has 96 pins. The documentation for the ICM-3216 is: ICM-3216-M ICM3216 Hardware Reference Manual (420610289-001)
haddock@ti-csl (05/18/86)
With regards to BSD4.2 on the ICM-3216 board set one of the local NS
reps. told me that the U. of Toronto(?) had ported 4.2 but because
of their status as an educational institution they could not
distribute their 4.2 port. Can anyone confirm/deny this? I
really like the board set especially at the price I can get it but
Sys V turns me off to no end.
-Rusty-
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