dlr@daver.bungi.com (Dave Rand) (03/07/90)
The second run of the pc532 board is starting now. This board has a
NS32532, NS32381 and NS32202 at 25Mhz, dual SCSI's, 8 serial ports...
All around fun for all! The first batch went pretty quickly. If you
are looking for a cheap way to get into high performance systems, this
may be for you.
There is a mailing list (mail to pc532-request@daver.bungi.com) which
contains lots of interesting information. Recently, we came across an
excelent deal on disk drives (<$1K USD for 330 meg), well suited for
this system.
Here is the text of an earlier posting.
Subject: PC532 system
Message-ID: <1989Nov16.051350.4711@daver.UU.NET>
Organization: Association for the Prevention of Polar Bears and Kangaroos
Date: Thu, 16 Nov 89 05:13:50 GMT
Last year, there was great talk about doing a 32532-based system,
with all kinds of wizzy features. Most people took note of the
suggestions, and some even went so far as to suggest some of
their own ideas :-)
We, george@wombat.bungi.com (George Scolaro) and dlr@daver.bungi.com
(Dave Rand) went ahead and did a design. George did the hardware,
and I did (am doing :-) the software. Here are the details:
NS32532 CPU running at 25 Mhz (about 12.5 MIPS peak, 8 MIPS* average)
NS32381 FPU running at 25 Mhz
NS32202 ICU
4 to 32 megabytes of fast page DRAM (0 wait on first access in page,
1 wait in burst). 4 or 8 megabytes with 1 meg SIMMs, 16 or 32 with
4 meg SIMMs.
8 Serial ports (38.4 Kbps) with full modem control (RTS/CTS/DTR/CD)
and hardware flow control (Signetics 2681).
Dual SCSI bus:
#1 is a Adaptec 6250, supporting Async/Sync SCSI up to >4meg/sec.
#2 is a DP8490, supporting Async SCSI to 3.8meg/sec.
The #1 SCSI supports external Disk and tape. The #2 SCSI supports
four interal add-in card slots (mechanically IBM-PC style,
electrically not compatible). This gives us a very fast multi-master
bus with a very low risk and pin count. One add-in card has already
been designed (16 serial ports plus an Ethernet, and 1 meg of memory).
The main board is a "baby-AT" style board, and will fit into standard
IBM AT cases. We did a small run of PC boards, and have two of them up
and running now.
A couple of notes: Some of you will recall that George and I worked
for National Semiconductor - we no longer work there. As well, the
number of MIPS of the various processors in the world is always in
question. All that can be said for this 532 board is that it seems to be
at least 2-3 times faster than 33 Mhz 386 systems...
--
George Scolaro <george@wombat.bungi.com>
Dave Rand <dlr@daver.bungi.com>
--
Dave Rand
{pyramid|hoptoad|sun|vsi1}!daver!dlr Internet: dlr@daver.bungi.commollers.pad@nixpbe.uucp (Moellers) (03/08/90)
dlr@daver.bungi.com (Dave Rand) writes: >The second run of the pc532 board is starting now. This board has a >NS32532, NS32381 and NS32202 at 25Mhz, dual SCSI's, 8 serial ports... >All around fun for all! The first batch went pretty quickly. If you >are looking for a cheap way to get into high performance systems, this >may be for you. Sounds VERY interesting! How much is "cheap"? Josef Moellers | c/o Nixdorf Computer AG USA: uunet!philabs!linus!nixbur!mollers.pad | Abt. DX-PC !USA: mcvax!unido!nixpbe!mollers.pad | Pontanusstr Phone: (+49) 5251 146245 | D-4790 Paderborn
michael@fe2o3.UUCP (Michael Katzmann) (03/11/90)
In article <1352@nixpbe.UUCP> mollers.pad@nixpbe.uucp (Moellers) writes: >dlr@daver.bungi.com (Dave Rand) writes: > >>The second run of the pc532 board is starting now. This board has a >>NS32532, NS32381 and NS32202 at 25Mhz, dual SCSI's, 8 serial ports... >>All around fun for all! The first batch went pretty quickly. If you >>are looking for a cheap way to get into high performance systems, this >>may be for you. > >Sounds VERY interesting! >How much is "cheap"? > And what about software? A unix port for it??????
dlr@daver.bungi.com (Dave Rand) (03/14/90)
In article <1352@nixpbe.UUCP> mollers.pad@nixpbe.uucp (Moellers) writes: >dlr@daver.bungi.com (Dave Rand) writes: > >>The second run of the pc532 board is starting now. This board has a >>[deleted] > >Sounds VERY interesting! How much is "cheap"? The bare PCBs will be available for about $200. The intent is to provide a low cost way to get into high performance systems. Software will be MINIX. A UNIX port is planned, but is not (and perhaps may not be) available. For more information, please join the pc532 mailing list - mail your requests to pc532-request@daver.bungi.com. -- Dave Rand {pyramid|hoptoad|sun|vsi1}!daver!dlr Internet: dlr@daver.bungi.com