mjs@rabbit.UUCP (M. J. Shannon, Jr.) (10/01/84)
Shortly after National announced the NS16000 series, Compupro/Godbout
started advertising a whole flock of CPU boards, including one based on
the NS16032 (with sockets for MMU and FPU). Last time I was moved
enough to hassle them about its availability (about 6 months ago), I
was told that they had `just sent the latest artwork for the PC board
out,' and it should be available within a couple months. Well, I've
been watching the ads in Byte (what else is there to read in there?),
and haven't seen any indication in their ads that they have the board
ready. Does anyone out in net-land know what the real poop is? Have
any of you seen or actually used this board (or earlier revs)?
Personally, I think the National chip set makes one of the most
powerful 32-bit micros available today (sorry, Intel, your register
architecture went out with the announcement of either IBM's 360 or
DEC's PDP-11), and the IEEE-696 bus makes a whole raft of peripherals
available that no other bus can touch (except maybe DEC's unibus, but
PDP-11's are outclassed by the micros) these days. If anyone out there
knows of the status of the Compupro/Godbout board or of any other
(reputable) supplier's equivalent board, please let me know by mail.
Much thanks.
Various trademarks of various companies are used above.
--
Marty Shannon
UUCP: {alice,rabbit,research}!mjs
(rabbit is soon to die. Does this mean alice is pregnant? Yup!)
Phone: 201-582-3199beaucham@uiucuxc.UUCP (10/05/84)
GVC makes a multi-bus based 16032 board which sells for $3295.
Their phone is (617) 576-1804. Many people prefer the Multibus
(IEEE 796) to the S100 bus, and it is certainly supported by a large
number of peripheral manufacturers, probably more than the S100.
LMC also makes a 16032 board for the Multibus; they are at (312) 283-2000.
In addition to LMC's machine there are a whole bunch of new work stations
coming up based on the 16032 or the 32032. Stritek (216) 526-9433 has a
co-processor board for the IBM PC.
I believe Empirical Research Inc. has announced a 16032 card for the S-100
bus, but I don't happen to know their phone no.
good luck!jss@sjuvax.UUCP (Jonathan Shapiro) (10/16/84)
[Aren't you hungry...] It seems to be the case (from other things which have run on the net) that the 32000 series has lots and lots of microcode bugs. Also, the quantity prices are not terrific, which probably explains the lack of availability. In any case, they are promising everything Real Soon Now as Jerry Pournelle (sp?) would say. Finally, the DMA chips are only now coming to sampling, so it may be that everyone has been held up by this. Jon Shapiro Haverford College ...!allegra!sjuvax!jss