Re: Chuck's 486

[Penio Penev <penev>]

On Wed, 31 May 1995, Frank Sergeant wrote:

> Penio Penev <Penev@venezia.Rockefeller.edu> 1-212-327-7423 writes

>   > A NexGen Nx586 P90 with 256K 12ns SRAM can be had 
>   > (tax,S&H included) for $545. 
> 
>     Since you mention the SRAM, I gather the above is a motherboard
> (not just a CPU)?  

Yep, full(er) details are available @ 
https://www6.internet.net/cgi-bin/ehtml?/HotDeals/Html/processors.html#deal10

> Do you have one?  Have your tried one?  What do
> you think of it?  How hot does it run?  

Frankly speaking, I neither have tried, nor do I intend to -- F21 is
around the corner :-) But the reviews in the trade rags say, that if one
does not do FP (which Chuck, I'm sure, doesn't :-) the Nx586 is withing
10% of the clock speed of an equivalent Pentium. It can be actually
faster, if it executes RISC code, instead of x86 code (whatever that
means) and I'm sure, that Chuck can easily touch the inner loop of the
calculations to get the juice out of it. 

The whole question is is it worth the investment? If Chuck makes 10
simulations an hour now, and can make 20 with the Nx586, will this save
$850 from tighter schedules? This is up to Jeff and Chuck to decide. 

> I have a general objection
> to Pentiums because they run so hot.  (I've heard the faster ones,
> using smaller geometry processes, run cooler, but I'm still suspicious.)
> Who do you recommend buying it from?  I didn't realize any Pentium
> clones were available yet.

The Nx586 does not have the FPU _and_ integrates an L2 cache, so the
_motherboard_ should draw much less than an equivalent Pentium design. 
Just guessing. But this doesn't actually matters, if it can run for an
year (until Chuck ports OKAD to a network of F21s :-)

>      From the first commercial run _after_ the prototype/debugging stage
> is finished, right?  

Yes.

> I also want an agreement that the manuals and
> documentation and sample code will all be available free (via ftp).

Documentation already is -- Jeff keeps us updated. I try to index it 
on-line, but I'm not very persistent. Try 
http://pisa.rockefeller.edu:8080/MISC/

On the other hand, MISC is available as an IMAP mailbox @
{pisa.rockefeller.edu:143/anonymous}list.MISC from pine (or any IMAP
browser, for pointers check
http://pisa.rockefeller.edu:8080/MISC/Intro.html near the end.) IMAP
supports a full-text remote search. A lot has gone through the list. It is
unsorted, but is there -- available on-line. 

On the other hand, Jeff's pages contain more info @ 
http://www.dnai.com/~jfox/misc.html and free software @ 
http://www.dnai.com/~jfox/ultrafre.html

> (Jeff, Penio and I are pretty free with your committments!)  

My commitments are to buy 3 F21s at a 50% discount, and to keep the list,
the http and the IMAP servers at pisa running :-)

>   > There are ~150 subscribers to the list currently. I 
>   > personally am ready to buy 3 F21s @ $10 now and get them 
>   > when they are ready.
> 
>      I, too, with my above qualifications, would agree to at least
> three.  I might go as high as ten chips.

Well, only 79 more to go :-)

--
Penio Penev <Penev@venezia.Rockefeller.edu> 1-212-327-7423