And Control Data Corp is the latest name to be associated with the thorny subject of RISC microprocessors in Gallium Arsenide technology, a project that has set at least two companies off with high hopes of doing GaAs Sparcs, only to see them dashed. CDC is firmly in the MIPS Computer Systems Inc R-series camp, and according to Electronic News, the Minneapolis mainframer is looking to do a GaAs version of the 64-bit R4000 for incorporation into a server by 1993. The paper says that CDC has chosen its GaAs fabricator – the leading names in the business are Vitesse Semiconductor, TriQuint Semiconductor (incorporating Gazelle Microcircuits), and Fujitsu Ltd, but the partner was not named. CDC will own the design but may license it to other vendors. It is of course also developing a multiprocessing version of the CMOS R4000 jointly with MIPS and expects samples in June or July and to be able to ship an MP machine by year-end.
