22 Jun
2007
22 Jun
'07
9:51 a.m.
On 22 Jun 2007 at 16:00, Liam Proven wrote:
What are the most bizarre, way-out or just plain
*different* machines
that folks have seen?
The basic von Neumann computer is well-established, but most of them
have a lot more common ground than that.
NEC marketed a dataflow MPU back in the 80's. I believe it was
targeted at the DSP market. To my knowledge, it's the only
commercial dataflow design.
A more conventional, but still strange micro design was the
SMS/Signetics 8X300/305 microcontroller. Bipolar, 16-bit and
remarkably brain-dead. Western Digital used it on its early hard
disk controllers.
Many of the 1950's systems were what we'd consider to be strange.
Consider, for example, the Univac SS80.
Cheers,
Chuck