hardware multiply/divide functionality in CPUs

[Chuck Guzis]

On 8 Mar 2011 at 18:06, Eric Smith wrote:

> Chuck Guzis wrote:
>  > If you weren't DoD-related, you could forget getting the 9440,
>  9445, > 9450...CPUs. Fairchild wouldn't give you the time of day on
>  those.
> 
> Not true, at least going by my conversations with distributors at the
> time.  They were sold through normal commercial distribution, to
> anyone willing to purchase the minimum order quantity, which was
> around 30 parts if memory serves.  Since they were rather expensive
> parts, that didn't include me.

We were buying 8085s and later, 80186s by at least Q500, so we should 
have been prime candidates.  Since our application data base was 
pretty much all DG BASIC, it would have made life a lot simpler.  But 
try as I might, I never could get any followup from the Fairchild 
guys.

I'm not aware of any retail or hobbyist boxes of the time that used 
either the 9440 or the SBP9900, are you?   Contrast that with a few 
boxes constructed on the IM6100.

Of course, Bill Davidow would never have put his stamp of approval on 
the use of anything but Intel silicon.

--Chuck