I advocate TURBOchannel on technical superiority and simplicity of 
implementation. The only reason PCI interfaces are cheap is because 
a: people dont always use the full bus , and b: there is a ridiculous 
economy of scale going on. 
TC is simple intrinsically and cheaper to implement. a 100 MHz TC would 
blow PCI out of the water. 
As for your soundblaster and so on, i advocate general purpose 
interfaces: SCSI, 1394,generic analog, generic hi and lo speed async and 
sync serial, ethernet, and self-contained graphics head which is NOT
a console (thenyou can stuff 5 of them in the same box, as in a Real 
Computer). Alwasy serial console, no way around it, thats just the way i 
think it should be. Also, all mass storage interfaces i think should 
emulate MSCP, like an Emulex or a CMD scsi adapter does. MSCP is such an 
elegant and powerful abstraction, it shouldnt be left to bite the dust. 
(also, since it is really a special case of CI, those high speed generic 
serial interfaces coudl really be treated as CI adapters... getting 
ambitioous here)  I'd like to really implement the VAX as manywould have 
dreamed it to be. Sort of like a 6000 series, but smaller, simpler, 
cheaper to make. modern VLSI makes that possible. 


On Thu, 26 Aug 1999, Andrew Phillips wrote:

> > Hmm, register nuvax.com and start spreading the word? ;-)
> 	
> 	Perhaps the FreeVMS people would be interested too?
> 
> 	RE: the custom ASIC/CPU idea. That would take _real_ effort and
>    money up front. It might be easier to use a different approach to start
>    - perhaps emulation (and if the rumours about the transmeta chip are
>    true, then microcode is how the ia32 instructions will be handled too),
>    or via a FPGA. Turbo channel is nice, I grant you. But picture using a
>    Soundblaster 64 AWE/ DVD player on your home nuVAX ... Perhaps the
>    first generation could fit into those Alpha/K7 motherboards too.
> 
>    There is nothing to stop you having asic's to handle custom buses/re
>    implementations of old favourites. You'd need to design your own
>    motherboard eventually anyway. I saw an ATX StrongARM motherboard from
>    some company recently. Looked ideal for this sort of stuff.
> 
> 	Face it, Intel assembly is just plain nasty,  We need to revive
>    the VAX. 
> 	
> 		Cheers,
> 			a.
> 			
> p.s. I'm looking for a Keyboard/Mouse cable to fit a DECstation 5000/240
>     (one of those DB15 -> {rj11/ps2} combinations - same as DEC3000 series
>      alpha stations.) If you have one in the UK, for a reasonable price - 
>      Say a tenner + P&P, I'm interested. Otherwise I have to build one. 
> -- 
> atp@nojunk-mssl.ucl.ac.uk             |        Dr. Andy Phillips
> phillips@nojnk-isass1.solar.isas.ac.jp| Mullard Space Science Laboratory
> a.phillips@nojunk-ucl.ac.uk           | "It's the late 1990s, This is a spam   
> atp@nojunk-coralcay.demon.co.uk       | protected .sig. You know what to do"
>