Altair - A different perspective

From: Allison J Parent <allisonp_at_world.std.com>
Date: Wed Aug 26 12:18:50 1998

< Now *that's* historic! Western Digitals first (and last) CPU effort, th
< first HLL ever implemented as an instruction set on a chip (afaik, anywa
< rare as hen's teeth (I'll bet it's scarcity is on the order of the Apple
< not to mention that it was a *very* early 16-bit system that was actuall
< available to mere mortals.

BZZT!!! first the PDP-11/03 is the WD chipset, the alpha microsystems
s100 crate used the same WD chipset. The WD chip set alloed you to create
your own microcode based cpu. It was the only whole computer WD marketed.

The chipset had a basic cpu/datapath and microms that contained the
microcode. So the basic chips with differing microcode could be literally
be different systems. Even DEC had both a WCS and EIS/FIS microm
extensions for the 11/03.

It didn't run pascal it ran the compiled result P-code which was a stack
machine.

Scarce, they did make a few. They were expensive though.

< It was a good idea; but as is so common in this business, the old axiom
< held true:
< No good deed goes unpunished.
<
< I think WD lost their shirt on this one . . .

About right. It's was not cheap and hard to expand. However the sales
of the chipsets to outside producers (DEC and AMS) made them a bundle.

I'd love to see a manual for the chipset and microcode information.

Allison
Received on Wed Aug 26 1998 - 12:18:50 BST