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 PgC7000 asynchronous RISC CPU replaces Transputer and x86 
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Joined: Wed Jan 09, 2013 6:54 pm
Posts: 1780
In this article from The Register, we learn about Chris Shelton and his rôle in the Nascom-1 single-board computer - but there's more:

After the Nascom-1, Chris worked with Clive Sinclair on a super-cheap PC clone, to be implemented by emulation on a Transputer. That didn't quite work out, as they needed something to handle the graphics, and that something turned out to replace the Transputer: an asynchronous RISC CPU in just 90k transistors, with a small cache and a small ROM to support emulation of the target CPU. The PgC7000 - just 90k transistors, and running at under one Volt.

If they'd got commercial traction, that could be ARM now.

From the original article:
Quote:
Chris Shelton is not well known today, yet the British microcomputer industry would have been a very much poorer place without him.

Never as famous as Sir Clive Sinclair, with whom he worked in the past; Acorn’s Chris Curry, Herman Hauser, Steve Furber and Sophie Wilson; or even Tangerine and Oric’s Paul Johnson. Nonetheless, Shelton played a major role in the evolution of UK microcomputers.

He not only designed what is arguably Britain’s first home-grown home computer, the Nascom-1, but he also devised and built what may be the first truly modular, multi-user personal computer system, the Sig/Net. He was also the mind behind one of the most innovative microprocessors ever developed.


Thu Aug 22, 2013 7:36 pm
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Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2013 10:11 am
Posts: 114
Location: Norway/Japan
Thanks for posting that link, that was a very interesting read. Not only because I'm a Nascom-1 owner.. the PgC7000 concept sounds very interesting. I don't think I had heard about it before, although there are some faint bells ringing. I wonder what would have happened if it had been produced. Unfortunately it sounds like no description of it exists anymore, or it could have been a target for an FPGA test implementation maybe.
(Or maybe not, there was that asynchronous core..)

-Tor


Last edited by Tor on Sat Aug 24, 2013 6:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.



Sat Aug 24, 2013 12:23 pm
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Joined: Wed Apr 24, 2013 9:40 pm
Posts: 213
Location: Huntsville, AL
Great story. I started reading a few days ago, but got distracted. Seeing Tor's post, reminded me that I'd been interrupted. Thanks for finding and posting the story.

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Michael A.


Sat Aug 24, 2013 2:31 pm
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