"New-Yorke" ?

[Jonathan Busby]

(06-18-2020 11:17 PM)EugeneNine Wrote:  Where is the Saturn architecture now? For example I started out with the 6502 and know its still made and supported by https://www.westerndesigncenter.com/wdc/

Did the Saturn survive anywhere else, is the IP still owned by HP?

Well, AFAIK, the original discrete 1LF2 Saturn chip that was part of the HP71B went through a gradual evolution over the years and was eventually incorporated into SoCs like the "Lewis", "Clarke" and "Yorke" SoCs.

Since the original Corvallis designed HP Saturn CPU was designed around 1983 to 1984 or so, and since each version of the Saturn CPU was leveraged from the previous generation, I'd think that the chip was designed using schematic capture. I say this because the Verilog and VHDL HDLs were created circa 1983 to 1984 and weren't standardized ( at least at the time of their inception -- AFAIK VHDL was standardized around 1992 and Verilog around 1995 IIRC ) and were proprietary and they had yet to see widespread adoption when the original Saturn CPU was designed mostly because the HDLs in question had just been created ( I'm not even sure if Verilog or VHDL, circa 1983 to 1984, were even available for public consumption as the languages had just been created ). Also, even *if* the Saturn CPU design team made use of an HDL, at the time, Verilog and VHDL were only designed for *simulation* and *verification* -- not for actual *hardware synthesis*.

I'd imagine that the various schematic capture gate-level ( see here and here, if "gate-level" design for the CPU was even used to a significant extent compared to mapping a schematic capture netlist to a PLA ) and PLA netlists and also higher level top-down block oriented schematic designs that were meant for PLAs in discrete Saturn CPUs, or on the various SoCs with integrated Saturn CPUs, are "lost to the sands of time" *But*, what's important is that the Saturn ISA is well documented, so the Saturn can still live on in emulator ( or other ) form

Regards,

Jonathan

NOTE : This post has been edited with references to various technical terms for the layperson, more in-depth explanations, grammar and style fixups, and more details added. Also, some content has been removed as I felt it too early and and too personal to release now -- PM me if you want details