From: chyang@westquad.engin.umich.edu (Chung Hsiung Yang)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.taiwan
Subject: Re: 16 bit -> 32 bit (was Re: Those Typical Taiwanese)
Date: 23 Jan 1993 22:58:45 GMT
Organization: University of Michigan Engineering, Ann Arbor
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: westquad.engin.umich.edu
Originator: chyang@westquad.engin.umich.edu


In article <1jsdeeINNlgq@fido.asd.sgi.com>, jyu@sleepy.mti.sgi.com (James Yu) writes:
> In article <C1A5oM.Dqp@ulowell.ulowell.edu>, cshi@cs.ulowell.edu (Chunde
> Shi) writes:
> |> Another ad says Taiwan is the first to make PC
> |> with 32 bits words. Come on! To increase words from 16 bits to 32
> |> bits in PC |> is a grad student's term project.
> 

	I don't know if a grad student can convert a 16 bit machine to
a 32 bit machine in a term.  Hmm...  You must know some thing I don't 
may be I should see what the researchers in your school is doing.  The 
project seems a little big.  


> I think you'd better understand more about the computer industry before
> making a foolish comment like that.  In theory, changing the word size
> of 
> a machine from 16 to 32 bits is nothing more than widening the
> datapaths.
> However, in practice how do you deal with the following complexities:
> 

	I think the first guy is talking about the data path.  Although
I will be very interested in reading what the add had to say.  I am
not sure that a Taiwanese manufacturers is the first one to have a
32-bit word machine.  But that is strange to because the words size
is controlled by the microprocessors registers, but Taiwan doesn't make
microprocessors...

	It may also have said that a Taiwanese company may have made a
computer with 32-bit bus width standard.  That may have some validity
to it.  Because the industry are dominated with PC with ISA (16 bit bus)
machines and it is conceivable that a Taiwanese company may be the first
one's to put a 32-bit bus machine out there on the market.  I am not 
so sure though.  

	What is true is that Taiwanese PC market was a large experimental
market for the US and the World PC market.  Taiwanese product lines 
comes out with Machines with new features and new prices six month 
ahead of the US market.  Although I am not sure if this true any longer.
2-1/2 years ago when I went back I saw a 386SX/20 notebook for $1800.  
At the time in the US, laptops still dominated the market and a notebook
machine like the one I saw hasn't come out yet, but several month later
the market was flooded with notebooks for about the same price.  

	What is also true is that Acer, the Taiwanese manufacturer do 
make the world's fastest 486-DX2/66 pc.  It has both VESA local-bus and
EISA bus (32-bit) on the same machine. (Just details)  It has been lab 
tested in many of the major PC publications and all the result came out 
the same.   The machine looks real nice too.

- C. H. Yang 

> 1) compatibiity:
>    - will the old software and the old o/s be able to run and will
>      you still get the same results?
>    - will the old plug-in cards (i.e. i/o controllers and etc.) still
>      be able to work?
>    
>    These issues affect the investment a customer already has in
> hardware
>    and software as well as other vendor's product line.
> 
> 2) product requirements:
>    - what is the new o/s needed to support the new machine?
>    - what are the new hardware peripheral devices needed to support the
> new
>      machine?
>    - do you have access to new memory technology (32 bit requires
> larger
>      memory bandwidth, so can you get bigger and faster DRAM's)?
>    - new backplane? new form factor?
>    - bigger power supply?
>    - how do you cool a system that consumes more power?
> 
> 2) testing/yield:
>    - can the new machine be verified?  are there testers that can
> handle
>      the larger pin-outs and the test vectors?
>    - will the old tests still work?
>    - can the larger die produce high enough yield to make a profit?
>    - can the new package requirement with more i/o pins be produced?
>    - ditto on the board level
> 
> 3) manufacturability:
> 
> 4) component availability:
> 
> 5) marketing strategies:
> 
> And the list goes on and on...
> 
> You seemingly have never: designed a real product, seen it get shipped,
> and supported the prouct.  Please don't think the stuff you learned
> from
> classrooms are sufficient to make you become an expert.  You obviously
> have no notion of what really goes on in making a REAL new product as
> opposed to WIDGETS.
> 
> James Yu
> 
> Disclaimer: My employer has nothing to do with this posting. 
Newsgroups: soc.culture.taiwan