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Unearthing my 1996 windowed OS in machine code for Am29000 homebrew computer

130 points · 31 comments · nanochess

  1. rob74 · · focus · HN ↗
    > The AMD Am29000 processor came out in 1987, also announced as the world's fastest processor (do you see a meme here?) and it could process one instruction every cycle, so indeed it was fast.

    The AMD 29k - the fastest CPU you never heard of? No, seriously, I am quite interested in computer hardware, and Computer Architecture by Patterson&#x2F;Hennessy was required reading during my studies, but I can&#x27;t say I ever heard of this CPU architecture, which is &quot;based on the seminal Berkeley RISC&quot; (according to <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;AMD_Am29000" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;AMD_Am29000). And it seems to have been quite widely used, but not in an actual computer (except for this one)...

    1. taolson · · focus · HN ↗
      Yep, it wound up as the main CPU in a bunch of laser-printers, as well as Apple&#x27;s 8*24GC QuickDraw accelerator card for the Macintosh, and as part of the flight-control computer on Boeing 777s, among many other embedded system designs.
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