18 Apr
2005
18 Apr
'05
12:25 p.m.
Heinz wrote:
Isn't a 55 just a 45 with bipolar instead of core?
or was that a 50?
Guy wrote:
Actually, the 11/45 came in 3 variations originally:
* core
* upto 64KW of MOS on the fastbus
* upto 64KW of Bipolar on the fastbus
The 11/50 was identical to the 11/45 and came standard with either MOS
or Bipolar on the fastbus.
The 11/55 is sort of half way between the 11/45 and 11/70 CPU-wise.
Most of the CPU boards are from the 11/45, but there are a number that
came from the 11/70 (including the FPU boards). It is a distinct CPU
from the 11/45 (as designated by the KB11D).
But it's more complicated than that, because the 11/45 production was
switched to the KB11-D CPU as well.
It's basically safe to say that the distinctions between the 11/45,
11/50, and 11/55 were mostly marketing. The 11/50 and 11/55 were
apparently always shipped with at least some Fastbus memory, and
the 11/55 always had the KB11-D CPU (vs. KB11-A), but other than
that many combinations were possible.
The main difference between the KB11-A and KB11-D is that the FPP
interface of the latter is sychronous. (The same as the difference
between the KB11-B and KB11-C processors in the 11/70.) The
microword is four bits wider to support that.
Eric