On 2/11/20 3:56 PM, David Riley wrote:
The 78032? Oh heck yes it was slower than the "big boys". But it got an entire VAX processor, with FPU and 1MB of RAM, on a single board for a fraction of the price of any of the "big boys". It enabled the deskside and desktop VAXen, etc. Remember, there's more to life than just speed! ;)
I didn't say it was bad! Everything in engineering is a tradeoff, and that was a very wise one, because they sold a LOT of them (and made quite a few dedicated customers).
That's very true. And achieving stable operation at 5MHz in 1985 for such a complex architecture was quite a feat, keeping in mind that "stable" for a VAX has a different meaning than "stable" for a PC. Different design requirements! -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA