I read in the December 1985 issue of Byte that TI were developing
a 40 Mhz 32 bit CMOS chip which would "directly execute a superset
of Common LISP with extensions like object-oriented programming
and message passing".
What happened to it? Was it ever completed?
Martin Rodgers
--- Cyber Surfing on CIX ---
Date: Tue, 29 Mar 1994 05:22:28 GMT
From: ············@cix.compulink.co.uk ("Cyber Surfer")
Subject: TI Lisp chip
I read in the December 1985 issue of Byte that TI were developing
a 40 Mhz 32 bit CMOS chip
What happened to it? Was it ever completed?
Yep. We sold it as part of the Explorer 2 and (when it finally achieved
40 MHz) the Explorer 2+. It's also in the microExplorer, which was a
board that fit in a Macintosh II.
TI's not in that business any more, so they're no longer manufactured.
I believe the Explorer project shut down in 1990 (my last subproject was
cancelled then). It's still a nice machine; I have one on my desk in
Dallas.
Paul Fuqua
Texas Instruments, Dallas, Texas ··@hc.ti.com
C-Cube Microsystems, Milpitas, California ··@c-cube.com
In article <················@ti5.c-cube.com>,
··@ti5.c-cube.com (Paul Fuqua (TI)) writes:
> I read in the December 1985 issue of Byte that TI were developing
> a 40 Mhz 32 bit CMOS chip
>
> What happened to it? Was it ever completed?
>
> Yep. We sold it as part of the Explorer 2 and (when it finally achieved
> 40 MHz) the Explorer 2+. It's also in the microExplorer, which was a
> board that fit in a Macintosh II.
>
> TI's not in that business any more, so they're no longer manufactured.
> I believe the Explorer project shut down in 1990 (my last subproject was
> cancelled then). It's still a nice machine; I have one on my desk in
> Dallas.
Thanks, and thanks also to the several people who answered by email.
I recall that the microExplorer II for the Mac cost $15,000 at one
time. How much did the Explorer 2 and microExplorer cost? I may have
misremembered the names, as I last read about them years ago.
The Rekersiv, from Linn Smart Computing, was also shut down, so I'm
told. Apparantly, a 486 is better value, so they gave up. Is this
correct? I got that news from a journo, but you never know.
I'd still like to see a true object-based machine, with recursive
microcode etc. It's really not a good time for that kind of hardware,
is it?
Martin Rodgers
--- Cyber Surfing on CIX ---