Fast lane computing with new CPUs and OSes<\/p>\n
By James O. Scharf<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): We've been overdue for some major industry
\nchanges and now it looks like we're going to get them. New
\nhardware designs are demanding new software interfaces.<\/p>\n
While Intel's position as the major supplier of CPUs has
\nalways provided a stabilizing factor in the industry, even Intel
\nis not immune to outside pressures. Other manufacturers are
\nproposing newer technologies and design philosophies that will
\ngreatly extend present computer capabilities. As hardware
\nadvances into its next generation, the software that controls it
\nmust also follow suit. Newer, more powerful, operating systems
\nare starting to emerge, as well as some rather strange alliances.<\/p>\n
It all comes down to power. Using five volts, a 66MHz CPU is
\nrunning in the thermal red-zone. Notebooks and laptops, using 3.3
\nvolts, can attain the same speeds but run much cooler. Personal
\ndigital assistants (PDAs) are starting to aim at below one volt
\noperation. With these drastic power cuts, manufacturers are
\nlooking at processor speeds of 275 to 300MHz at safe thermal
\nlevels.<\/p>\n
Reduced power and increased speed means that more complexity
\ncan be built into the CPU. ICs that were once external to the CPU
\nmay now come on board, further reducing the cost of the system
\nunit.<\/p>\n
Before reduced power becomes a reality for the desktop PC,
\nRISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) based architectures will
\nadd an effective speed increase of 75 to 100 percent. Of course,
\nthis will be translated into multi-megabytes more application
\ncode that, when combined with the amount of space required for
\nthese new OSes, is going to take a big byte out of your precious
\nhard disk space. If you're planning a new system purchase, a 1Gb
\nhard disk is not unrealistic.<\/p>\n
The new RISC-based CPUs will use 64-bit data paths, have large
\non-chip instruction and data caches and use separate integer,
\nfloating-point and branch-processing units to allow the handling
\nof two or three instructions at once. Processors that can handle
\nsimultaneous multi-instruction processing are called
\n\"superscalar.\" If they also split these instructions into many
\nprocessing paths or stages, they are called \"superpipelined.\"
\nMost of the new processors are both.<\/p>\n
Fancy hardware<\/p>\n
Some of these new \"SuperCPUs\" are the PowerPC 601, jointly
\ndeveloped by Apple, IBM and Motorola; the M1, by Cyrix; the
\nAlpha, by DEC; the Mips R4x00, and HP's PA-RISC. While all this
\nfancy hardware is going to provide a lot of processing power, the
\ndown-side is that it's going to be hell-on-wheels for software
\ndevelopers. This is why the OS microcoders are doing some fancy
\ndancing to provide not only more portable (can be used by many
\nprocessors) operating systems by abstracting the OS from the CPU
\nthat runs it, but also to provide applications greater insulation
\nfrom the OS.<\/p>\n
Exactly how to provide this OS abstraction has split the
\nmanufacturing group into various factions. Microsoft has seen fit
\nto go its own way with Windows NT and \"Chicago,\" while IBM is
\nsporting OS\/2 and Workplace OS.<\/p>\n
If you can't tell the players without a program, you're not
\nalone. The situation's ridiculous and getting worse. Now we must
\ncontend with code-names as well as triple-digit version numbers!<\/p>\n
Some trade magazines are saying that \"Chicago\" is Microsoft's
\ncode-name for Windows 4.0. Maybe. But, as far as I know the
\nstory: the original code name for Windows 4.0 was \"Cairo.\"
\nDevelopment began in 1991 under the guiding hand of James
\nAllchin, former designer of the Banyan Systems \"Vines\" network.
\nIt could be that some mention was made of it at the unveiling of
\nWindows 3.1, in April of 1992, at the Windows World conference in
\nChicago. Perhaps the media then dubbed it, \"Chicago.\" Other than
\nthat, I am at a loss as to how this switch took place. Any input?<\/p>\n
Workplace OS (also known as WPOS) is really OS\/2 version 3.0.
\n(Although IBM isn't calling it that yet.)<\/p>\n
Although NT is being touted as more portable than OS\/2, it
\nwon't run with less than 16Mb of RAM and needs 28Mb of disk space
\nfor its swap file. Also, there are some DOS and Windows programs
\nthat NT will not run. I doubt that many users really care that
\nmuch about portability and NT's 1993 sales of 173,000 copies is
\npretty dismal when compared with OS\/2's sales of hundreds of
\nthousands per month.<\/p>\n
While \"(you name it) for Windows\" applications still
\nproliferate, it seems that the computing public has finally had a
\nbelly-full of Microsoft's promises versus reality. Even after all
\nthe interim editions, Windows 3.0 was released with so many bugs
\nthat it should have been recalled. Windows couldn't even run
\nmultiple DOS sessions until the 386 chip came out; something that
\nDESKview had been doing for years!<\/p>\n
Emulation<\/p>\n
When Microsoft started locking software applications into
\nWindows, and other software developers went along with the scam
\njust so they could get another few versions of their dead-horse
\nsoftware on the market, that turned me off on Windows. Microsoft
\ncould have brought NT to the market long before it did but they
\ndidn't want to downplay Windows 3.0.<\/p>\n
Although Microsoft and IBM jointly developed OS\/2, Workplace
\nOS has broken the tie-that-binds. The honeymoon is definitely
\nover. Emulation has left a bad taste in everyone's mouth and the
\n\"politically correct\" term to use now is \"personality.\" I liken
\nthis to the AEC's changing of the term \"Rads\" to \"Sunshine
\nUnits.\"<\/p>\n
With the new breed of OSes, everyone is going to emulate
\n(Oops! I mean, provide \"personalities\" for) everyone else -- at
\nleast selectively.<\/p>\n
NT has personalities for DOS, Windows, Win32, OS\/2, POSIX (a
\nUNIX model), and native NT applications. Workplace OS (WPOS) will
\nhave personalities for DOS, Windows, Win32, OS\/2 and AIX (which
\nwill later be called PowerOpen), Solaris, and Taligent.<\/p>\n
For those of you who may not be familiar with Win32, it is a
\nsoftware layer that lets you run applications using the Win32S
\nsubset API on Windows 3.1. Essentially, this allows 32-bit
\nmodules to call routines in 16-bit modules and visa versa. For
\nyou smart-guys: this is called \"thunking,\" a term that you should
\nget familiar with because you're going to hear it repeatedly.<\/p>\n
What about Apple? Some recent surveys claim that Apple sold
\nmore machines than any other manufacturer last year. System 7 is
\nApple's only PC operating system but the Mac OS is on its last
\nlegs. Take heart you Mac lovers. Apple and IBM have jointly
\nproduced Taligent; a powerful new OS. Taligent will have
\npersonalities for all the important OSes. Apple plans to fit the
\nMac with the new IBM-Motorola PowerPC 615 CPU. This means that
\nany x86 application will run on the Mac about as fast as on a
\n66MHz Pentium!<\/p>\n
If you've picked up any of the computer magazines lately, you
\nmay wonder what language they've been written in. It seems that
\nevery sentence contains some obscure acronym that, try as you
\nmight, you can't find an explanation for anywhere in the text.
\nFor the next few installments of my column, I'll try to bring you
\nup to date on many of these as well as give you a little of the
\nhistory behind them.<\/p>",
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