cch@sei.cmu.edu (Clifford Huff) (11/11/86)
In article <47@nikhefk.UUCP> henkp@nikhefk.uucp (Henk Peek) writes: >Where can I get a the current futurebus and NuBus "work" standards. >I have only an old futurebus concept. Are there differences between >the TI-NuBus and MIT-Nubus? > You can find out more infomation about the proposed IEEE P1196 standard (NuBus), by contacting one of the following sources of infomation: Secretary, IEEE Standards Board 345 E. 47th St. New York, NY 10017 IEEE Computer Society 10662 Los Vaqueros Circle Los Alamitos, CA 90720 (714) 821--8380 IEEE Service Center 445 Hoes Lane Piscataway, NJ 08854 (201) 981-1393 This information was extracted from a recent article in IEEE Spectrum Oct 86, "A Framework For Computer Design", which dealt with the topic of buses and bus standards. The article listed all present and proposed IEEE bus standards along with a short description of their typical uses. The article has the following comments about the following buses: NuBus IEEE P1196 "High performance microprocessor bus with simple protocols independent of processors and manufacturers" Typical use: "Lean multiple microprocessor systems" Originators: MIT and Texas Instruments Other Comments about NuBus in article: "Another next-generation bus, Nubus (IEEE P1196), was sponsored for standardization by Texas Instruments. It is another high- performance bus designed to be processor-independent, based in part on its simplicity. It has so many features in common with Mulitbus II that a merger of the two standards was proposed at one time. However, Nubus has a leaner protocol that Multibus II. In contrast to the subsystem philosophy of both Intel and Motorola, Nubus has no associated memory, I/O, or serial buses. It thus has a certain appeal to potential users who favor a stripped-down approach to multiprocessing." VME IEEE P1014 "Popluar system bus initially conceived to support the Motorola 68000 processor family" Typical use: "High-end microprocessor systems" Originator: Motorola Multibus IEEE 796 "Widely used microprocessor system bus supporting Intel and other processors" Typical use: "Mid-range microprocessor systems" Originator: Intel Multibus II IEEE P1296 "High-performance microprocessor system bus" Typical use: "High-end multiple processor systems" Originator: Intel Futurebus IEEE P896 "Very high-performance system bus independent of processors and manufacturers." Typical use: "Top-end multiple microprocessor systems" Originator: IEEE ->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->-> :) Concerning the next generation of slotted-Macintoshes, the 27 Oct issue of InfoWorld in 'Notes from the Field' had these rumors and comments: It is reported that the slotted-Mac will have at least 6 Nubus slots, but some versions may have a dozen. (Yes) Apple has made provisions for a MS-DOS card that uses an Intel 80286 that will run DOS as a task. (I understand that this is being done in cooperation with the same people who provide the Phoneix BIOS.) The slotted-Mac will run either the Mac operating system or a version of Unix System V with Berkeley 4.2 BSD extensions. With Unix, they'll throw in C, Fortran-77, and Assembler and make MPW Pascal an option. Infoworld also reports that slotted-Mac won't appear until March 86. Three months later, Apple would fix the slotted-Mac so it can do multitasking with the Mac operating system running under Unix. The article goes on to say the Mac would use a 25-MHz 68020 with 68881 floating point coprocessor. The Mac would also use a special memory management chip (MMU) to make multitasking operate faster than if it was done by the 68020. Regarding displays, Infoworld reports Apple will sell two displays initially, both with 680 by 480 pixel resolution. One will be a 12-inch monochrome monitor and the other a 13-inch color monitor. At introduction will be a special video card for driving the displays in true gray scale. Later, they'll move up to a pair of 19-inch monitors, one monochrome and the other color. So there is the latest from Infoworld regarding the next generations of Mac's... ____ ______ _____ _____===== Cliff Huff / __ \ | _____| |_ _| _____========= cch@sei.cmu.edu | |__|_| | |__ | | _____============= Software Eng. Institue _\___ \ | __| | | _____================= Carnegie-Mellon Univ. | |__| | | |____ _| |_ _____============= Pittsburgh, PA 15213 \____/ |______| |_____| _____========= (412) 268-6382 -----===== C a r n e g i e - M e l l o n U n i v e r s i t y
cch@sei.cmu.edu (Clifford Huff) (11/11/86)
