Talk:ND-5000 family
System performance - additional info
The original ND-5000 systems also came with different I/O processors, as listed in the table below.
| System | I/O processor |
|---|---|
| ND-5200 | ND-110 |
| ND-5400 | ND-110/CX |
| ND-5500 | ND-110/CX |
| ND-5700 | ND-120/CX w/2MB RAM |
| ND-5800/ND-5900 | ND-120/CX w/4MB RAM |
However, this may have changed at some point - it probably became more expensive to provide the ND-110 technology on the lower-priced systems. But my memory is getting fuzzy. I was quite certain that the ND-5700 which was the last system I used did have a 4MB ND-120/CX, i.e. better spec'ed than in the table. What is listed in the table above is according to ND-05.02.1 EN, ND-5000 Hardware Description (1988).
TArntsen 09:48, 3 August 2009 (UTC)
I/O improvements
We should at some point add something about how I/O was improved during the ND-5000 lifetime. The ND-5000 series started out with all (or nearly all) I/O having to go through the ND-120 CPU (and creating a bottleneck), but soon the design was upgraded with I/O controllers (mass storage, ethernet, etc.) directly connected to the MF-BUS (which originally just connected the ND-120 to the ND-5000 CPU and shared memory), and controlled via OCTOBUS. Thus the MF-BUS became the central part and everything else connected to it (ND-120 CPU, ND-5000 CPU, MF-BUS system memory, DIOCs (DOMINO I/O controllers), and I/O to the DIOCs and other parts. These controllers (and even the ND-5000 itself) had local MC-68020 CPUs, for control and monitoring. The DOMINO controllers also had their own little operating systems (DOMINOS) on each board. The above is for now kept here as a reminder about writing something up at some point.. TArntsen 14:12, 15 August 2009 (UTC)