Motorola 88000 family
The Motorola 88000 family (often referred to as m88k or 88k for short ) is a series of microprocessors from Motorola .
architecture
Like its predecessor ( 68000 family ), the series was considered a very clean development. It is a 32-bit - RISC architecture with separate instruction and data caching ( Harvard architecture ), and separate data and address buses . A major flaw in the processor architecture was initially the use of a single bank of registers used by both the integer and floating point units.
history
The series began in April 1988 with the presentation of the MC88100 ( CPU with integrated FPU ) and the MC88200 ( MMU and cache controller). The idea of this separation was to simplify the design of multiprocessor systems (one 88200 could manage up to four 88100.). However, this also meant that the second chip and the connections between the components were necessary for a system with only one CPU, which increased the costs for such a system. The clock frequency was up to 33 MHz.
In 1992 the MC88110 was brought onto the market, which had already integrated an MMU and level 1 cache, and the matching cache controller MC88410 , which could manage up to 2 MB level 2 cache. In addition, a separate register bank has now been used for the floating point unit, the instruction set has been expanded and the microarchitecture has been equipped with innovations such as superscalarity , out-of-order execution and speculative execution in order to increase execution speed. The clock frequency was up to 50 MHz. The MC88110MP was optimized even more for multiprocessor operation.
A further improved version with the name MC88120 (up to 100 MHz) and a variant for embedded systems with the name MC88300 were in development, but neither went into series production.
In the early 1990s, the 88k family was discontinued in favor of the PowerPC .
use
Motorola developed VMEbus -based single-board computers (MVME series), which were also available with processors from the 88k family.
In the late 1980s, the development of the 88k family was followed by many companies, including Apple and NeXT . The latter had even made prototypes with m88k processors. Data General used the series in their AViiON series and the Japanese Omron in the LUNA88K model.
The MMU of the Motorola 88000 was largely carried over into the first generation of PowerPC processors, but implemented on one chip together with the processor.
Operating systems
- Motorola ported its Unix System V variant, System V / 88, for the 88k-based MVME systems .
- Data General ported the in-house UNIX variant DG / UX to the AViiON systems.
- Up to version 5.5, OpenBSD has different porting status for MVME systems that support LUNA88k and AViiON systems.
- Of NetBSD 3.0, an experimental implementation for MVME systems exist.
Emulators
GXemul can emulate a Motorola MVME187 (without a network interface).
Web links
- http://www.3rz.org/mirrors/badabada.org/ Information about the 88000 family and computers in which it was used
- http://www.geekdot.com/m8120/ Motorola M8120 System (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ openbsd.org: Mailing list message from the OpenBSD developer, accessed March 20, 2014.