28 Sep
2014
28 Sep
'14
7:50 a.m.
On 9/26/14 2:54 PM, Al Kossow wrote:
Ridge's claim to fame was being the first 32 bit
"RISC" computer.
In quotes, because it is a microcoded machine.
Also, it was advertised as the first COMMERCIAL RISC computer.
First mention I can find is
Basart, Folger
"Ridge 32 Architecture -- A RISC Variation"
Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Computer Design
Nov 3, 1983
Ridge was founded in 1980, the fizzled out around 1986/7 when
MIPSco, Sun and others got traction in the IC RISC processor
market.
Three people from Ridge were founders of NCD in 1988, and
a bunch of hardware people including Hugh Martin and John Sell
came to Apple around that time. Funny that I can remember when
people started based on what buildings they were in (and how
new the offices were at the time).