Gregory's ServerThe Intel i960 was the most popular RISC chip of the mid-1990s. This powerful 32 (or 33!) bit processor was used in embedded applications including the F-22 fighter plane. The i960CA was the world's first superscalar microprocessor, running two instructions every clock cycle. π§΅
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1982: Intel is developing too many 32-bit processors: the 432, the 386, and the VAX-like P4. They merge the 432 and the P4 to form the i960 project. Intel doesn't realize the importance of x86 so support for the 386 is weak, but they continue 386, treating it as the "stepchild". 1983: Intel wants to sell systems, not just chips, so they partner with Siemens to develop fault-tolerant Unix workstations using the i960XA. They create a spin-off company BiiN in 1988, discover there's no market for $815,000 systems, and shut down BiiN 15 months later. @kenshirriff Thanks! This is amazing, it even had (what looks to me like) single system image clustering.  @kenshirriff one remanent of BiiN was its system bus technology that was later sold to Pyramid Technology and became the R-bus (name?) in the Pyramid Technology Nile series of MIPS R4400 based super-minicomputers. The intended hot pluggability of that bus was never functional AFAIK. Pyramid was later acquired by Siemens and disappeared, such is the circle of life.  @kenshirriff @ivor No, the i860 and i960 were completely unrelated RISC processors, despite the similar numbers. Here's a detailed article on the i860: https://spectrum.ieee.org/intel-i860  @kenshirriff @ivor fun stuff. I worked on gcc and gdb for i860, back in 1991 or so. |
The i960's roots are the iAPX 432, a "micro-mainframe" processor that Intel started in 1976 to revolutionize microprocessors with 32-bit mainframe power in an object-oriented chip. Spoiler: it did not. Far behind schedule, Intel introduced the 8086 processor, a temporary stopgap.