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From: blaise@lois.dti.com
Organization: Deskstation Technology
To: lightwave-l@netcom.com
Date: Sun, 30 Apr 1995 22:47:40 +0000
Subject: Re: DraCO's RISC chip for Amiga
Reply-to: blaise@dti.com
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> Date: Sat, 29 Apr 95 21:53 BST-1
> From: garygfx@cix.compulink.co.uk (Gary Fenton)
> Subject: DraCO's RISC chip for Amiga
> To: lightwave-l@netcom.com
> Reply-to: garygfx@cix.compulink.co.uk
> Most of you already know about MacroSystem's DraCO computer which is based
> around the 68060 CPU running AmigaDOS 3.1. They have a working RISC CPU on
> a Zorro III card which is a DEC Alpha chip running at 450 MIPS! Can't wait
> to check it out with Lightwave! Oh, Lightwave will have to be patched to
> use the RISC library that MacroSystem are writing if anyone wants to
> benifit from the faster processor.
>
I'm entirely biased by the fact that we sell Alpha workstations, but
I don't get it. When you talk about an Alpha processor that runs at
450 MIPS, you are probably talking about the 21064A. If you put
enough memory and cache alongside this thing so that it becomes a
reasonable renderer, then you're in the price range of cheap 21064A
workstations. The only problem is that this processor is not running
NT (if it is, please ignore my ENTIRE post), and therefore has, as of
this moment, exactly zero applications.
Applications are written to an operating system first, and a
processor second, so Lightwave would have to be much more than
"patched" in order to run on this accelerator card. This is the same
argument that causes NewTek to say that an NT/PowerPC port would be