Subject: Re: Mips Chips from NEC

From: Andreas Busse <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 93 08:59:34 +0200

> I received the data sheets on the 4000/4400 PC/SC
> 
> Here's a quick summary:  
> 	Part #       package   Power Cache 
>4000PC	PD30400RJ-50 179 pin    5v   8k+8k
>  	PD30400RP-50 179 pin+HS 5v   8k+8k
>4000SC	PD30401RJ-50 447 pin    5v   8k+8k
>	PD30401RP-50 447 pin+HS 5v   8k+8k
>
>4400PC	PD30410RJ-(50,67,75)  179 pin    5v 	16k+16k 
>	PD30410RP-(50,67,75)  179 pin+HS 5v	16k+16k 
>        PD30410LRJ-(50,67,75) 179 pin    3.3v 	16k+16k 
>	PD30410LRP-(50,67,75) 179 pin+HS 3.3v	16k+16k 
>
>4400SC	PD30411RJ-(50,67,75)  447 pin    5v 	16k+16k 
>	PD30411RP-(50,67,75)  447 pin+HS 5v	16k+16k 
>       PD30411LRJ-(50,67,75) 447 pin    3.3v 	16k+16k 
>	PD30411LRP-(50,67,75) 447 pin+HS 3.3v	16k+16k 
>
>HS means with heat-sink, all chips are ceramic. The last two digits of the
>part number is the external clock speed, internal is twice that.
>
>Main difference between 4000 and 4400 is double the cache and faster clocks.
>
>Main difference between PC and SC is the the the SC supports a 128 bit 
>secondary cache interface support.  But based on there diagrams the
>PC supports a secondary cache, just not 128 bits wide.
>
>All chips share: 
>	64 bit microprocessor, integer, fp, registers, and virtual addresses.
>	Dual instruction issue with no restrictions.
>	32 64 bit general purpose registers and 16 64 bit fp registers.
>	one level deep uncached store buffer.
>
>The 4400 is around 94 specint and 105 specfp (seperate source)
>
>The 4000 is listed as 62 specint, and 63 specfp.
>
>The 4200 is mentioned in passing:  plastic, 1.5 Watts, 80 Mhz internal clock,
>55 SPECint92 and 30 SPECfp92.

Yes, and the main difference between the R4200 and the other R4x00 CPUs
are that is *not* pincompatibel, that it has the old R3000 pipeline and
a simpler FPU. Note: This is what I've heard. I will receive data sheets
this week. Perhaps things have changed...
However, if the R4200 is no real R4x00 CPU I would suggest to use
one of the others, even if it is more expensive at the moment.
Are we going to build a R4000 machine now ? I would appreciate this !

Andy

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Waldorf Electronics GmbH        | Phone:  +49 (0)2636-80294
              R&D Department            | Fax:    +49 (0)2636-80188
Neustrasse 9-12, 53498 Waldorf, Germany | email:  [email-masked]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---

From: Drew Eckhardt <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1993 02:05:43 -0600

Prices and performance
Notes : 
1.  Quantities were unspecified, in any case these prices are for 
	more chips than we're looking to buy, and for small lots the 
	distributor sets the price.

2.  All prices in US Dollars

3.  The figures for everything but the 4200 are from the July OEM magazine,
	I don't know where the 4200 info originated, but several net.sources
	said the same things.

4.  Clock speed is in Mhz, obviously these things run the internal clock
	faster than external.

Vendor		Clock 	Chip	Price	SPECint92 	SPECfp92
unspecified 	100	R4000SC 640	61.7		63.4
unspecified	150	R4400SC 1120	88(est)		97(est)
NEC 	        80	R4200   70	55		30

And, for comparison
Intel		66	486	542	32.2		16.1
Intel		66	Pentium	965	64.5		56.9

Unquestionably, the R4200 gives the best price/performance of 
any of these chips.  

After we adpoted the motherboard idea and people started calling this
thing a "workstation", a target price of $600-$700 was set.  It might
be a little difficult to meet a price somewhere in that neighborhood 
if we end up using a $640 chip...

---

From: Bill Broadley <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1993 12:40:44 -0500 (EDT)

> unspecified	150	R4400SC 1120	88(est)		97(est)
  IBM		66 	601	350	55		80

Any reason the R4200 is being compared to the SC chips and not the PC?
Based on pin count alone I'd expect the PC at 179 pins to be a fair 
amount cheaper then the SC at 447 pins.  Or is the 4200 a SC??

How does the group feel this could come about?  Purchase the ARC 100 150
kits so that we can use there design (so we aren't limited to 40 Mhz)?

Apparently the powerpc 601 can use the RS/6000 port of GCC, I have several 
statements that the 601 will be supported in the next release.  Byte
magazine benchmarks the 601 with the GCC compiler.

-- 
Bill					1st>	[email-masked]
[email-masked] <2nd 	3rd> 	             [email-masked]
Linux is great.         Bike to live, live to bike.                      PGP-ok