The second generation of the Clipper 32-bit chip set, clocked at up to 50MHz, was announced by its proud new owner, Intergraph Corp, this week. Offering more than twice the performance of the C100, the new C300 is implemented on a 3 by 4.5 module that the Huntsville, Alabama company has an effective performance comparable with a VAX 8800 – around 13 times a VAX-11/780. The C300 module comprises three chips – the CPU with integral IEEE standard floating-point unit, and two cache-plus-memory management units, one for instructions, one for data. The C300 has the same instruction set and is pin-compatible with the C100, the main enhancements coming in the pipeline, enabling several instructions to execute in fewer clock cycles, and from an improved floating-point unit, which result in a two-to-three-fold improvement in floating-point performance. The faster clock rate – 50MHz against 33MHz – is made possible by the use of higher density CMOS. It also has a new clock design that enables multiple Clippers to be configured more easily into multiprocessor systems without the need to use any additional clock synchronisation hardware. Sample Clipper C300 modules will be available in the second quarter 1988 with with volume expected in the third quarter. No prices were given.
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