The NS32000, sometimes known as the 32k, is a series of
microprocessor
A microprocessor is a computer processor (computing), processor for which the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit (IC), or a small number of ICs. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, a ...
s produced by
National Semiconductor
National Semiconductor Corporation was an United States of America, American Semiconductor manufacturing, semiconductor manufacturer, which specialized in analogue electronics, analog devices and subsystems, formerly headquartered in Santa Clara, ...
. Design work began around 1980 and it was announced at the
International Solid-State Circuits Conference
International Solid-State Circuits Conference is a global forum for presentation of advances in solid-state circuits and Systems-on-a-Chip. The conference is held every year in February at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis in downtown San Fr ...
in April 1981.
The first member of the family came to market in 1982, briefly known as the 16032 before being renamed as the 32016.
It was the first general-purpose microprocessor on the market that used
32-bit
In computer architecture, 32-bit computing refers to computer systems with a processor, memory, and other major system components that operate on data in a maximum of 32- bit units. Compared to smaller bit widths, 32-bit computers can perform la ...
data internally: the
Motorola 68000
The Motorola 68000 (sometimes shortened to Motorola 68k or m68k and usually pronounced "sixty-eight-thousand") is a 16/32-bit complex instruction set computer (CISC) microprocessor, introduced in 1979 by Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector ...
had 32-bit registers and instructions to perform 32-bit arithmetic, but used a 16-bit
ALU for arithmetic operations on data, and thus took twice as long as the 32016 to perform those arithmetic operations.
However, the 32016 contained many bugs and often could not be run at its rated speed. These problems, and the presence of the otherwise similar 68000 which had been available since 1980, led to little use in the market despite considerable early interest.
Several improved versions followed, including 1985's 32032 which was essentially a bug-fixed 32016 with an external 32-bit data bus. While it offered about 50% better speed than the 32016, it was outperformed by the 32-bit
Motorola 68020
The Motorola 68020 is a 32-bit microprocessor from Motorola, released in 1984. A lower-cost version was also made available, known as the 68EC020. In keeping with naming practices common to Motorola designs, the 68020 is usually referred to as t ...
, released a year prior. The 32532, released in 1987, outperformed the contemporary
Motorola 68030 by almost two times, but by this time most interest in microprocessors had turned to
RISC
In electronics and computer science, a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) is a computer architecture designed to simplify the individual instructions given to the computer to accomplish tasks. Compared to the instructions given to a comp ...
platforms and this otherwise excellent design saw almost no use as well.
National was working on further improvements in the 32732, but eventually gave up attempting to compete in the
central processing unit
A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor, or just processor, is the primary Processor (computing), processor in a given computer. Its electronic circuitry executes Instruction (computing), instructions ...
(CPU) space. Instead, the basic 32000 architecture was combined with several support systems and relaunched as the Swordfish
microcontroller
A microcontroller (MC, uC, or μC) or microcontroller unit (MCU) is a small computer on a single integrated circuit. A microcontroller contains one or more CPUs (processor cores) along with memory and programmable input/output peripherals. Pro ...
. This had some success in the market before it was replaced by the
CompactRISC architecture in mid-1990s.
Design concept

The NS32000 series traces its history to an effort by National Semiconductor to produce a single-chip implementation of the
VAX-11
The VAX-11 is a discontinued family of 32-bit superminicomputers, running the Virtual Address eXtension (VAX) instruction set architecture (ISA), developed and manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Development began in 1976. In ...
architecture.
The VAX is well known for its highly "orthogonal"
instruction set architecture
In computer science, an instruction set architecture (ISA) is an abstract model that generally defines how software controls the CPU in a computer or a family of computers. A device or program that executes instructions described by that ISA, ...
(ISA), in which any instruction can be applied to any data. For instance, an
ADD
instruction might add the contents of two
processor register
A processor register is a quickly accessible location available to a computer's processor. Registers usually consist of a small amount of fast storage, although some registers have specific hardware functions, and may be read-only or write-onl ...
s, or one register against a value in memory, two values in memory, or use the register as an offset against an address. This flexibility was considered the paragon of design in the era of
complex instruction set computer
A complex instruction set computer (CISC ) is a computer architecture in which single instructions can execute several low-level operations (such as a load from memory, an arithmetic operation, and a memory store) or are capable of multi-step ...
s (CISC).
