deborah@avsdS.UUCP (Deborah Gronke Bennett) (09/28/84)
(sorry to those of you who have seen this before: the last time it was posted it didn't make it outside our site.) Recently, (well, not so recently, actually) I posted several articles concerning the 32032 family and related development hardware and software. I was asked by several people to summarize the responses I received. On the subject of available development tools (software) for the 32032 as a target: 2 pointers to a C compiler available from the University of Toronto. Solutionware Corporation of Sunnyvale, CA makes development tools for the 32k which run under CP/M Greenhills Software of Pasadena Ca has C compilers for 16k and 68k targets available. On the subject of the SYS16 development hardware available from National: The system is slow, overpriced and underdisked. Because it is based on a proprietary bus, it's hard to add your own hardware or disk to alleviate this problem. The person who told me this says they now use a VAX/750 to compile their code, and download it over ethernet or a serial link to a DB16000 or their 32032 based target system. One (scathing) bad comment on the quality of National's field support of the SYS16. I supply no details as the note was confidential. On the subject of field support of the chip set itself: One good comment on the availability of software, chip samples, and bug gossip from their local rep, but also a concern that if National doesn't get the bugs out of their microcode soon, this person might pass National by on their next big chip set. He put the limit of his patience with chip bugs at the end of this year. A personal note: It looks like we will be using a VAX system running 4.2BSD UNIX to compile our code, then download it into an ISE-16 (emulator) in our target system at the start. After we get a few working prototypes, we will be downloading directly into the target system. I have played with a SYS16 which was not loaded at all, and I also found it slow, too slow for our use. The slowness and lack of useful disk interface on the SYS16 (after all, Ampex makes disk drives!) was what tilted us towards using the VAX for our development. I am also concerned about the ISE-32 not being available until next April, and the 8MHz 32032 samples just now becoming available. I want 32032's at 10MHz! -deborah gronke bennett Ampex Corp, AVSD fortune!dsd!s!deborah or ucbvax!dual!amd!fortune!dsd!s!deborah
hammond@mouton.UUCP (10/04/84)
You might mention that National sells cross-compilers that run on Vaxen for the chips. Also, National recently upgraded the disk drives in the development system from 20 Mb to 70 Mb with no change in price. I suspect that National understands the need to allow foreign periphs and will probably provide a translator to an industry standard bus (i.e Multibus or VME bus) to fit in the development system. That is the impression I got when I inquired about an Ethernet interface for the development system. Rich Hammond