bcase@cup.portal.com (Brian bcase Case) (04/30/89)
In the current (May) issue of Bite-me, er, uh, I mean, Byte magazine there is an article on the i860. At the end of the fifth paragraph it says: "The RISC processor market has become so overcrowded, in fact, that one chip maker, AMD, has decided to pull its RISC chip, the 29000, out of the competition." Notice it says "out of the competition" not "out of the market." What does this mean? Anyone from Byte or AMD care to comment?
mash@mips.COM (John Mashey) (05/01/89)
In article <17750@cup.portal.com> bcase@cup.portal.com (Brian bcase Case) writes: >In the current (May) issue of Bite-me, er, uh, I mean, Byte magazine >there is an article on the i860. At the end of the fifth paragraph >it says: >"The RISC processor market has become so overcrowded, in fact, that >one chip maker, AMD, has decided to pull its RISC chip, the 29000, >out of the competition." >Notice it says "out of the competition" not "out of the market." >What does this mean? Anyone from Byte or AMD care to comment? The paragraph in question was talking about RISCs in workstations, and mentioned SPARC, MIPS, 88K, and IBM. When I read that, I assumed they meant "out of the competition" for UNIX-based systems. Certainly, from outside, it appears that the part of their message called "The Next Platform" has disappeared from their advertising & promotional campaign, in favor of emphasizing the embedded control market. Needless to say, this is very sensible, as: 1) The 29K has zero visible presence in the UNIX market. The single significant 29K UNIX design win we know of, switched to MIPS a long time ago. (Not publicly announced). Claiming to be "The Next Platform" under such circumstances just causes amusement, so it's good to get rid of it. 2) The 29K's design made some tradeoffs that seemed aimed more at the controller market (as discussed in this newsgroup 1-2 years ago). 3) AMD is much better positioned for selling to that market, by strengths and history. Of course, the controller market is pretty ferocious as well, and I have no idea how the 29K is actually doing. -- -john mashey DISCLAIMER: <generic disclaimer, I speak for me only, etc> UUCP: {ames,decwrl,prls,pyramid}!mips!mash OR mash@mips.com DDD: 408-991-0253 or 408-720-1700, x253 USPS: MIPS Computer Systems, 930 E. Arques, Sunnyvale, CA 94086
mslater@cup.portal.com (Michael Z Slater) (05/01/89)
> 29K pulling out of competition
I suspect that what byte's author was trying to say was that AMD
does not promote the chip for general-purpose workstation applications,
but only for embedded control.
Michael Slater, Microprocessor Reportheinen@neptune.AMD.COM (Dirk Heinen) (05/02/89)
In article <17750@cup.portal.com> bcase@cup.portal.com (Brian bcase Case) writes: >In the current (May) issue of Bite-me, er, uh, I mean, Byte magazine >there is an article on the i860. At the end of the fifth paragraph >it says: > >"The RISC processor market has become so overcrowded, in fact, that >one chip maker, AMD, has decided to pull its RISC chip, the 29000, >out of the competition." > >Notice it says "out of the competition" not "out of the market." >What does this mean? Anyone from Byte or AMD care to comment? Brian, The Byte article about the 29K's withdrawal was "news" to us here at AMD. Byte agreed that their article was in error and will print a retraction in an upcoming issue. In the meantime, before valuable net-time gets chewed up, I would like to post a letter that Byte has sent us regarding their mistake, that will hopefully answer all questions people have about AMD's strong commitment to the 29K. (Note: this letter was sent to Tim Propeck - AMD VP of Corp. Marketing) Quote April 21, 1989 Thanks for pointing out the problem with my First Impression article on the Intel 80860 in the May 1989 BYTE. The paragraph that mentions other RISC chips is misleading, to put it mildly: In some ways, you might tend to dismiss the 80860 as YARP--yet another RISC processor. Several other RISC processor are already available...The RISC processor market has become so crowded, in fact, that one chip maker, AMD has decided to pull its RISC chip, the 29000, out of the competition. That's simply wrong-- the 29K is, of course still strongly supported by AMD. Worse, it's my own fault; I knew perfectly well that the 29K hasn't been discontinued, though the paragraph above certainly makes it sound like it has. What I originally wrote--in an earlier draft of the article--went like this (emphasis added): In some ways, you might tend to dismiss the 80960 as YARP--yet another RISC processor. Several other RISC processor are already *** competing for homes in workstations ***...The RISC processor market has become so crowded, in fact, that one chip maker, AMD has decided to pull its RISC chip, the 29000, out of the competition. The point, of course, is that AMD isn't gambling its RISC fortunes in the small (and crowded) workstation market, but is focusing on the much larger market for embedded controllers. I knew that. Unfortunately, in the course of rewriting that paragraph, I inadvertently eliminated the clear reference to workstations, thus managing to thoroughly mangle the facts. As I understand it, as soon as the May issue arrived in subscribers' mailboxes, people began to call AMD, asking whether BYTE was right and the 29K was no longer being supported. Needless to say, this isn't the way we like to be reminded that people trust what they read in BYTE. I'm genuinely sorry for the confusion and concern this has caused among your customers. Fred Langa, BYTE's editor-in-chief, tells me we'll be running a correction as quickly as possible. In the meantime, by all means let your customers know that, yes, we were wrong--AMD is still supporting the 29K, and I simply botched the description. In fact, if they have any questions, fell free to have them call me at (415) 954-9702 Sincerely, Frank Hayes, Associate News Editor BYTE Magazine UNQUOTE I hope that clears things up, Brian. Dirk Heinen 29K Product Line Advanced Micro Devices
irf@kuling.UUCP (Bo Thide') (05/03/89)
In article <17776@cup.portal.com> mslater@cup.portal.com (Michael Z Slater) writes: >> 29K pulling out of competition A few months ago I read an article (in "Electronic Design" or "Electronics"?) that AMD and HP were rubbing shoulders. It seemed to me then that HP was seeking a RISC partner, possibly to provide a second source for HP-PA. I may be completely wrong, but before I try to dig out the journal to find the article I thought I should ask here if anybody else have heard anything about this business. -Bo ^ Bo Thide'-------------------------------------------------------------- | | Swedish Institute of Space Physics, S-755 91 Uppsala, Sweden |I| [In Swedish: Institutet f|r RymdFysik, Uppsalaavdelningen (IRFU)] |R| Phone: (+46) 18-403000. Telex: 76036 (IRFUPP S). Fax: (+46) 18-403100 /|F|\ INTERNET: bt@irfu.se UUCP: ...!uunet!sunic!irfu!bt ~~U~~ -----------------------------------------------------------------sm5dfw
mslater@cup.portal.com (Michael Z Slater) (05/05/89)
> AMD and HP rubbing shoulders
I think what this is referring to is the annoucement a few months ago
that HP would support the 29K with an emulator and software tools on\
their development system.
Michael Slater, Microprocessor Report mslater@cup.portal.com