The first customer for Symbolics Inc’s Ivory single-chip Lisp processor (CI No 685) will be the US National Aeronautics & Space Administration. The contract with NASA is to design a space-borne processor using Ivory. Various sub-contractors will be involved in the project including TRW which will produce the actual chip but with a smaller geometry. The Ivory chip is intended for military, CAD/CAE environments and as an embedded system. Here in the UK, Symbolics says it talking with two major Ministry of Defence suppliers that have expressed interest in Ivory. Products based on Ivory will go into beta test during the first half on 1988 and generally available by the second half with OEM customers expected to deliver two or three quarters later. Prices are expected to be competitive with those for general-purpose Unix workstations.
