nmr@NIMR.MRC.AC.UK (NMR Center Users) (02/26/90)
Hello, I have recently seen the specs for the new Motorola 68040 - it looks as if it could be at least as powerful as the MIPS chips used in the Iris 4D series. How aout SGI offering an upgrade to the 68040 for their neglected 3000/3100 series users. As far as I can tell, the chip is object-code compatible with the 68020/68881 set, so the software department at SGI would not be overstretched. Although the chip is not pin-compatible, a small daughter-board with a clock doubler to 32MHz would surely suffice. I guess that would not take more than a few days of an engineers time to design. Furthermore, with SGI's progressive pricing policy they could sell a $50 cicuit board for $1000 dollars and let users buy their own 68040. And there would be rejoicing in the world ..... Well, how about it ??? Yours Chris Bauer.
baskett%forest@SGI.COM (03/02/90)
We have no current plans to upgrade Iris 3000/3100 systems with a 68040. Forest Baskett Silicon Graphics