In an effort to boost the fortunes of its troubled R6000 emitter coupled logic RISC processor, MIPS Computer Systems Inc has given Bipolar Integrated Technology Inc – previously only a foundry for the part – the go-ahead to sell the chips to other customers. Until now, the R6000 CPU has been available only as a part of system-level products from MIPS. NEC Corp is supposed to be making R6000 processors for the merchant market, but has made no announcement on availability. According to the Sebastopol, California-based Microprocessor Report newsletter, the R6000 has suffered delays because of production problems at Bipolar Integrated, and the transfer of the design to NEC has apparently been slowed by the differences between the NEC and Bipolar Integrated processes. It reports that Bipolar Integrated has now solved its production problems, has increased its capacity, and is now able to supply customers other than MIPS. Bipolar Integrated has already struck an agreement with Oki Electric Industry Co (CI No 1,487), which will serve as a wafer foundry for the Beaverton, Oregon-based chip-maker. Bipolar Integrated can develop derivatives of the R6000 as long as 50% of the logic is ECL – thought to be a necessary constraint to meet MIPS’ promises to its CMOS semiconductor partners that it would not grant additional licences. The newsletter’s Michael Slater says the challenge is for Bipolar Integrated to keep the R6000 performance far enough ahead of the R4000 to justify its much higher price, system complexity and power consumption. With the imminent arrival of the R4000, the delay in volume availability of the R6000 has meant that its window of opportunity is closing rapidly. Slater argues that the window could be opened if Bipolar Integrated was able to increase the R6000’s clock rate further than the current 60MHz. Although ECL processors may provide the highest uni-processor performance, the technology seems doomed for niche application markets like high-end servers because CMOS processors have the advantage of higher levels of integration and huge price-performance advantages. Bipolar Integrated is the only US semiconductor vendor now pursuing ECL microprocessors. Digital Equipment Corp has already cancelled its R6000 project, and troubled FPS Computing Inc is the only company that has announced a product based on Bipolar Integrated’s ECL version of the Sparc. Sun’s emitter-coupled logic server project using that part was cancelled in favour of multi-processing BiCMOS systems, the so-called Galaxy machines. Data General Corp and Norsk Data A/S affiliate Dolphin Server Technology A/S have cancelled their efforts to develop an ECL version of the 88000 with Motorola Inc, and Prime Computer Inc has backed out of its agreement to develop an ECL version of the 80486 with Intel.
