1. Forum
  2. Usenet
  3. COMP.SYS.IBM.PS2.HARDWARE

  • Where ever there was a wiz that was

    From richard smice@21:1/5 to All on Wed Oct 5 10:56:51 2022
    I have never seen one of these adapters before..
    It would be nice to play with.. I'm quite sure that It is out of my league to buy...

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/155189192660?hash=item2421ff27d4:g:qCQAAOSwFDNjNxI0&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoN4myMmjUS070LbnnuNXknseKpXag%2B%2BtEIoRoIvfbeMKV515PqCPh%2Bs4N0XJx5XFoCXkrmrJTVVQHpm5XMObESt1BEZfoQnjXkTka4FdrY6QPDlgVzf8Nz%
    2BZkTeghJD4F1of1CRGUa3Fs7MsNCVJhiwQfWwT%2FF2dUBecv%2FsEV%2FOa%2BqoyCdlhQ%2FqX6SwYY4%2FOC4uqypBQYpcSMXsBwH9WrnQ%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR_K54ZP1YA

    I hope that who ever wins the bid can share some insight about it..

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From IBMMuseum@21:1/5 to richard smice on Thu Oct 6 09:04:02 2022
    On Wednesday, October 5, 2022 at 11:56:52 AM UTC-6, richard smice wrote:
    I have never seen one of these adapters before..
    It would be nice to play with.. I'm quite sure that It is out of my league to buy...

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/155189192660

    I hope that who ever wins the bid can share some insight about it..

    That's from Bart van Leeuween - a member of the PS/2 group on Facebook...

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Louis Ohland@21:1/5 to IBMMuseum on Thu Oct 6 11:57:45 2022
    Whoever gets it would be well served by being a good programmer.

    It is good at what it does, but it is only as good as the program...

    IBMMuseum wrote:
    On Wednesday, October 5, 2022 at 11:56:52 AM UTC-6, richard smice wrote:
    I have never seen one of these adapters before..
    It would be nice to play with.. I'm quite sure that It is out of my league to buy...

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/155189192660

    I hope that who ever wins the bid can share some insight about it..

    That's from Bart van Leeuween - a member of the PS/2 group on Facebook...


    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From richard smice@21:1/5 to Louis Ohland on Thu Oct 6 12:04:57 2022
    On Thursday, October 6, 2022 at 12:57:37 PM UTC-4, Louis Ohland wrote:
    Whoever gets it would be well served by being a good programmer.

    It is good at what it does, but it is only as good as the program... IBMMuseum wrote:
    On Wednesday, October 5, 2022 at 11:56:52 AM UTC-6, richard smice wrote:
    I have never seen one of these adapters before..
    It would be nice to play with.. I'm quite sure that It is out of my league to buy...

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/155189192660

    I hope that who ever wins the bid can share some insight about it..

    That's from Bart van Leeuween - a member of the PS/2 group on Facebook...

    Hi! Louis. Please explain. It just looks like a speedier co processor to me.
    what is it's purpose... and how can you see the improvement...that it will make in a system...
    Perhaps like a super math co processor...
    I can see what Lorenzo did with the Weitech 386 coprocessor

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Tomas Slavotinek@21:1/5 to richard smice on Thu Oct 6 13:03:43 2022
    On Thursday, October 6, 2022 at 9:04:58 PM UTC+2, richard smice wrote:
    Hi! Louis. Please explain. It just looks like a speedier co processor to me. what is it's purpose... and how can you see the improvement...that it will make in a system...
    Perhaps like a super math co processor...
    I can see what Lorenzo did with the Weitech 386 coprocessor
    Well, the i960 CPU on the adapter uses a different architecture and has a separate memory subsystem. This means that any software must be designed and compiled specifically for the adapter. You could probably find some commercial software that runs on
    the thing (aside from what's mentioned on the Tool), but most of it will be highly specialized and of very limited use probably.

    Even the Weitek 3167/4167 co-pro has its own architecture and instruction set - one that differs from the "standard" x87 one. So, applications had to be recompiled to run on these chips - something that could be automated in most cases.

    But the i960 is a standalone CPU (not just an add-on FPU) and since it has its own memory pool too, you would have to do more than a simple recompile to be able to use the card for anything.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Tomas Slavotinek@21:1/5 to Tomas Slavotinek on Thu Oct 6 13:15:22 2022
    On Thursday, October 6, 2022 at 10:03:43 PM UTC+2, Tomas Slavotinek wrote:
    But the i960 is a standalone CPU (not just an add-on FPU)

    Sorry, it's actually i860, not i960. Two different architectures once again...

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Louis Ohland@21:1/5 to All on Thu Oct 6 17:22:58 2022
    NOT a super math co-pro.

    Perhaps like a super math co processor...

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From richard smice@21:1/5 to Louis Ohland on Fri Oct 7 15:39:10 2022
    On Thursday, October 6, 2022 at 6:22:50 PM UTC-4, Louis Ohland wrote:
    NOT a super math co-pro.
    Perhaps like a super math co processor...
    It looks like it was used in ibm , DEC, and other risk systems and ada software that was used by the military here around me in binghamton
    ny... very heavy compiled software with compiled subroutines..uses.... there are ancient programs like apl and fortran that had made limited some use of them. I wonder what programs had a compiler that would do the work back then..
    but most were for military... Currently I did not find any software that could make use of them.. c was early even back then..
    everyone was building a better mouse trap in the good old days. Back in the days with my machine shop nc machine controllers??? I could find somebody that could sniff out a bad op amp ic,,,,, and convert the tape reader to a cnc computer controlled...
    that anyone could write software for.. (in borlands turbo basic) and compile it onto a floppy disk

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Louis Ohland@21:1/5 to RickE on Mon Oct 10 12:59:04 2022
    Suppose the 47xx cards were MUCH cheaper?

    RickE wrote:
    crypto group in Charlotte produced the 47xx (4758/4764/4765/4767/4768/4769) crypto cards instead.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From RickE@21:1/5 to richard smice on Mon Oct 10 10:16:32 2022
    On Friday, October 7, 2022 at 6:39:11 PM UTC-4, richard smice wrote:
    It looks like it was used in ibm , DEC, and other risk systems and ada software that was used by the military here around me in binghamton ny

    At one time some folks in IBM thought about using the i860/i960 as a cryptographic co-proccessor, but that didn't work out, the crypto group in Charlotte produced the 47xx (4758/4764/4765/4767/4768/4769) crypto cards instead.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From RickE@21:1/5 to Louis Ohland on Tue Oct 11 17:16:20 2022
    On Monday, October 10, 2022 at 1:59:03 PM UTC-4, Louis Ohland wrote:
    Suppose the 47xx cards were MUCH cheaper?

    No, while the i860/i960 did an acceptable job with DES, they didn't have enough oomph for other crypto algorithms, so Charlotte needed to produce a dedicated crypto processor, and those have always been expensive -- and most of those machine types needed
    to ship in packages with cooling packs to make sure that they didn't get too hot during shipment, you had to make sure that the on-board battery packs didn't get too discharged, and you needed good airflow in the server to keep them happy.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)