Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

The i860 seemed to be everywhere in high end graphics for a brief period of time; it seems like everyone whose graphics had been several ganged Weitek units and their own execution engine to feed them switched to one or more i860 chips at once. (Wasn’t RealityEngine also i860?) Did Intel offer

Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

left and founded a little company called Nvidia. Sigh. Marc On Fri, Nov 2, 2018 at 5:34 AM Michael Thompson via cctalk < cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > > > > Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2018 14:29:18 -0700 > > From: Eric Korpela > > Subject: Re: i860: Re: modern stuff >

Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

> On Nov 4, 2018, at 9:37 AM, Todd Goodman via cctalk > wrote: > > Yes, a company I was working for OEMed what because IBM's X25Net software and > it was ported to their RTIC i960 cards from our own homegrown i960 cards. > > The IBM group we worked with was in La Gaude France but we heard th

Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

Yes, a company I was working for OEMed what because IBM's X25Net software and it was ported to their RTIC i960 cards from our own homegrown i960 cards. The IBM group we worked with was in La Gaude France but we heard the RTIC cards were developed in Boca Raton, FL. We ran VxWorks on them. T

Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

William Donzelli wrote: So, what is this i960-based card for? They were the routers. At the core nodes of the network, there would be a big RS/6000s (very early POWER1 types) that would each do about 4-5 high speed interfaces (FDDI, HSSI, and 10base2). Each interface was one of these cards, so e

Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

That’s interesting stuff, get it done! :) On Sat, Nov 3, 2018 at 3:01 PM William Donzelli wrote: > I have quite few NSFnet backup tapes that need to go to Al at some > point. They likely have good stuff on them. > > -- > Will > On Sat, Nov 3, 2018 at 5:03 AM Kevin Bowling > wrote: > > > > Do y

Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

I have quite few NSFnet backup tapes that need to go to Al at some point. They likely have good stuff on them. -- Will On Sat, Nov 3, 2018 at 5:03 AM Kevin Bowling wrote: > > Do you have software or docs for any of this stuff? I run ps-2.kev009.com > > On Thu, Nov 1, 2018 at 3:41 PM William Donz

Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

Do you have software or docs for any of this stuff? I run ps-2.kev009.com On Thu, Nov 1, 2018 at 3:41 PM William Donzelli via cctalk < cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > OK, I assumed the 6611s used the NSFnet type cards. Artic960s are > different animals - but probably very similar in idea. > > My

Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

On Wed, Oct 31, 2018 at 2:27 PM Eric Korpela wrote: > > I also seem to recall that the SERENDIP III SETI spectrometer used i860 > and Austek A41102 FFT processors. I'm pretty sure SERENDIP IV used i960 > and Xylinx FPGAs to do the FFTs. I'll look at the boards tomorrow. > I was wrong on both c

Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

> > > Was the 1983-84 year multibus sky floating point card the first > offering from Sky Computers ? > > Did anyone use those in an embedded and online floating-point realtime > type of setting ? Or was they only used for off-line number-crunching ? > Sky made the math coprocessor in early multib

Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

ons 2018-10-31 klockan 14:27 -0700 skrev Eric Korpela via cctalk: > The i860 did find some use in the radio astronomy world. > > Here's an excerpt from the 1998 annual report for the Arecibo > Observatory... > -- > Telescope pointing and realtime data acquisition are controlled using >

Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

> > Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2018 14:29:18 -0700 > From: Eric Korpela > Subject: Re: i860: Re: modern stuff > > A Google search on Skybolt i860 produces interesting results. > >Additional realtime signal processing > > capability is provided by four Skybolt i860-based VME

Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

OK, I assumed the 6611s used the NSFnet type cards. Artic960s are different animals - but probably very similar in idea. My memory is hazy, but I think the NSFnet cards were referred to as Hawthornes. Somewhere around here I have one of the really early 386 based routing cards - a weird double he

Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

The machine type was 6611 and there where three model, the smallest was based on a 7011 the mid size one was based on a 7012 and the largest was based on a 7013. The base card is an Artic 960 card which is just a processor card with some memory that gets an application loaded on the fly.  The

Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

Yes, they are. There are reference to those machines in the various nsfnet written histories but not cross linkage to those great pictures. On Thu, Nov 1, 2018 at 2:57 PM William Donzelli wrote: > > Right, thanks. 6611 is correct. I do not think the FDDI or HSSI cards > made it into those. > > The

Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

Right, thanks. 6611 is correct. I do not think the FDDI or HSSI cards made it into those. The RCS/RI twitter feed has some pictures of NSFnet racks and a F960 FDDI card. Those were from the GNJ node in Greensboro Junction, NC. Were those the pictures? https://twitter.com/RetroCompSocRI -- Will O

Whither Google Groups - was Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

On 2018-11-01 5:06 p.m., Al Kossow via cctalk wrote: > > > On 11/1/18 12:22 PM, Kevin Bowling via cctalk wrote: > >> There were some good pics of the nsfnet T3 racks I linked onto nekochan >> forums but that site is gone. Wish people would migrate back to Usenet. > > Community fragmentation and

Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

On 11/1/18 12:22 PM, Kevin Bowling via cctalk wrote: > There were some good pics of the nsfnet T3 racks I linked onto nekochan > forums but that site is gone. Wish people would migrate back to Usenet. Community fragmentation and reliance on unarchived forums is a Bad Thing. I wonder how much o

Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

6611 was the commercialized version. One early model was a standard 7012 desktop with the special cards. A later cost optimized version had a custom PowerPC backplane. There were some good pics of the nsfnet T3 racks I linked onto nekochan forums but that site is gone. Wish people would migrate b

Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

On 11/01/2018 10:15 AM, William Donzelli via cctalk wrote: I have only seen one of these routers in the wild I worked at a company years ago that ran a pair of IBM RS/6000 (the small beige desktop models, maybe a 43). They were running an IBM Firewall software product that I don't remember t

Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

> So, what is this i960-based card for? They were the routers. At the core nodes of the network, there would be a big RS/6000s (very early POWER1 types) that would each do about 4-5 high speed interfaces (FDDI, HSSI, and 10base2). Each interface was one of these cards, so each of the big RS/6000s

Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

A Google search on Skybolt i860 produces interesting results. On Wed, Oct 31, 2018 at 2:27 PM Eric Korpela wrote: > The i860 did find some use in the radio astronomy world. > > Here's an excerpt from the 1998 annual report for the Arecibo > Observatory... > -- > Telescope pointing an

Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

The i860 did find some use in the radio astronomy world. Here's an excerpt from the 1998 annual report for the Arecibo Observatory... -- Telescope pointing and realtime data acquisition are controlled using a network of VMEbus single-board computers running the VxWorks operating system

Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

On Oct 30, 2018, at 6:48 AM, Carlos E Murillo-Sanchez via cctalk wrote: > > So, what is this i960-based card for? Could it be related to what you say in > your post? > > https://imgur.com/NIvQPBv > https://imgur.com/hsF0jO2 > https://img

Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

On 10/30/18 4:27 PM, Michael Thompson via cctech wrote: > I have a Quad-i860 VME board in one of my Sun systems. Do you have any of the software for it?

Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

> > From: Ken Seefried > Subject: i860: Re: modern stuff > >the i860 found at least a little niche on graphics boards, so somehow > >not a complete failure ;-) > > I have a Quad-i860 VME board in one of my Sun systems. Michael Thompson

Re: i860, was : Re: modern stuff

On 10/30/18 4:22 AM, Noel Chiappa via cctalk wrote: > So, I'm curious - what's the 'most important missing thing' at the > CHM full-time processing staff

Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

William Donzelli via cctalk wrote: AIX was ported in very cut down manner and used on the f960 and h960 routing cards used on the early T3 based NSFnet. F960 was FDDI and H960 was HSSI. Come think of it, I think the v.25 and ether net cards also used i960, just a smaller version. -- Will So, wh

Re: i860, was : Re: modern stuff

> From: Al Kossow > CHM has a rather large Intel Paragon system. > I just recently snagged the software and manuals for it on eBay > which we didn't have Excellent! Congratulations! So, I'm curious - what's the 'most important missing thing' at the CHM - either am important machi

Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

I'm aware of some airborne (avionics) computers that used i960s. There were Mil-spec versions available. I believe the i960 really only found a niche in embedded applications. If I recall correctly, the i960 became available at about the same time as the 80386 but was less expensive. At the

