Rigel (microprocessor)

Rigel was a microprocessor chip set developed and fabricated by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) that implemented the VAX instruction set architecture (ISA). It was introduced on 11 July 1989 with the introduction of the VAX 6000 Model 400, the first system to feature the chip set. Rigel was also used in the VAX 4000 Model 300 and VAXstation 3100 Model 76. Production Rigel CPUs were rated at 35 to 40 MHz.

The Rigel chipset consisted of several devices:

• REX520 central processing unit (also known as the DC520 or "P-chip")
• DC523 floating-point unit (codenamed KIWI or "F-chip" during development)
• DC592 cache controller (codenamed COW or "C-chip" during development)
• DC521 clock chip

In addition, two further devices implemented the VAX vector processor option; these comprised the DC555 Vector Register set chip (VERSE) and the DC556 Vector Data Path chip (FAVOR).

Support chips for Rigel-based systems included the RSSC (Rigel System Support Chip) and Ghidra, the VAX 4000 system interface chip.

REX520

The Rigel architecture was based on the VAX 8800 processor. It has a six-stage microinstruction pipeline and 64-entry fully associative translation look-aside buffer. The Rigel chip set supported an optional vector processor and the REX520 decoded any vector instructions and passed on to the vector interface (VC) chip by the REX520.

The REX520 has a 2 KB unified primary cache, configurable as an instruction cache and an external 128 KB secondary cache (backup cache) implemented with CMOS static random access memory (SRAM) chips. The REX520 has an external cache because the VAX 8800's 64 KB primary cache could not be integrated on the same die. The backup cache controller was located on the VC chip.

The REX520 consisted of 320,000 transistors, of which 140,000 are for logic and 180,000 for memory. The die measures 12 mm by 12 mm (144 mm²). It was packaged in a 224-lead ceramic leaded package.

Fabrication

The chip set was fabricated by DEC in their second-generation complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) process, CMOS-2. The process had a 1.5 µm minimum feature size and two levels of aluminium interconnect.

Mariah

Mariah was a revised version of the Rigel chip set fabricated by DEC in their 1 µm CMOS-3 process, with higher clock frequencies between 62 to 71 MHz. The Mariah CPU, FPU and cache controller were designated DC595, DC596 and DC597 respectively. Enhancements over Rigel included a 4 kB first-level cache and 32-bit physical memory addressing in the Mariah CPU, and write-back caching implemented in the cache controller chip. Mariah was used in the VAX 6000 Model 500, MicroVAX 3100 Model 80 and VAXstation 4000 Model 60.

References

• "Rigel" at The Computer History Simulation Project
• "Mariah" at The Computer History Simulation Project
• K.M.I. - the site
• Durdan, W. Hugh et al. (1990). "An Overview of the VAX 6000 Model 400 Chip Set". Digital Technical Journal, Volume 2, Number 2, 1990. pp. 36–51.
• Slater, Debra L. et al. (1990). "Vector Processing on the VAXvector 6000 Model 400". Digital Technical Journal, Volume 2, Number 2, 1990. pp. 11–26.

This microcomputer/microprocessor-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: Microcomputer stubs DEC microprocessors Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая? Mariah (given name) The Ballads (Mariah Carey album) Look at other dictionaries: Microprocessor chronology — Progress of miniaturisation, and comparison of sizes of semiconductor manufacturing process nodes with some microscopic objects and visible light wavelengths. Contents 1 1970s …   Wikipedia VAX — redirects here. For the brand of vacuum cleaners, see Vax (vacuum). For the author, see Vachss. DEC VAX Manufacturer: Digital Equipment Corporation Byte size: 8 bits (octet) Address bus size: 32 bits Peripheral bus …   Wikipedia Alpha 21164 — Four 300 MHz Alpha 21164 microprocessors on a Cray T3E 600 processor board. The Alpha 21164, also known by its code name, EV5, is a microprocessor developed and fabricated by Digital Equipment Corporation that implemented the Alpha instruction… …   Wikipedia Alpha 21064 — The 21064 microprocessor The 21064 microprocessor m …   Wikipedia SIMD — In computing, SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data) is a technique employed to achieve data level parallelism, as in a vector processor. First made popular in large scale supercomputers (contrary to MIMD parallelization), smaller scale SIMD… …   Wikipedia DEC Alpha — Alpha Designer Digital Equipment Corporation Bits 64 bit Introduced 1992 Design RISC Type Register Register Encoding Fixed …   Wikipedia MicroVAX 78032 — The MicroVAX 78032 (otherwise known as the DC333) is a microprocessor developed and fabricated by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) that implemented a subset of the VAX instruction set architecture (ISA). The 78032 was used exclusively in DEC s …   Wikipedia NVAX — The NVAX is a microprocessor developed and fabricated by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) that implemented the VAX instruction set architecture (ISA). The NVAX was a high end single chip VAX microprocessor. A variant of the NVAX, the NVAX+,… …   Wikipedia DEC J-11 — Top side of J11 microprocessor hybrid. DC335 control chip on left, DC334 data path chip on right. US dime for scale …   Wikipedia DEC T-11 — The T 11, also known as DC310, is a microprocessor that implements the PDP 11 instruction set architecture (ISA) developed by Digital Equipment Corporation. The T 11 was code named Tiny . It was developed for embedded systems and was the first… …   Wikipedia 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”