Texas Instruments Inc’s new Megachip 32-bit Lisp microprocessor, which integrates 60% of the circuitry of the Explorer artificial intelligence computer is a hot enough property to justify a bit more hyping, even if the part, and the Compact Lisp Machine which is its first application, was shown off in glorious Technicolor back last summer (CI Nos 411, 482) – but it goes against the grain for UPI to say the company unveiled it last Thursday: for the record, the part, claimed to be the densest microprocessor ever produced, is a one centimetre square chip integrating 553,687 transistors, and although developed with $6m of Pentagon funding, will find its way into commercial products shortly; it is also rather contentiously described as 5,000 times more powerful that the Explorer machine.
