[HN Gopher] The Soviet 1801VM3 Enhanced LSI-11 Processor ___________________________________________________________________ The Soviet 1801VM3 Enhanced LSI-11 Processor Author : picture Score : 22 points Date : 2021-11-20 20:34 UTC (2 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.cpushack.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.cpushack.com) | ginko wrote: | This article is really missing some context on when this | processor came out and how it compares technology-wise with other | processors of its time. | rented_mule wrote: | It's Soviet, so <= 1991 (and there are references to 1991 and | post-1991 updates). There's a link at the top of the article to | a similar article about this chip's predecessor, "developed in | 1982". It appears they implement the PDP-11 instruction set. | The western-designed contemporaries of the chip in the article | would roughly be Intel 80386/80486 and Motorola 68030/68040. | Some of the details (e.g., clock speed, address space, | transistor count, package, etc.) look closer to 8088 and 68000. | So it appears to be 2-3 generations behind Intel and Motorola. | jacquesm wrote: | The PDP 11 was a 1970's machine. So more like 20 years | behind. | thriftwy wrote: | These were meant for simple PCs aimed at students. Yamaha | MSX and Sinclair clones used similarly dated Z80 way into | 90s as well. | | If you think late soviet CPUs are behind, wait until you | see late soviet cars | p_l wrote: | PDP-11 was a bit heavier design, and while it started in | 1970s, it was evolving and built with newer designs till | 1990s at least (I think last manufactured units were late | 1990s). 1801 line is curious in how it was single chip | while the "original" LSI-11 was 2 chip at the time. | Meanwhile 1801 was small enough that there are pocket | calculators built on it, that a sufficiently deranged EE | student can turn into Unix machine. | p_l wrote: | The specific variant that it was compatible with was still | relevant, sold and manufactured design at the time of the | introduction (ca. 1985? maybe a bit earlier). It was a very | capable CPU for its weight class, and actually more packed | than Digital's offering at the time - most LSI-11 at the | time required two separate chips minimum, and didn't have | 1801VM3's later "MCU" variants. | | The reason for it was that it wasn't designed as PDP-11 | clone - it was own design, which at the last moment got | modified to run LSI-11 instruction set and support QBus, | due to orders from on-high to standardize on PDP-11 | compatibles in the segment it was made for. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-11-20 23:00 UTC)