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Re[2]: Hardware/Software

Kinky, and the Group:

What is the advantage of using a MISC processor in this configuration?

The disadvantages are clear:  It is more costly than using a  
high-volume processor chip; it has a lower performance than  
currently popular processor chips; the peripheral and bus-interfaces  
have to be specially designed and manufactured as opposed to using  
extant low-cost high-volume parts with the equivalent function; and  
the operating system, libraries and applications software has to be  
generated from scratch.

I.e. "You can buy better, but you can't pay more."

Perhaps I am naive, or blinded by having been in this business for  
too many decades, but:

The advantage to MISC is that it uses minimal integrated circuit  
area; in what applications other than embedded controllers and  
fine-grained processors is this an advantage?

			Sherwin Gooch


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Resent-Date: Tue, 30 Jan 1996 16:16:17 -0500
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From: "KingKE" <KingKE_at_ABD-US-PO1@ccip.perkin-elmer.com>
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Subject: Re[2]: Hardware/Software
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As much as I would like to have a massively parallel MISC machine,  
I can't see
that it would hurt anything to sell several million Net computers  
to people who
don't care about programming. A cheap, speedy MISC Forth machine  
attached to a
keyboard, a floppy drive (like the kind used by electronic  
cameras?), a 1 1/2
inch hard drive, and the family TV could find a huge market. Wouldn't 
grandparents foot the bill just to get email from the grandkids?

If the net feed is thru the cable TV, then the net machine could be  
built into
the cable box.

At any rate, I would like to have a MISC Forth machine even if it  
only has one
processor and some support chips.

Karl King
KingKE@Perkin-Elmer.com