Newsgroups: comp.arch
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: 68040 where is it?
Message-ID: <1990Aug26.024212.12390@zoo.toronto.edu>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <SMITHW.90Aug22180704@hamblin.hamblin.math.byu.edu> <33156@cup.portal.com> <25146@boulder.Colorado.EDU> <2451@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> <CHUCK.PHILLIPS.90Aug25143508@halley.FtCollins.NCR.COM>
Date: Sun, 26 Aug 90 02:42:12 GMT

In article <CHUCK.PHILLIPS.90Aug25143508@halley.FtCollins.NCR.COM> Chuck.Phillips@FtCollins.NCR.COM (Chuck.Phillips) writes:
>While we're discussing rumors, I've been told (by someone I'd _expect_ to
>know) that the 68040 has roughly the same integer throughput as a SPARC at
>the same clock speed.

This should not be an enormous surprise.  The existing SPARCs all do about
one instruction per cycle, and the 68040 designers moved heaven and earth
(at great expense in design time and silicon) to make the 68040 do likewise
for the simpler instructions.  The real question is, which one will scale
to higher clock speeds and more-than-one-instruction-per-cycle execution
schemes better?  Hint:  the simpler one has a decided edge here.
-- 
Committees do harm merely by existing. | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
                       -Freeman Dyson  |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu   utzoo!henry
