Other SMS300/8X300/8X305 uses?

Paul Berger phb.hfx at gmail.com
Tue Nov 29 15:10:36 CST 2016


On 2016-11-29 5:00 PM, Eric Smith wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 29, 2016 at 12:11 PM, Brent Hilpert <hilpert at cs.ubc.ca> wrote:
>
>>   is the 8X300 the 'unusual', proto-DSP device discussed in a chapter of
>> the Osborne book?
>>
> I don't know whether Osborne described it that way, but since the 8X300 and
> 8X305 don't have a multiplier, only support 8-bit addition, and can only
> address 512 bytes of data address space, they wouldn't make very good DSP
> processors.  However, since all instructions execute in 250 ns, they'd be
> able to perform some DSP operations faster than contemporary 8-bit
> microprocessors, which usually took at least 2 us for the simplest
> instructions, and even longer for fancier instructions.

I just went and got my Osborne book...

" The 8X300 is described by its manufacturer as a "microcontroller" 
rather than a "microprocessor".  This distinction draws attention to the 
unique capabilities of the 8X300 which make it the most remarkable 
device described in this book"

"The 8X300 is designed to serve as a signal processor or logic 
controller, operating at very high speed."

Paul.





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