also licensed to Intel, which in turn is to supply them to 80860 system developers. PAX-compliant compilers will have the capability to recognise the API and apply automatic paralellisation, then emit machine language that will obey the ABI. PAX is designed to enhance loop-level execution on the chip – to get more than one instruction through every clock cycle Intel claims the 80860 presently does three, and there are currently 75 systems being built around the 80860, of which half are believed to use the part as a CPU. Whilst Alliant will continue to manufacture its proprietary 64-bit gate array and MC68020-based FX minisupercomputers, the company will build a successor based on a 16-processor implementation of the 80860, which will be out in the first quarter of next year. It hopes to cash in on PAX with the development of software for 80860 workstations that will also be able to run on the future of its parallel processing and visualisation boxes.
