[comp.arch] Weitek 3332 Question

shep@datacube.UUCP (03/01/87)

I've been looking at the Weitek WTL 3332 floating point data path chip.
Nice concept for pipelined 32-bit operations. Has three i/o ports and
three internal busses. Has a multiplier and an adder. You would think
this would be a great chip for solving polynomials because it can
do a pipelined AX+B, right? Just load up A and B into the register
file and let the data flow through, right?

Wrong, it's not that simple. The two register file reads use up the
internal A and B bus. That means the X value input must be asserted
on the C bus. Well, at quick glance you see this nice external Y port...
but it only feeds the B bus!!!

Yes, you can make this chip work at this by playing games but
does anyone have an idea as to why they hooked the external input port there???

Shep Siegel
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