Harris Corp’s Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based Computer Systems Division has moved up to the second generation 88110 version of Motorola Inc’s RISC family with the Night Hawk 5000 series which can’t be called Night Hawk in the UK. The company says that the machines are the first real-time multiprocessing computers to use the 88110 and represent a unique 88110 implementation with large caches, local memory, and high input-output throughput supporting multiple input-output buses make it a balanced system for real-time computing. Pitched at simulators, signal and radar processing, energy systems, the one- to eight-processor machines are available as field upgrades from other Night Hawks. Harris says the 88110 Symmetric Superscalar microprocessors are up to five times faster than the 88100/200 combinations in the Night Hawk 4000 and with secondary cache are expected to achieve 70 SPECmarks per microprocessor. A unique multi-level memory architecture incorporates local and global memory, a 16Kb cache inside each 88110, and secondary 256Kb cache dedicated to each 88110, attached by a 400M-bytes-per-second bus. Cache sizes will expand to 1Mb per processor with the next generation of memory chips. The local memory is attached via the 200Mbps processor bus. Each processor board can have up to 32Mb of local memory, to expand to 128Mb with next generation memory chips. Up to eight 16Mb or 32Mb modules can be used for global memory at $12,000 for 16Mb, $16,000 for 32Mb. The primary input-output bus of the Night Hawk 5000 is the 40Mbps Harris VME-64 bus, which offers enhanced performance over standard VME. Adding a second VME-64 bus provides up to 40Mbps additional input-output capacity. The first model is the Night Hawk 5800, set for the fourth quarter, upgradable from the 4800. Night Hawk 5800 single processor board is $15,000 more than the comparable 4800 processor board, the dual-processor 5800 board $20,000 more. The line does 20 to 800 MIPS and supports a real-time and multi-level secure Unix to Posix, System V Interface Definition and 88open standards.
