On Mon, 9 Aug 1999, Chuck McManis wrote:
> The distinction (arbitrary I know) is companies that designed their own
> architecture and built systems around it, not companies that adopted
> someone elses architecture. People like ARM, Motorola, and Intel are chip
> companies, not computer companies (although each has provided a computer
> based around their architecture at one time.) SPARC, while it may be
> considered a microprocessor with the advent of the "Tsunami" chip, prior to
> that it was a multiple chip architecture and from the F8 discussions we all
> know that a microprocessor is by definition a single chip :-)
I understand the distinction. It's basically companies that were computer
manufacturers mainly, not just piece-part manufacturers like Motorola,
ARM, etc. Comapnies that sold entire computer systems, and installation,
and support, etc. Like DEC, Data General, Burroughs, Sperry-Rand, etc.
> Anyone else catch the benchmarks of the latest Athlon chip from AMD?
> Dhrystone clocks it at 1974 MIPS (aka 1.974 GIPS!) Truely it boggles the
> mind. I had to explain to our sysadmin how the uVAX 3900 sitting in my
> office was about the speed of a 386/25 and he nearly choked.
I read an article today in the business section about their new strategy
to compete with Intel. I truly hope they succeed.
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar_at_siconic.com
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Received on Mon Aug 09 1999 - 14:32:22 BST