Re: i860, was : Re: modern stuff

On 10/27/18 15:04, emanuel stiebler via cctalk wrote: There was actually a nice PC Mainboard from Hauppauge, with an i486 & i860 on the same board ... Always wanted to have one of those, never found a used one. And it was running some king of Unix back then ... http://www.geekdot.com/hauppauge-

Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

AIX was ported in very cut down manner and used on the f960 and h960 routing cards used on the early T3 based NSFnet. F960 was FDDI and H960 was HSSI. Come think of it, I think the v.25 and ether net cards also used i960, just a smaller version. -- Will On Oct 29, 2018 12:13 PM, "alan--- via ccta

Re: modern stuff

On Fri, 26 Oct 2018 at 14:56, emanuel stiebler via cctalk wrote: > the i860 found at least a little niche on graphics boards, so somehow > not a complete failure ;-) And of course it was the N-Ten CPU on the Microsoft Dazzle motherboard. The main product developed on that mobo was codenamed afte

Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

> On Oct 29, 2018, at 5:12 PM, Eric Smith via cctalk > wrote: > > The i960 was how Intel repositioned it to try to salvage as much as > possible. Most i960 variants either don't have the tag bit hardware and > object-oriented "microcode" that was used for BiiN; it is only officially > present

Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

On Mon, Oct 29, 2018 at 12:13 PM alan--- via cctalk wrote: > I know i960 is a very different beast, but was there ever any high level > OSs that ran on it? It was originally the BiiN processor, and ran the Osiris operating system. However, few if any were sold, and it disappeared without a trac

Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

They were used in some X terminals, so there were at least high level enough operating systems to support an X11 server. -- Chris > On Oct 29, 2018, at 11:12 AM, alan--- via cctalk > wrote: > > > I know i960 is a very different beast, but was there ever any high level OSs > that ran on it

Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

I know i960 is a very different beast, but was there ever any high level OSs that ran on it? Or was it pidgin-holed as a high speed embedded processor for storage controllers and NICs? I picked up a cache of i960 CPUs a couple years ago and they speak to me in tongues every time I pass by

i860: Re: modern stuff

>the i860 found at least a little niche on graphics boards, so somehow >not a complete failure ;-) I'd be mildly surprised if Intel ever made enough from selling i860s as GPUs to cover the cost of developing and marketing them. At the time, Intel was pushing them as their RISC processor, and put

Re: i860, was : Re: modern stuff

CHM has a rather large Intel Paragon system. I just recently snagged the software and manuals for it on eBay which we didn't have http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/X1644.99 and others http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/search/?s=intel+paragon

Re: modern stuff

On 10/26/18 6:10 AM, Gordon Henderson via cctalk wrote: > However it was a royal PITA to code for although a 32-bit CPU, it would > read memory 64 bits at a time (actually 128 IIRC to satisfy the cache), > with half that 64-bit word being an instruction for the integer unit and > half for the floa

i860, was : Re: modern stuff

On 2018-10-26 09:10, Gordon Henderson via cctalk wrote: > I worked for a company that made supercomputer boards out of the i860 at > one point - at the time (very early 90's) they were blindingly fast, > 40Mhz, 3 instructions per clock cycle which, since one was a floating > point multiply and add

Re: modern stuff

On Fri, 26 Oct 2018, emanuel stiebler via cctalk wrote: On 2018-10-25 14:48, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote: While this was a failure on a spectacular level, it was by no means the only misstep by Intel. The i860 RISC CPU at one time was even being endorsed by BillG as a possible personal comp

Re: modern stuff - i860

On 2018-10-26 16:26, Randy Dawson wrote: > Two design wins I remember: > > TrueVision, the AT&T computer graphics people that did the TARGA video > boards had software to back the board sales up, a 3D animation package > TOPAS. > Beautiful, but dog slow even on the fastest 25MHz PCs at the time, s

Re: modern stuff - i860

apability was amazing. I never knew what happened to that workstation. From: cctalk on behalf of emanuel stiebler via cctalk Sent: Friday, October 26, 2018 5:55 AM To: Chuck Guzis; General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: modern stuff On 2018

Re: modern stuff

On 2018-10-25 14:48, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote: > While this was a failure on a spectacular level, it was by no means the > only misstep by Intel. The i860 RISC CPU at one time was even being > endorsed by BillG as a possible personal computer basis. the i860 found at least a little niche o

