Chips to Offer Bus Master Chip for Micro Channel Add-Ins
 
Microbytes Daily News Service
Copyright (c) 1989, McGraw-Hill, Inc.
While announcements of EISA-based computers from companies such
as Hewlett-Packard, Compaq, and NEC are finally giving some
substance to EISA (Extended Industry Standard Architecture),
IBM's Micro Channel Architecture continues its slow march toward
usability. Chips and Technologies announced this week a new chip
for Micro Channel bus master cards that should help make it
easier for common plug-in cards to use the most powerful features
of MCA.
 
A bus master card differs from a standard add-in board because it
can temporarily take control of the computer's I/O bus away from
the CPU. That's a particular advantage if you want to add
microprocessors for parallel processing. But a bus master card
can also speed up more conventional tasks that require
transfering large chunks of data. That's what the new chip from
C&T, developed with IBM, is intended for.
 
The new 82C614 Bus Master MicroCHIP is designed to be used in
disk controller cards, high-speed communications and network
interfaces, and fast printer and modem cards. Because all
interfacing to the Micro Channel bus goes through a single chip,
there are fewer design problems and more space on a plug-in card
for a designer to work with, C&T says. That should translate into
a much wider selection of Micro Channel cards by this time next
year. Samples of the chip will be available to designers early in
1990, according to a C&T official, and the first boards using the
chip could be on display as early as Spring Comdex.
 
Contact: Chips and Technologies, 3050 Zanker Rd, San Jose, CA
95134; (408) 434-0600.
 
                              --- Frank Hayes
 
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