Fremont, California-based Headland Technology Inc has introduced a chip set with cache enhancement features said to optimise the performance of the 80486 processor’s internal cache: the HTK340 chip set eliminates the write bottleneck by integrating a four-level-deep write buffer with out-of-order operations and byte gathering; the DRAM write bottleneck is eased by assembling 8-bit and 16-bit writes and writing them as 32-bit writes and allowing out-of-order operations which Headland claims provides a two-fold to four-fold improvement in DRAM write efficiency; the HTK340 is a two-chip set that includes an AT bus controller chip and a memory controller unit; the chip set supports frequencies up to 33MHz and it will be available in volume next month at $45 when you buy 1,000 or more.