For people interested in the Nubus, you can find out more infomation about the proposed IEEE P1196 standard (NuBus), by contacting one of the following sources of infomation: Secretary, IEEE Standards Board 345 E. 47th St. New York, NY 10017 IEEE Computer Society 10662 Los Vaqueros Circle Los Alamitos, CA 90720 (714) 821--8380 IEEE Service Center 445 Hoes Lane Piscataway, NJ 08854 (201) 981-1393 This information was extracted from a recent article in IEEE Spectrum Oct 86, "A Framework For Computer Design", which dealt with the topic of buses and bus standards. The article listed all present and proposed IEEE bus standards along with a short description of their typical uses. The article has the following comments about the following buses: NuBus IEEE P1196 "High performance microprocessor bus with simple protocols independent of processors and manufacturers" Typical use: "Lean multiple microprocessor systems" Originators: MIT and Texas Instruments Other Comments about NuBus in article: "Another next-generation bus, Nubus (IEEE P1196), was sponsored for standardization by Texas Instruments. It is another high- performance bus designed to be processor-independent, based in part on its simplicity. It has so many features in common with Mulitbus II that a merger of the two standards was proposed at one time. However, Nubus has a leaner protocol that Multibus II. In contrast to the subsystem philosophy of both Intel and Motorola, Nubus has no associated memory, I/O, or serial buses. It thus has a certain appeal to potential users who favor a stripped-down approach to multiprocessing." VME IEEE P1014 "Popluar system bus initially conceived to support the Motorola 68000 processor family" Typical use: "High-end microprocessor systems" Originator: Motorola Multibus IEEE 796 "Widely used microprocessor system bus supporting Intel and other processors" Typical use: "Mid-range microprocessor systems" Originator: Intel Multibus II IEEE P1296 "High-performance microprocessor system bus" Typical use: "High-end multiple processor systems" Originator: Intel Futurebus IEEE P896 "Very high-performance system bus independent of processors and manufacturers." Typical use: "Top-end multiple microprocessor systems" Originator: IEEE :) Concerning the next generation of slotted-Macintoshes, the 27 Oct issue of InfoWorld in 'Notes from the Field' had these rumors and comments: It is reported that the slotted-Mac will have at least 6 Nubus slots, but some versions may have a dozen. (Yes) Apple has made provisions for a MS-DOS card that uses an Intel 80286 that will run DOS as a task. (I understand that this is being done in cooperation with the same people who provide the Phoneix BIOS.) The slotted-Mac will run either the Mac operating system or a version of Unix System V with Berkeley 4.2 BSD extensions. With Unix, they'll throw in C, Fortran-77, and Assembler and make MPW Pascal an option. Infoworld also reports that slotted-Mac won't appear until March 86. Three months later, Apple would fix the slotted-Mac so it can do multitasking with the Mac operating system running under Unix. The article goes on to say the Mac would use a 25-MHz 68020 with 68881 floating point coprocessor. The Mac would also use a special memory management chip (MMU) to make multitasking operate faster than if it was done by the 68020. Regarding displays, Infoworld reports Apple will sell two displays initially, both with 680 by 480 pixel resolution. One will be a 12-inch monochrome monitor and the other a 13-inch color monitor. At introduction will be a special video card for driving the displays in true gray scale. Later, they'll move up to a pair of 19-inch monitors, one monochrome and the other color. So there is the latest from Infoworld regarding the next generations of Mac's... ____ ______ _____ _____===== Cliff Huff / __ \ | _____| |_ _| _____========= cch@sei.cmu.edu | |__|_| | |__ | | _____============= Software Eng. Institue _\___ \ | __| | | _____================= Carnegie-Mellon Univ. | |__| | | |____ _| |_ _____============= Pittsburgh, PA 15213 \____/ |______| |_____| _____========= (412) 268-6382 -----===== C a r n e g i e - M e l l o n U n i v e r s i t y
roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) (11/11/86)
In article <7310@utzoo.UUCP> henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) writes: > The genesis of the Mac's closed-box philosophy can be traced back to an > Apple internal paper, published a few years ago in one of the ACM SIG > publications, titled something like "Making a million computers a year". Another must-read paper for anybody interested in MacHistory: %T Design case history: Apple's Macintosh %A Fred Guterl %J IEEE Spectrum %V 21 %N 12 %P 34-43 %D December 1984 The design trade-offs are staggering. Why not extra RAM or a second floppy drive? Too much heat to survive without a cooling fan. Have to save on PCB real estate? Make the video circuitry do double duty as the sound generator during the vertical retrace. Why no parallel interface? Because the serial interfaces are almost as fast and are a lot easier to shield to meet FCC specs. Read the paper. -- Roy Smith, {allegra,cmcl2,philabs}!phri!roy System Administrator, Public Health Research Institute 455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016 "you can't spell unix without deoxyribonucleic!"
jimomura@lsuc.UUCP (Jim Omura) (11/12/86)
I just read Cliff's posting with the quotes from the magazine article about the various busses. From what knowledge I have, I have some doubts about the quality of the article and I would like to hear what other more knowledgeable people could say about it. What stuck out in my mind was the blurb on VME. It said that VME was a Motorola bus. VME has been heavily promoted by Motorola but it is *not* a Motorola bus. It is intended to be a generallized design. Cheers! -- Jim O. -- James Omura, Barrister & Solicitor, Toronto ihnp4!utzoo!lsuc!jimomura Byte Information eXchange: jimomura (416) 652-3880