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Intel iAPX-432 Micromainframe

 

In 1981, Intel announced a revolutionary new microprocessor family called the iAPX-432 MicroMainframe. The iAPX-432 had a very advanced capability-based architecture, with hardware and microcode support for multitasking, multiprocessing, and fault tolerance.

 

Initially the family consisted of a two-chip General Data Processor, and a single-chip Interface Processor. Later Intel added a Bus Interface Unit and a Memory Control Unit.

 

A brief introduction to the iAPX-432 may be found in the CS 460 Final Project report by David King, Liang Zhou, Jon Bryson, and David Dickson. More detail is available in Chapter 9 of Capabiliy-Based Computer Systems by Henry M. Levy.

 

In the early days of Usenet, the newsgroup "net.micro.432" was devoted to discussion of the iAPX-432. Never a high-volume newsgroup, it was probably lost in the Great Renaming of 1985.

 

Unfortunately the raw computing performance of the iAPX-432 proved to be below that of competing microprocessors, and Intel discontinued the iAPX-432 product line in 1986.

 

Nowdays it's very difficult to find detailed technical information on the iAPX-432. Intel received about fifteen US patents relating to the iAPX-432, but much of the technical details such as the object data structures and instruction set changed between the time of the patent application and customer shipment. So while they're not as accurate as the official architecture manuals, they are at least generally similar to the release 1 architecture, and provide some details that were never available elsewhere, such as the internal microarchitecture of the GDP and IP.

 

Although many companies evaluated the iAPX-432, as far as I know the only commercial product offering based on the iAPX-432 from any company other than Intel was a board set for Multibus systems from the English company High Integrity Systems. HIS also contracted with Intel to continue the development and maintenance of the Ada compiler.

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439 red x's

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