Re: modern stuff

Tangent: I have a large bin of perhaps a hundred working (last checked circa 2002) single board computers in the warehouse (Western Pennsylvania) with i960 cpus if anyone's interested. They were the Switch Control Processors from FORE Systems ASX200 switches, quite fully functional little comp

Re: modern stuff

On Thu, Oct 25, 2018 at 12:48 PM Chuck Guzis via cctalk < cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > (the 432 is not a single chip > microcomputer--the basic family, as I recall was no less than three > (43201, 43202 and 43203) QIP chips. The General Data Processor (GDP) was split between two chips, the 43

Re: modern stuff

On 10/25/18 11:06 AM, Jim Manley via cctalk wrote: > Obviously, he returned to academia before the project collapsed in a heap, > and he might have had to scramble and compete with other departing CS PhDs > (who would also have hung around too long). Many would probably be looking > at another jo

Re: modern stuff

On 10/25/18 11:23 AM, Jecel Assumpcao Jr. via cctalk wrote: > Didn't at least part of the team continue the project as the BiiN / > 960MX? Yes. Eric Smith can explain the whole history if he chooses to. Here is what he has on line for the 432 http://www.brouhaha.com/~eric/retrocomputing/intel

Re: modern stuff

Jim Manley wrote about a professor's experience in the iAPX432 team. Didn't at least part of the team continue the project as the BiiN / 960MX? -- Jecel

Re: modern stuff

One of my postgraduate school CS professors worked on the iAPX 432 and his tidbit about the history of its development was that, whenever the EEs were confronted with a hardware-level problem by the CSs, the EEs would universally respond with, "Oh, well, that can be fixed by you software guys with

Re: modern stuff

On Wed, Oct 24, 2018, 17:58 Paul Koning via cctalk wrote: > > What about Intel's forgotten object oriented kitchen sink processor. > > IAPX-432 better or worse? > > Ben. > > Was that the one designed around Ada? > No, but it's the one that Intel's marketing department said was designed for Ada.

Re: modern stuff

On Wed, Oct 24, 2018, 17:45 ben via cctalk wrote: > On 10/24/2018 3:58 PM, Eric Smith wrote: > > On Wed, Oct 24, 2018 at 2:18 PM ben via cctalk > > wrote: > > > > Well I can still run DOS BOX and get my nice 8086 instruction set. > > > > > > I've heard many diff

Re: modern stuff

> On Oct 24, 2018, at 7:45 PM, ben via cctalk wrote: > > On 10/24/2018 3:58 PM, Eric Smith wrote: >> On Wed, Oct 24, 2018 at 2:18 PM ben via cctalk > > wrote: >>Well I can still run DOS BOX and get my nice 8086 instruction set. >> I've heard many different adj

Re: modern stuff

On 10/24/2018 3:58 PM, Eric Smith wrote: On Wed, Oct 24, 2018 at 2:18 PM ben via cctalk > wrote: Well I can still run DOS BOX and get my nice 8086 instruction set. I've heard many different adjectives used with regard to the 8086 instruction set, but this is

Re: modern stuff

It was thus said that the Great ben via cctalk once stated: > On 10/24/2018 12:31 PM, Paul Koning wrote: > > >It's true that the original 8086 instruction set lives on with all its > >warts, and many more added over the years. And yes, I guess that you > >*can* run them in 32 bit segmented mode

Re: modern stuff

On Wed, Oct 24, 2018 at 2:18 PM ben via cctalk wrote: > Well I can still run DOS BOX and get my nice 8086 instruction set. > I've heard many different adjectives used with regard to the 8086 instruction set, but this is the first time I've heard it described as "nice". Admittedly there are wors

Re: modern stuff

> On Oct 24, 2018, at 4:17 PM, ben via cctalk wrote: > >> ... > > 70's computers are more interesting. That is why do we have PI computers > running PDP 8 emulators? It's all in what you want to do. If your interest is mostly the software, as it is for many of us, then running emulators m

Re: modern stuff

On 10/24/2018 12:31 PM, Paul Koning wrote: On Oct 24, 2018, at 2:22 PM, ben via cctalk wrote: On 10/24/2018 11:57 AM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote: On 10/24/18 10:53 AM, ben via cctalk wrote: I have no idea what is in a modern home computer, but I suspect it still follows the same design of