EISA, Italian Style
 
Microbytes Daily News Service
Copyright (c) 1989, McGraw-Hill, Inc.
In Italy last week, Olivetti introduced the CP486, a 486-based
EISA-bus "computing platform" and the second EISA system to be
announced by an original member of the "Gang of Nine." While some
of the companies announcing similar machines are emphasizing the
new technology (the brand-new EISA bus, the not-quite-in-
production-yet Intel 486 CPU), Olivetti is talking about how the
CP486 can get more work done, which is a notably refreshing
attitude. Even better, within the CP486's design is some very
innovative technology that may help redefine how some 486
computers are used.
 
 
Tower of Power
The CP486 is a tower-style computer with a hefty starting price
of around $15,000. Olivetti is aiming the machine at several
different markets -- all with a European flavor. Between a third
and half the CP486s will sell to what Olivetti calls the "super
PC" market: high-end desktop computers running DOS, OS/2, or
Unix. (Olivetti says that half the 386-based computers it sells
in Europe are running Unix.) Other targeted markets include use
as an applications host (replacing a minicomputer), a LAN server,
or a technical workstation. Within six months, Olivetti plans to
have a desktop version of the CP486, with what it hopes will be
the smallest footprint in the industry. That's another decision
with a European flavor; in Europe, a small footprint is critical
for selling desktop computers.
 
The CP486 has eight full-size EISA slots; one is taken up by
a super-VGA video controller and another by a SCSI controller
that also handles the floppy drives. That leaves six slots
free, since the motherboard also contains serial, parallel,
mouse, and keyboard ports. The motherboard also holds all
RAM in the system, which can range from 2 megabytes to an
impressive 64 megabytes. Putting RAM on the motherboard
takes it off the EISA bus, which means peripherals that have
to use the bus can make the most of it.
 
In everyday system performance, the CP486 may not be the
fastest of the new 486-based EISA systems. It has no
external cache, depending instead on the 486 CPU's 8K
internal cache. But the CP486 does have an option for
increased floating-point performance. In addition to the fast
floating-point processor already on the 486 chip, the CP486
has a socket for a Weitek 4167 numeric coprocessor, for even
more number-crunching kick.
 
 
A Place for Intel's i860
But the CP486 has yet another coprocessor socket on the
motherboard. This one's for an i860, the semi-RISC CPU chip
that Intel announced last spring. The i860 is a high-powered
64-bit processor with special features that make it well-suited
for graphics applications. But it's not simply a graphics
coprocessor; when the chip was announced, Intel said a version of
Unix would soon be running on it. According to the i860's
creators, it was also specifically designed to share a memory bus
with 80386 or 80486 microprocessors. The i860 is not yet a
shipping product, but no less than IBM has already demonstrated
an i860-based graphics coprocessor card (dubbed the "Wizard")
that could plug into a PS/2 Model 70's Micro Channel slot.
 
Olivetti has designed the i860 in as an integral part of the
CP486. Although the machine will work fine without the
graphics coprocessor, if you plug it in you can use the i860 to
its fullest. Olivetti put the i860 socket on the CP486's
motherboard, rather than on a plug-in card like IBM did. As
with the CP486's memory, the idea is to free the EISA bus of
unnecessary traffic (and in graphics-intensive applications,
there could be lots of traffic between the 486 and the i860).
It also means the i860 can easily share system memory with
the 486, rather than having a separate bank of RAM for the
i860 as on IBM's Wizard board. In spite of the architectural
differences between the CP486 and the IBM Wizard board,
Olivetti claims that a CP486 equipped with an i860 will be
completely compatible with software written for the Wizard.
 
But although the CP486 is ready to make the most of an i860, the
i860 isn't quite ready for the big time. Virtually no i860 soft-
ware is available, and once software is available -- by the mid-
dle of next year -- the i860 will probably serve as a graphics
coprocessor in most applications. But the CP486 is also designed
so that, once Unix for the i860 is available, it will be possible
to run the CP486 with the i860 as the main CPU and the 486 as an
I/O coprocessor.
 
 
Attention to Detail
The rest of the tower unit shows the same attention to
design detail as the motherboard. Among other buttons and
switches, the front of the tower includes indicator lights for
keyboard password, system password, and network password.
There's also a 24-character LCD for messages indicating
system status. Specially configured versions of Unix or other
operating systems can use that display to let the CP486 run
as a file server without a monitor attached, and specially
written application programs can also make use of the LCD.
 
There's space for a standby power supply (SPS) inside the case;
it isn't a standard feature, but if it's installed, the CP486 can
detect its operation. An SPS differs from an uninterruptible
power supply (UPS). A UPS provides continuous power; if main
power goes off, the UPS continues to supply power from batteries,
so the computer doesn't notice a power failure has occurred. By
contrast, the CP486 normally runs directly off main power; the
SPS only kicks in if the main power goes away, cleanly switching
to a temporary power supply. With the CP486's 295-watt standard
power supply, the SPS isn't designed to keep the computer
running for hours -- just long enough to prevent nasty
surprises during power failures. For example, when the SPS
kicks in, the CP486's version of Unix will detect that the line
power has gone. If power hasn't returned in 20 seconds, the
computer warns users, then shuts down in an orderly fashion.
 
Other nice touches include "dual boot plus," which lets you
select among DOS, OS/2, and Unix when you boot up the
machine. There's also a utility that keeps track of
configuration of all boards in the system. EISA boards are
self-configuring, but standard AT-bus boards can also be
used in the system; the configuration utility makes it much
easier to resolve potential conflicts between boards.
 
 
Promise of the 486 Fulfilled
When Intel announced the 486 CPU six months ago, we expected that
it would be used only for expensive file servers and high-powered
workstations. We were surprised and delighted when companies like
Cheetah and ALR crammed the chip into economical desktop machines
-- and we were disappointed that the 486-based file servers and
workstations we saw all summer were little more than reruns of
386-based computers with a new CPU added.
 
But the CP486 fulfills some of the original promise of the 486;
it's not just a rehashed 386 design, but one that takes real
advantage of the 486's potential for multiprocessor applications.
And even without the 486, the CP486 would be a step forward in
server design, with its support for multilevel passwords, an
integrated standby power supply, and a peripheral bus that only
has to handle peripherals and not memory, coprocessors, and the
kitchen sink.
 
It's almost ironic that the company isn't hyping its technology.
With the CP486, Olivetti has put together one of the most
advanced 486 machines we've seen yet.
 
Contact: Olivetti USA Inc., 765 U.S. Highway 202, Somerville,
NJ 08876; (201) 526-8200; fax (201) 526-8405.
 
                          --- Stan Miastowski and BYTEWeek Staff
 
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