> There's a mainboard flat in the bottom of the case. It contains an 8086,
> between 128K and 960K of RAM (there are 2 versions of the board...),
> optional 8087 copro, and an 8089 I/O processor
One of the vew designs, that (tried) to uitlize the fill power
of the 86-family. In faxt: today everybody is moaning about
the 'crude' x86 structure (but using it) and nobody temembers
that the CPU was only one single part of the design. A design
ready to build high efficient and fast computers for multi
programming operating systems (Unix et. al.)
> (very fancy DMA chip).
Thats like naming the Newton a fancy post it thing. The
8089 was a full featured CPU, just with an special
command set suited for I/O operations. Anything from
serial I/O via disk I/O up to code translations could
done in a very smooth and genuine way.
Just imagine that the HW depending part of any device
driver would run on a seperate CPU - including all the
time consuming puffer/unpuffer, notifications, polling
and what-ever operations.
The 86, 87 and 89 are three independend microprocessors
suited for special tasks (asymetric multiprocessing).
Today the x87 is reduced to an additional fp register
set, the 89 is forgoten and everybody aplaudes the
symetric processing hype :(
Just think what kind of computing could be possible if
this sceme had worked out - need more float ? just add
some FPUs! need a lot of I/O ? add anoter IOC...
Need huge 3D power? Add some 'MMX' processors and not
just some new commands for the same old FPU.
Think I should stop.
Gruss
H.
/370 Veteran
P.S.: The Apricot is still a white spot in my collection.
--
Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut
HRK
Received on Mon Jul 06 1998 - 14:11:39 BST