What's the rarest or most unusual computer-related item do you own?

[Jon Elson]

On 01/13/2017 06:42 PM, Antonio Carlini wrote:
> On 14/01/17 00:06, Jon Elson wrote:
>> I eventually got a MicroVAX-II to replace it, and, yes, 
>> that DID have a cache to speed up the memory, but it was 
>> quite a difference.
>
> I'm reasonably sure that the uVAX II did not have a memory 
> cache. It did have a translation lookaside buffer and some 
> (small) amount
> of instruction pre-fetch though.
>
Right, I am misremembering.  The 780 and the KA650 had caches.
The KA630 did real well, then, without a cache.  So, I never 
understood why the Nat Semi 32016 performed so poorly.  I 
did build a multiprocessor using the 32016 WITHOUT the MMU, 
and it looked to be around 300KIPS (roughly 1/3 of a VAX 
780).  So, maybe it was the MMU that really hurt the 
performance.

Jon