Re: A Customer's Request For Open Source Software

["Robert I. Eachus" <rieachus@attbi.com>]

Dennis Lee Bieber wrote:

>         And yes, there is an Ada (Ada 80 level, I believe) linkage in the way 
> the processor handled varying sized memory blocks with protected access 
> and tasking. I believe the native developement environment was supposed 
> to be Ada.

I actually interviewed at Intel to work in the compiler group for the 
iapx432.  I guess I was fortunate in one sense in that the day I was 
interviewing Intel management made a killing decision about the chip.

The iapx432 implemented a capability architecture.  The software group 
noticed that standard way of modifying a capability node didn't work 
with the root node.  The only way to alter it was to create a new root 
table, then do a hardware reset.  The hardware people argued that since 
there was a workaround for this errata it didn't need to be fixed for 
the first shipping revision.  When I was at lunch with the compiler 
group, they were planning what to do next, because there was no future 
for the iapx432.  (Of course, what I should have done was to hand out 
some extra resumes.  People at lunch that day were involved in founding 
Rational and Verdix.)

How bad was that decision?  Pretty bad.  It meant that in practice any 
memory reference went through an extra level of indirection.  That did a 
pretty good job of killing performance.

There was also a joint venture by Siemens and Intel called Biin to 
create and sell (Ada) systems based on the iapx432 architecture.  When 
the 432 was bombing based on initial performance tests, Intel pulled the 
rug out from under Biin.  AFAIK, a company in the UK, High Integrity 
Systems was the only company to ever actually sell iapx432 based products.

-- 
                                           Robert I. Eachus

"As far as I'm concerned, war always means failure." -- Jacques Chirac, 
President of France
"As far as France is concerned, you're right." -- Rush Limbaugh