Irvine, California-based Davin Computer Corp, formed in 1986 by Computer Automation Inc founder David Methvin to build low cost, superhigh performance 64-bit minicomputers was showing its long delayed BAT 6420 last month at the Systems/USA trade show held in San Jose (CI No 1,372). Despite funding difficulties that have put the brakes on both development and marketing efforts the BAT machine was previewed as long ago as July 1987, and made the news again last year as Davin went public by reversing itself into Shifrin Corp, Methvin is confident that this time his company is ready to approach interested OEM customers with what he reckons is still leading edge technology. According to Methvin, the BAT 6420 contains the first new complex instruction set computer processor to appear on the market for 15 years. CISC has had a bad press of late, but the RISC people are comparing their chips with old technology. The full 64-bit Davin chip provides the equivalent of 32 MIPS peak performance in a single processor configuration, and uses over 750 variable length instructions in its 112-bit microcode engine, so that instruction fetch, procedure call and run-time operations are reduced by a factor of eight or more. There is an optional 64-bit floating point coprocessor, a 50Mbyte-per-second Bat Bus communications channel for the connection of fast peripherals, and a choice of operating system: Unix System V or Davin’s own DARTS real-time system. The result is a low price tag of $13,670 for single quantities, down to $9,982 for quantities of 100. Davin has been granted patents on two of its applications relating to the design of the machine, and that patents are still pending on the remaining two. Methvin reckons that one of the patents could have important implications for the computer industry. Parallel byte processing in a single processor is applicable to all 32-bit commercial computers, says Davin – he says that on his company’s own machines, described as eight byte parallel processors, performance is boosted up to 15 times in some byte processing tasks that are common in many applications. The second patent covers the Automatic Data Channels built into all Davin processors and Methvin says that while most minicomputers can handle only 10 or 20 personal computer connections transmitting data files at the same time, Davin’s current computers can handle over 200 simultaneous personal computer transmissions at 38.4Kbps asynchronous data rates, and that future models will push the number close to 1,000 personal computer and/or modem connections. Up to 2,048 terminals can be directly connected via Davin’s Batnet system. Davin has now registered an offering with the US Securities & Exchange Commission to raise funds to enable it to begin full production and marketing of its machines, a process that should be completed within a few weeks. The money will enable the company to launch the next iteration of the BAT computer, the 6430 within a few months, and will go towards the development of Fortran, and eventually Cobol and Ada compilers, and the implementation of one of the leading third party relational database management systems to the machines. Main market areas are expected to be transaction processing applications such as luggage handling and factory automation, as well as communications, data processing and real-time applications.
