MC88100
Encyclopedia
The MC88100 is a microprocessor
developed by Motorola
that implemented 88000
instruction set architecture. Announced in 1988, the MC88100 was the first 88000 implementation. It was succeeded by the MC88110 in the early 1990s.
The microprocessor was a superscalar
design with multiple integer and floating-point units that executed instructions in-order
. The MC88100 had separate instruction and data cache
s. These caches were implemented with the MC88200 integrated circuit
, which contains a memory management unit
and an amount of cache. The MC88100 requires two of these devices for each cache, and additional MC88200s could be added to increase the size of the caches.
This partitioned scheme was chosen to provide system flexibility, the amount of cache could be varied depending on the price point. In practice, these additional chips required more space on the circuit board and the buses between the MC88200s and MC88100 added complexity and cost.
The MC88100 contained 165,000 transistors and the MC88200 750,000 transistors. Both were fabricated by Motorola in its 1.5 μm complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor process.
The MC88100 was ultimately commercially unsuccessful. This was due to a number of reasons, including requirement of MC88200s, but was mostly due to Motorola being a vendor of the highly successful 68000 family. As the 68000 division viewed the 88000 as a competitor, they forced the MC88100 to be priced unacceptably high for a volume part. The part did find use in the high-end embedded market, in Motorola's own computers, and in large computers from companies such as Data General
and the Unisys
S-8400 Unix Servers.
Microprocessor
A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few integrated circuits. It is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and...
developed by Motorola
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
that implemented 88000
88000
The 88000 is a RISC instruction set architecture developed by Motorola. The 88000 was Motorola's attempt at a home-grown RISC architecture, started in the 1980s. The 88000 arrived on the market some two years after the competing SPARC and MIPS...
instruction set architecture. Announced in 1988, the MC88100 was the first 88000 implementation. It was succeeded by the MC88110 in the early 1990s.
The microprocessor was a superscalar
Superscalar
A superscalar CPU architecture implements a form of parallelism called instruction level parallelism within a single processor. It therefore allows faster CPU throughput than would otherwise be possible at a given clock rate...
design with multiple integer and floating-point units that executed instructions in-order
Out-of-order execution
In computer engineering, out-of-order execution is a paradigm used in most high-performance microprocessors to make use of instruction cycles that would otherwise be wasted by a certain type of costly delay...
. The MC88100 had separate instruction and data cache
CPU cache
A CPU cache is a cache used by the central processing unit of a computer to reduce the average time to access memory. The cache is a smaller, faster memory which stores copies of the data from the most frequently used main memory locations...
s. These caches were implemented with the MC88200 integrated circuit
Integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...
, which contains a memory management unit
Memory management unit
A memory management unit , sometimes called paged memory management unit , is a computer hardware component responsible for handling accesses to memory requested by the CPU...
and an amount of cache. The MC88100 requires two of these devices for each cache, and additional MC88200s could be added to increase the size of the caches.
This partitioned scheme was chosen to provide system flexibility, the amount of cache could be varied depending on the price point. In practice, these additional chips required more space on the circuit board and the buses between the MC88200s and MC88100 added complexity and cost.
The MC88100 contained 165,000 transistors and the MC88200 750,000 transistors. Both were fabricated by Motorola in its 1.5 μm complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor process.
The MC88100 was ultimately commercially unsuccessful. This was due to a number of reasons, including requirement of MC88200s, but was mostly due to Motorola being a vendor of the highly successful 68000 family. As the 68000 division viewed the 88000 as a competitor, they forced the MC88100 to be priced unacceptably high for a volume part. The part did find use in the high-end embedded market, in Motorola's own computers, and in large computers from companies such as Data General
Data General
Data General was one of the first minicomputer firms from the late 1960s. Three of the four founders were former employees of Digital Equipment Corporation. Their first product, the Data General Nova, was a 16-bit minicomputer...
and the Unisys
Unisys
Unisys Corporation , headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, United States, and incorporated in Delaware, is a long established business whose core products now involves computing and networking.-History:...
S-8400 Unix Servers.