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But they weren't looking at ARM, they were looking at MIPS, which handily outperformed them at the time. ARM wasn't on their radar at all, since that was an odd
by kryptiskt 3y ago
But they weren't looking at ARM, they were looking at MIPS, which handily outperformed them at the time. ARM wasn't on their radar at all, since that was an oddball UK chip not used by any of their competitors.
Symbolics competed in the very expensive workstation market, their machines cost more than most in that category, so they had to keep up the performance of MIPS R2000.
- thesz 3y agoMIPS (R2000) did not outdone Intel and/or Motorola at the time, those last, but not least two enjoyed all "economics of scale" of the world. MIPS was slower clock-frequency-wise than competitive offerings from Intel and/or Motorola and better pipeline design of MIPS did not add much. Complex expensive workstation like IRIS used proprietary hardware to boost I/O bandwidth and/or to have several CPUs working in parallel. It was easier for SGI to make CPUs and other hardware around them in accord and I honestly think that Symbolics was able to pull something like that.
- simne 3y agoAs I hear, ARM at beginning was near pure educational chip, or toy for mature boys. MIPS grown on very different soil, it was from beginning pushed by business shark. Only much later, created ARM holding and they pushed ARM architecture to mass market, but even now their behavior looking strangely lazy, as for me.