gs@vw25.chips.com (George Scolaro) (04/17/91)
[In the message entitled "List has been quiet lately. What's the hardware project status?" on Apr 16, 17:07, Jordan K. Hubbard writes:] > A couple of projects either open or tabled: > > 1. ETH32 board. Last status was George asking how many people would be > interested in a board run. Only about 4 or so people showed interest in purchasing the et532, so alas it remains in gerber file form awaiting.... best regards, -- George Scolaro (gs@vw25.chips.com) Chips & Technologies (408) 434-0600 3050 Zanker Road San Jose, CA 95134
jkh@meepmeep.pcs.com (Jordan K. Hubbard) (04/17/91)
A couple of projects either open or tabled: 1. ETH32 board. Last status was George asking how many people would be interested in a board run. 2. Intelligent graphics card / Frame buffer. This is probably second only to the ETH32 board in terms of overall importance (some might say that it's #1) but development status is vague. I'd like to know what designs are currently open and how far people have gotten on them. If this catagory is dead, then it's worth it to me to pursue it myself. 3. DSP board. Low interest for most, but it was discussed at one point so I'm mentioning it for the sake of completeness. 4. ??? Most of the early folks have had their PC532's now for over a year (mine first blinked its lights in March of last year) now and I think things are in danger of bogging down. I've been as lazy as the next person when it comes to delivering on promised software, so don't think that I'm bitching and pointing fingers, but it would be nice to know what folks are *doing* out there. A lot of my own paralysis results from the sinking feeling that what I'm about to start doing has been done already (Jyrki and I played musical patches there for awhile and I'd rather not repeat the experience!). If people are leary of implying committment by saying what they're up to (which I can understand perfectly), then send me personal mail and let me know if it's kosher to simply post a summary description saying "xxx is _being worked on_" with no attribution. This at least gives us the comforting illusion of forward progress, if not the reality! This goes for both hardware AND software, despite the subject line. Jordan
ken@dali.cc.gatech.edu (Ken Seefried iii) (04/17/91)
In article <m0jSrcr-0003FCC@meepmeep.pcs.com> jkh@meepmeep.pcs.com (Jordan K. Hubbard) writes: > >3. DSP board. Low interest for most, but it was discussed at one point > so I'm mentioning it for the sake of completeness. > Well...I was working on one until work and school pressure forced a stop. I got a grad stdent fired up about it, but that fizzeled. I'm working now on a much less ambitious version that uses the voice chip in the SPARCstation. Real simple stuff. Trying to remember Z-80 assembly language makes my brain hurt, though ;'). -- ken seefried iii ken@dali.cc.gatech.edu "If 'ya can't be with the one you love, honey, love the one you're with..."
rhyde@foxx.ucr.edu (randy hyde) (04/18/91)
I, for one, would be interested in the ETH512 board. Especially if we could get a parts kit for the first go around. Of course, I'd rather see the board with an 8530 (to do Appletalk) and a second SCSI chip (to set up a remote file system), but what the heck, the board's already designed. I'd pop for one if it became available. I would also be interested in a frame buffer/video board. Although if nothing happens soon I'll probably wind up buying a Scuzzy-Graph system (which mates a TMS32010 chip to the SCSI bus). In the mean time, I'm still trying to figure out this *da*n* SCSI bus. *** Randy Hyde
news@bungi.com.mu.edu (04/22/91)
Dave/George: As far as the list you are keeping for people interested in the ETH532 please add my name. It seems like an expensive design, but if you do get enough interest to make the boards, we'll be better off than if we had not. (P.S. got hard disk running under Minix today - relatively painless) Rick Rodman uunet!virtech!rickr "Yesterday's Tomorrow is Here Today"
rhyde@gibson.ucr.edu (randy hyde) (04/23/91)
Add my name to the eth532 list as well. Seems like an expensive design? Only if you think of it only as an ethernet card. Actually, I look at it as a parallel processor. If the parts kit for it is reasonable, I might buy several as a way of adding several 32x32 uPs to the system. No need to plug in serial or ethernet chips. I just want the CPU. Too bad it doesn't take 4Meg SIMMs, 16 megs would make me much happier than 4. Likewise, if it had two SCSI chips, I could offload the file manager on it. Of course, by then I'd have a third PC532 so I may as well buy another board right? Wrong! I want it all to fit in the same case! Oh well, it was a nice dream, back to reality. Nonetheless, I could live with the eth532 as a parallel processor as long as the parts kit is less than the PC532.