What's a RISC and or a Pyramid 90x

[Erik E. Fair]

RISC = Reduced Instruction Set Computer

Basic idea:	small number of primitive intructions that go \very/ fast
		and lots of stacked registers windows. Thus compilers are
		easy to write (you keep all local variables in registers,
		and move the window along as you call sub-routines).
		Also, you end up wasting less chip space on control
		logic in the ALU, leaving more room for registers.

I know about the research in this area that was (is) being done at UC
Berkeley, by Professors Dave Patterson and John Ousterhout. In the
short description above, I probably have missed half a dozen more
important ideas that have come out of the RISC research. The people who
really know what's going on should add to this and correct me where I
err.

Berkeley designed two VLSI chips RISC I and RISC II with CAD tools
developed at UCB. The chips were fabricated and some tests were run.
Supposedly there is also a Multibus board design for the thing. Prof.
Patterson can give more details (ucbvax!pattrsn).

I interviewed at Pyramid in late September. Their machine is the cover
story of the August 1983 issue of Mini-Micro Systems. Instead of doing
chips, they did a CPU using some RISC ideas, their own bus, Schottky
TTL, &c. They claim performance twice as fast as a Vax-11/780. They did
their own port of UNIX, 4.2BSD with System V stuff folded in as neatly
as \that/ can ever be done.  They have big bucks behind them. Although
they didn't tell me where, there is a beta site out there at a `Major
University'. Later on, I found out that `Major University' is Yale.
Perhaps the comical folks there can give us impressions of the 90x?

My impression of the company is that it is very solid, has designed
good hardware and is committed to UNIX in a big way. For further info,
you can Snail to them at:

	Pyramid Technology Coroporation
	1295 Charleston Road
	P.O. Box 7295
	Mountain View, CA 94039-7295
	(415) 965-7200

I didn't hire on because I live in Berkeley, have not as yet finished
my degree, and will not move or commute to Mountain View for the time
being.  I wish the Company well, since it will be competing with DEC.

	Erik E. Fair    {ucbvax,amd70,zehntel,unisoft}!dual!fair
			Dual Systems Corporation, Berkeley, California

P.S.    By `comical' I was referring to the naming scheme of machines
	at Yale, not to the competency or humorousness of the people
	there...