daugher@cs.tamu.edu (Dr. Walter C. Daugherity) (07/06/90)
Two recent postings have touched on the question of memory for the forthcoming 68040 NeXT upgrade. It is reported that the same 100 ns memory in the present NeXT will work. However, if you're buying more memory from third-party sources, I recommend getting 80 ns SIMM's, since they're cheap and will have a longer useful life (e.g., you can put them in a Mac II/SE30/whatever too). As far as the expected performance increase on the 68040, it should be substantial regardless of the use of 100 ns memory, since the 68040 has big caches on-chip which make the effective memory speed nearly the speed of the 68040 (as long as you have a decent hit rate :-)). RISC-type design features Motorola is incorporating in the 68040 should make even a 25 MHz chip a real screamer (say, 20 MIPS or so with tuned code to keep all the functional units busy). I've already ordered one and can't wait to give it a workout. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Walter C. Daugherity Internet, NeXTmail: daugher@cs.tamu.edu Knowledge Systems Research Center uucp: uunet!cs.tamu.edu!daugher Texas A & M University BITNET: DAUGHER@TAMVENUS College Station, TX 77843-3112 CSNET: daugher%cs.tamu.edu@RELAY.CS.NET ---Not an official document of Texas A&M---