alain@elevia.UUCP (W.A.Simon) (06/27/91)
There were speculations, in this group, about the move by NeXT,
towards a Motorola 88k RISC chip. In view of the latest Blue
Apple Initiative, which affects Motorola's effort in a major way,
would anybody care to comment on the impacts of this alliance
on NeXT, and on whatever moves to RISC are afoot?
I am sure this would interest the whole readership of this group,
but if anyone has anything to say on this, I would appreciate a
direct e-mail message too, because netnews is anything but reliable
around here. I guess we are too far removed from the real action,
every link in the chain adds some incertitude...
Thank you.
--
William "Alain" Simon
UUCP: alain@elevia.UUCPbill@pslu1.psl.wisc.edu (Bill Roth) (06/27/91)
In article <1991Jun26.230817.10620@elevia.UUCP> alain@elevia.UUCP (W.A.Simon) writes: >There were speculations, in this group, about the move by NeXT, >towards a Motorola 88k RISC chip. In view of the latest Blue >Apple Initiative, which affects Motorola's effort in a major way, >would anybody care to comment on the impacts of this alliance >on NeXT, and on whatever moves to RISC are afoot? > In this morning's New York Times, there was a story about how the talks between Apple and IBM are stalled, and that most of the technical people at apple are praying that they don't have to design a machine around the RS/6000 chip. In light of apple's bad blood toward the Evil Empire I think the effect of the talks will be a waste of time. If Motorola was smart, they'doffer the 88k series to NeXT for a song. They need to get a chip out in mainstream machine. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bill Roth, University of Wisconsin Physical Sciences Laboratory Internet:bill@psl.wisc.edu NeXTMAIL:roth@pslu1.psl.wisc.edu /608-873-6651
aitken@CS.Cornell.EDU (William E. Aitken) (06/27/91)
In article <1991Jun26.230817.10620@elevia.UUCP> alain@elevia.UUCP (W.A.Simon) writes: >There were speculations, in this group, about the move by NeXT, >towards a Motorola 88k RISC chip. In view of the latest Blue >Apple Initiative, which affects Motorola's effort in a major way, >would anybody care to comment on the impacts of this alliance >on NeXT, and on whatever moves to RISC are afoot? > I was rather afraid when I first heard this that it might mean the end of the 88k. If rumors circulating in this group about the next NeXT are true, this would have been very bad news for NeXT. But, as someone has already pointed out on comp.arch, Ford recently signed a BIG order for a microcontroller version of the 88k foor use in its products. I think this alone will be enough to keep the 88k group viable. --- Bill. -- William E. Aitken <aitken@cs.cornell.edu> | On Earth it is considered {uw-beaver,rochester,decvax}!cornell!aitken | ill mannered to kill your Home: (607) 273-7810 Away : (607) 255-9206 | friends while commiting suicide ============================================*============= Avon ==============
alain@elevia.UUCP (W.A.Simon) (06/28/91)
In <1991Jun27.133021.3793@pslu1.psl.wisc.edu> bill@pslu1.psl.wisc.edu (Bill Roth) writes: >In article <1991Jun26.230817.10620@elevia.UUCP> alain@elevia.UUCP (W.A.Simon) writes: >>There were speculations, in this group, about the move by NeXT, >>towards a Motorola 88k RISC chip. In view of the latest Blue >>Apple Initiative, which affects Motorola's effort in a major way, >>would anybody care to comment on the impacts of this alliance >>on NeXT, and on whatever moves to RISC are afoot? >In this morning's New York Times, there was a story about how the >talks between Apple and IBM are stalled, and that most of the >technical people at apple are praying that they don't have to >design a machine around the RS/6000 chip. In light of apple's >bad blood toward the Evil Empire I think the effect of the talks will >be a waste of time. Why would they have started at all? This was what puzzled me the most in this whole thing. >If Motorola was smart, they'doffer the 88k series to NeXT for a song. They >need to get a chip out in mainstream machine. I believe they are doing just that. >Bill Roth -- William "Alain" Simon UUCP: alain@elevia.UUCP
alain@elevia.UUCP (W.A.Simon) (06/28/91)
In <1991Jun27.163259.394@cs.cornell.edu> aitken@CS.Cornell.EDU (William E. Aitken) writes: >In article <1991Jun26.230817.10620@elevia.UUCP> alain@elevia.UUCP (W.A.Simon) writes: >> [ ... NeXT, IBM, Apple, Motorola... ] >I was rather afraid when I first heard this that it might mean the end >of the 88k. If rumors circulating in this group about the next NeXT >are true, this would have been very bad news for NeXT. But, as >someone has already pointed out on comp.arch, Ford recently signed >a BIG order for a microcontroller version of the 88k foor use >in its products. I think this alone will be enough to keep the 88k >group viable. I heard/read about the Ford deal, but I was under the impression that it had nothing to do with the 88k, but with ASIC chips... Any solid info, either way, anybody? > --- Bill. -- William "Alain" Simon UUCP: alain@elevia.UUCP
nerd@percival.rain.com (Michael Galassi) (06/29/91)
alain@elevia.UUCP (W.A.Simon) writes: > I heard/read about the Ford deal, but I was under the impression > that it had nothing to do with the 88k, but with ASIC chips... > Any solid info, either way, anybody? I don't know about ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), but I believe Moto will be taking the 88k core (minus mmu, fpu, & cache) will be integrating it with the sort of things they are putting on their 683xxx series. Off the top of my head, serial ports, digital i/o lines, timers, pll, a to d. Initially only for Ford, later as standard catalog parts. This is from memory of an article in EE Times which I scanned a while back and is probably at least partially wrong. The Motorola term for this in 68k family is CSIC (Customer Specified IC (I think)), could this be what you were thinking about when you said ASIC? All of this is mildly reminiscent of the amd 29k fusion stuff, started out as a general purpose RISC cpu, when nobody wanted it for the lucrative WS market they re-targeted it at the embedded market and got design wins in several laser printers and I believe some video (Apple 24 bit board) applications. This is ALL PURE SPECULATION, I HAVE HEARD NO RUMORS, I'm just drawing a parallel to a situation I saw not too long ago.. If you quote this, specify the source as someone who knows NOTHING. For anyone who cares, I make a living doing software for embedded 68K's so I think its great that Moto is putting more resources into the embedded market. -michael -- Michael Galassi | nerd@percival.rain.com MS-DOS: The ultimate PC virus. | ...!tektronix!percy!nerd