On Tue, 2 Dec 1997, Chris Carlson wrote:
>
> I also would like to see Linux ported to the O2 but also don't expect it to
> happen in the near future. We have to remember that SGI is a "hardware
> company" and did not get where it is because of software. To ask them to
> divulge the inner workings of their bread-and-butter product, thus allowing
> competitors to reproduce and improve upon the design is asking for disaster.
> SGI does not fabricate their own chips and they have done their best to
> provide access to their source (as long as it doesn't compromise their
> hardware investment). The only thing they have to sell is their design.
> Since MIPS is not faring very well against competitors and there seems to me
> a bit of doubt that they can stay ahead, what else does SGI have to sell?
> Just their internal architecture and IRIX.
I was under the impression that MIPS was doing pretty well. Someone
correct me if I am wrong, but I remember reading that the vast majority of
MIPS chips wound up in things other than SGI computers (i.e. Sony
Playstation, Nintendo 64's, etc.).
>From what I read about the R12K, MIPS would appear to be near the top of
the CPU game as far as raw procesing power. When compared to a Pentium-II
350 MHz, a 300MHz R12K was about equal in integer ops and nearly 5 times
the speed with floating point ops. It's not an Alpha, but it far better
than anything cooked up at Intel. (ok, maybe I am a little biased, but
real men use RISC).
-lige
----------------------------------------------------------------
Slam Foot Neck! Ride the wave. Touch Touch Touch. I'm cereal.
e-mail: lige.hensley@carpediem.com
www: http://www.iusd.iupui.edu/~henslelf
o__
,>/' Network Coordinator. Compression, Inc.
(_)\(_) http://www.carpediem.com
|