National took
Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC ), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president until ...
(DEC) to court in
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
to ensure the legality of the design, but when DEC had the lawsuit moved to
Massachusetts
Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
, DEC's home state, the lawsuit was dropped and the Series 32000 architecture was developed instead. Although the new
instruction set architecture
In computer science, an instruction set architecture (ISA) is an abstract model that generally defines how software controls the CPU in a computer or a family of computers. A device or program that executes instructions described by that ISA, ...
was not VAX-11 compatible, it did retain its highly "
orthogonal
In mathematics, orthogonality (mathematics), orthogonality is the generalization of the geometric notion of ''perpendicularity''. Although many authors use the two terms ''perpendicular'' and ''orthogonal'' interchangeably, the term ''perpendic ...
" design philosophy. That is, every instruction could be used with any type of data. Articles of the time also referred to this as "symmetrical".
The original processor family consisted of the NS16032 CPU and a NS16C032 low-power variant, both having a 16-bit data path and so requiring two machine cycles to load a single 32-bit word. Both could be used with the NS16082
memory management unit
A memory management unit (MMU), sometimes called paged memory management unit (PMMU), is a computer hardware unit that examines all references to computer memory, memory, and translates the memory addresses being referenced, known as virtual mem ...
(MMU), which provided 24-bit
virtual memory
In computing, virtual memory, or virtual storage, is a memory management technique that provides an "idealized abstraction of the storage resources that are actually available on a given machine" which "creates the illusion to users of a ver ...
support for up to 16 MB physical memory. The NS16008 was a cut-down version with an 8-bit external data path and no virtual memory support, which had a reduced pin count and was thus somewhat easier to implement.
Both the NS16008 and NS16016 were to feature an emulation mode for the
Intel 8080
The Intel 8080 is Intel's second 8-bit computing, 8-bit microprocessor. Introduced in April 1974, the 8080 was an enhanced successor to the earlier Intel 8008 microprocessor, although without binary compatibility.'' Electronic News'' was a week ...
running at four times the speed of that processor.
At the same time, National Semiconductor also announced two future versions, the NS32032 and NS32132. The former was essentially a version of the NS16032 with a 32-bit external data bus, allowing it to read data at twice the rate. This was project to be released in 1984. The NS32132 was a version with a 29-bit internal addresses and 32-bit external, allowing it to address a complete 4 GB of memory. It was to be released in 1985.
All of these could also be used with the NS16081
floating-point unit
A floating-point unit (FPU), numeric processing unit (NPU), colloquially math coprocessor, is a part of a computer system specially designed to carry out operations on floating-point numbers. Typical operations are addition, subtraction, multip ...
(FPU).
Architecture
The processors have 8 general-purpose 32-bit registers, plus a series of special-purpose registers:
* Frame pointer
* Stack pointer (one each for user and supervisor modes)
* Static base register, for referencing global variables
* Link base register for dynamically linked modules (object orientation)
* Program counter
* A typical processor status register, with a low-order user byte and a high-order system byte.
(Additional system registers not listed).
The instruction set is very much in the
CISC model, with 2-operand instructions, memory-to-memory operations, flexible
addressing mode
Addressing modes are an aspect of the instruction set architecture in most central processing unit (CPU) designs. The various addressing modes that are defined in a given instruction set architecture define how the machine language instructions ...
s, and variable-length byte-aligned instruction encoding. Addressing modes can involve up to two displacements and two memory indirections per operand as well as scaled indexing, making the longest conceivable instruction 23 bytes. The actual number of instructions is much lower than that of contemporary RISC processors.
Unlike some other processors, automatic increment of the base register is not provided; the only exception is a "top of stack" addressing modes that pop sources and push destinations. Uniquely, the size of the displacement is encoded in its most significant bits: 0, 10 and 11 preceded 7-, 14- and 30-bit signed displacements. (Although the processors are otherwise consistently little-endian, displacements in the instruction stream are stored in big-endian order).
