65816 based on new RISC chip??

[fmlin@terapin.com (Frank M. Lin)]

I first heard about this chip in BYTE.  This posts has a little more
details...  Does Zip know about it?  It'll be really nice to see it be used
on the GS.  Or better yet, in the Avatar, which don't have the slow 1 mhz
I/O limit.

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#1458 comp.sys.next.hardware 3k
From: bruce@pages.com (Bruce Henderson)
Subject: New RISC chip  / IMS 3250
Date: 17 Nov 92 20:59:59 GMT

OK,

I can't say much about the chip because I am under non disclosure... But what
I can say is this:

The chip is the IMS 3250
It is made by
International Meta Systems, Inc.
23842 Hawthorne Blvd, #200
Torrance, CA 90505
Phone (310) 375-4700
FAX (310) 378-7643

Some gibblies on the chip:

Superscaler RISC
        2 instructions per clock peak, average of 1.5 instructions per clock
        Average 90 raw MIPS for the 60MHz part.

Emulation
        On chip ROM contains 3250 native microcode, 80486 microcode, and 68040
        microcode.
        (There seems to be a lot more room on the ROM for other microcode
        chunks like SPARC, or custom instructions.  Here's a teaser....
        What if an objective-C message pass (a somewhat computationally
        expensive thing) was a processor level thing, and say happened in
        3 clocks?  Or say they microcode a lot of mach low level stuff into
        silicon....)

Other neat items...
        1)      The chip is only 50,000 gates... So it is small, and can
        esily fit in ASIC standard cells.
        (What does this mean?  Well, say you had one of these things that
        was microcode tuned for Mach, and another for Display Postscript,
        and say another for DMA and another for I/O.  Then you build an ASIC
        with 4 of these cells on it and put it in a NeXT.  Think of all of
        the grunge the CPU no longer has to deal with.....)

        2)      Only dissapates 1.5 Watts, that isn't much so it may be rather
        useful for building things like NeXT poratbles or laptops.

        3)      IMS seems to be interested in a cost to vendors of around
        $45.00 per part. (as compared to the cost of a 50MHz 486...)

So for more information, contact IMS.  I don't work for them, but I do believe

that there are ways that this chip could be used to improve performance of NeXT

hardware.  (Really.... 50,000 gates and loadable microcode...)

Some of you are going to ask what the SPEC marks are, and that is the kind of
stuff I can't talk about.... Sorry.

I tend to think if this thing as a "Nano-processor"  Meaning that you write
some micro instructions for the little beast that makes it perfect of some
meanial job like talking to hard disks or handling VM and then you burn it into

a 100 pin flat pack ASIC and it makes your life easier.

Hope this helps

Bruce H (not Webster)

PS.  If you call, tell them you heard it from me.
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frank m. lin
fmlin@terapin.com