Fw: PSC1000 -- Holy Doodle, at last!

["vic plichota" <atsvap@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

-----Original Message-----
From: vic plichota <atsvap@cgo.wave.ca>
To: Phil Morettini <pmorettini@ptsc.com>
Date: Tuesday, June 29, 1999 1:14 PM
Subject: PSC1000 -- Holy Doodle, at last!


>Hi Phil;
>
>You may vaguely recall our phone conversation approx 10 months ago,
>when I bitched about the lack of hard-core documentation for the
>PSC1000.  Lo and behold, on my latest visit to PatSci's website, I
>find a wonderful .PDF -- now *there's* a datasheet (which, yes,
d/l'd
>within a minute, thanks to the cable-modem hookup) that I can really
>sink my teeth into!  BRAVO!
>
>(If there is an important fault that I can identify with your
>newsletter emailings, it is that they did not instantly alert me to
>this crucial development.)
>
>
>A combination of being distracted with other pursuits, and the
mostly
>disappointing activity on the MISC list + FORTH community had left
me
>bored and disillusioned with the idea of new silicon to play / make
>money with -- but the PSC1000 is finally looking real -- this is
>actually very exciting news to me;  in fact the first time that I
>have gotten excited over a piece of silicon in *years*...
>
>I hate to dwell upon past glories, but it is interesting to note the
>uncanny similarities to the TMS34010 (previously my favorite axe,
but
>now dangerously obsolete):  ~100K transistors, ~$25 chip price,
~$400
>EVK...  clearly, you folks have done your homework, and achieved a
>well-thought-out design that max's your bang-per-$ -- in fact it
>looks like a respectable system could be built inside a
>cigarette-box, with the LSI fitting on a credit-card, and at least
>equivalent (if not superior) overall performance vs. the 34010
>(should be fun doing the nucleus port -- the 340 barfed on FORTH,
the
>sh-Boom will barf on pixel op's).
>
>I must congratulate everyone at PatSci on this breakthrough.
>
>It's not a PIC, it's not an 8051, it's not a Pentium or PowerPC, and
>it's not a DSP -- yet it fits a niche that I have been desperate to
>fill for almost 10 years.  Here's hoping that this results in
design
>wins, and some fun coding -- wait a sec, it already has a couple of
>design wins, I just hope my ideas and products sell...
>
>I grew up during the (post-mainframe, pre-micro) minicomputer era,
>with all of it's impressive advances, wasteful excesses, and
>astonishing failures -- in these days of anal cost-justification, it
>takes a lot of balls to buck the Silicon Valley establishment and
run
>with what you believe in...  count me 'in', and wish all of us good
>luck!
>
>I will be ordering an EVK ASAP.
>
>
>cheers   - vic
>