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Re: New Math Coprocessor - who has a need for it???
Hi Net!
I got some mails regarding the Number Cruncher. It seems as if I have
to clarify some things which I have listed below.
Until now there are about five persons interested in buying a Number
Cruncher (NC). The engineer will return in 2 months and build the five
cards he has in stock (he only needs to populate/test them).
When I talked to him, he said that "selling" the five NCs is no
problem. As soon as more than 5 persons want to have this card, it's
getting problematic because he has to produce another serie of 100
boards which costs about US$700.00 (without parts, of course). The best
thing that could happen is: having 100 interested persons and placing
bulk orders for the parts. This would reduce the price enormously. He
has excellent connections to the manufacturers thanks to his job.
Maybe someone could make some kind of PR for the NC on other online
service. (I must stress again that this is not a commercial offer.
WYGIWYP - what you get is what you paid.)
Here are some often asked questions about the Number Cruncher:
>If the
>NC is priced at $200 without a 68882, does this mean I can
>call up the local hardware store and purchase a 68882 which
>will "plug" right in?
Yes, that's correct. It's all socketed and plug & play. Normally, parts
are less expensive in the USA so you'll save some bucks.
The NC was built for a special chip carrier - not the cheap one Apple
is using in Macs. (There shouldn't be any problems getting the right
chip at your local hardware shop.) I think it was the "ceramic"
carrier.
> So would this card speed up _ALL_ programs written
> with Orca/C for example?
Yes, if they have been compiled with the "#pragma float..." command.
This call, however, requires you to specify the slot number of the
FPE/NC, and according to the ORCA manual, "the FPE/NC must be installed
in the indicated slot, or the program will crash or give incorrect
answers." So much for progress.
Put briefly: programs that have been compiled with the pragma above and
communicate with the FPE/NC directly will be accelerated by a factor of
120 (says the ORCA manual). Programs that have NOT been compiled will
still be accelerated via the SANE patches. Not that much, but still
significantly.
This is also true for programs in ASSEMBLY language. When calling SANE,
the pointers to Apple's routines are "bend" to a short piece of code
that has some fun with the NC.
If they recognize the NC or FPE automatically, they are mostly that
clever that they do not assume a particular slot. (I forgot the name of
the apps - ask Frank :-)
> Doesn't Orca/C use SANE for all math?
Most probably it does, yep. Programs written in high-level languages
tend to use floating point stuff way too often. Maybe a FPE owner can
tell us how much faster ORCA/C and other applications are under the
FPE...
> If not, how much is the card and what will it speed
> up? Anything not specifically written for the card? What I'm
> specifically referring to is is there a SANE patch or
> anything?
You can use the FPE SANE patches with the NC and you have a "turbo"
SANE package. (The patches are on GEnie but we'll enclose a disk as
well.) All programs that depend on the SANE tool (quite a lot: AWGS and
most programs involving math) will profit from the patches.
The patches have been originally written for the FPE, but they work
equally well with the NC. I also saw a patch for AppleWorks Classic,
but I don't know if it works with the NC. Theoretically there is no
reason to assume it wouldn't, but I'd like to check it out first.
> If it only speeds up things written for the card, I'm
>not really interesting.. If there are patches for software
No, most SANE calls will be patched.
> Nevertheless, I'm really interested in the price nonetheless.
He built the last cards ca. 1-2 years ago, and then the price was
US$170 without FPU (i.e. without the 68882). We don't know how
expensive these parts are now - eventually a bit cheaper. But I said
$200 which is probably a bit too much.
The FPU costs $100.00. You can order the board with or without.
>Just let us know how much it cost and who to pay!
As for the address, all inquiries about the NC should be forwarded to
my account.
> warranty?
The engineer said that the cards leave his office 100% error free
(tested by himself). If the board does NOT work, he will repair it. Of
course, he cannot guarantee that the FPU _you_ have bought will work.
But if a problem develops, he's willing to test the card and see if the
problem is with the FPU or the other parts.
We haven't agreed on a warranty period, but we'll offer some kind of a
full replacement within 90 days from the date of the original retail.
Afterwards, he'll repair it at very low charges.
(He told me that once a user inserted the card - the computer was ON -
the wrong way. The whole computer system was transformed into a big
trashcan, but the NC needed only a new buffer circuit. He charged only
five bucks...the rest of the computer did cost a bit, bit more...)
WHAT TO DO IF YOU WANT THIS CARD
--------------------------------
The first five cards are already reserved. This means I have to add
your name to the "top-100" list. We will also add a (really) small fee
for the enormous labour it takes for hiring some guys who can populate
the board. ("Enormous" is not the right word - triple it, take the
square and then the exponential :-) .) As soon as we have enough orders
to cover the production of the new serie, we'll go for it.
Soooo, if you want one, let me know!
Thanks for your attention,
henrik
--
BRIGHT SOFTWARE * P.O.Box 18 * 4153 Reinach 2 * Switzerland
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voice (0)61 2619454 gudat@avalon.physik.unizh.ch Simple Solutions to
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