> However, I know people hate to hear this but, do you really think a tiny
> company can really build its own VAX CPUs and have them consistantly 
> outperform software emulators?  

The answer is obvious. You pick a fast processor (maybe a really hot
Alpha, or perhaps a fast PowerPC) and treat as a microengine for your
instruction set; i.e., you plunk it down with a ROM containing an
emulator that the chip starts executing out of reset. Then when the
commodity guys up the clock on their Alpha or PowerPC, voila! you've just
had a performance bump. I suspect a really hot processor could handle
(say) the Unibus in software, as well.

Roger Ivie
ivie@cc.usu.edu