General-purpose operands are specified using a 5-bit field. To this can be added an index byte (specifying the index register and 5-bit base address), and up to 2 variable-length displacements per operand.
32016
The first chip in the series was originally referred to as the 16032, but later renamed 32016 to emphasize its 32-bit internals. This contrasts it with its primary competitor in this space, 1979's Motorola 68000 (68k). The 68k used 32-bit instructions and registers, but its
arithmetic logic unit
In computing, an arithmetic logic unit (ALU) is a Combinational logic, combinational digital circuit that performs arithmetic and bitwise operations on integer binary numbers. This is in contrast to a floating-point unit (FPU), which operates on ...
(ALU), which controls much of the overall processing task, was only 16-bit. This meant it had to cycle 32-bit data through the ALU twice—in two 16-bit halves—to complete a 32-bit operation. In contrast, the NS32000 has a 32-bit ALU, so that 32-bit and 16-bit instructions take the same time to complete.
The 32016 first shipped in 1982 in a 48-pin
DIP package. To fit a 32-bit chip into a 48-pin package required the
data bus
In computer architecture, a bus (historically also called a data highway or databus) is a communication system that transfers data between components inside a computer or between computers. It encompasses both hardware (e.g., wires, optical ...
to be 16-bits wide, and to share pins with the 24-bit
address bus
In computer architecture, a bus (historically also called a data highway or databus) is a communication system that transfers data between components inside a computer or between computers. It encompasses both hardware (e.g., wires, optical ...
. By sharing pins, external hardware had to latch the address for the memory address while the pins were used in data mode, and this introduces a 1-cycle delay in every access. So while the internal 32-bit implementation improves performance, the small pin-count decreases it again.
It may have been the first 32-bit chip to reach mass production and sale (at least according to National's marketing). In a report in a June 1983 publication, however, it was remarked that National was "promising production quantities this summer" of 16032 parts, having been "shipping sample quantities for several months", with the floating point co-processor sampling "this month".
Although a 1982 introduction post-dates the 68k by about two years, the 68k was not yet being widely used in the market and the 32016 generated significant interest. Unfortunately, the early versions were filled with bugs and could rarely be run at their rated speed. By 1984, after two years, the errata list still contained items specifying uncontrollable conditions that would result in the processor coming to a halt, forcing a reset.
The original product roadmap envisaged 6 MHz and 10 MHz parts during 1983 and 12 MHz and 14 MHz parts during 1984.
However, press reports in 1984 indicated difficulties in keeping to this roadmap, with it reportedly having taken five months to increase the frequency of the parts from 6 MHz to 8 MHz, and with representatives estimating a further "two, three or five months" to increase the frequency to 10 MHz. Two unspecified chips of the five in the chipset were reported to be the cause of these problems.
An early 1985 article about the 32016-based Whitechapel MG-1 workstation noted that the 32082 memory management unit was "suffering from bugs" and had been situated on its own board providing hardware fixes.
In 1986, Texas Instruments announced a "fully qualified 10 MHz TI32000 32-bit microprocessor chip set" consisting of the TI32016 CPU and TI32082 memory management unit as 48-pin devices, the TI32201 timing control unit and TI32081 floating-point unit as 24-pin devices, and the TI32202 interrupt control unit as a 40-pin device, with the five-device chipset "priced at $289 in 100-unit quantities".
National changed its design methodology to make it possible to get the part into production and a design system based on the language "Z" was co-developed with the University of Tel-Aviv, close to the "NSC" design centre in
Herzliya
Herzliya ( ; , / ) is an affluent List of Israeli cities, city in the Israeli coastal plain, central coast of Israel, at the northern part of the Tel Aviv District, known for its robust start-up and entrepreneurial culture. In it had a populatio ...
, Israel. The "Z" language is similar to today's
Verilog
Verilog, standardized as IEEE 1364, is a hardware description language (HDL) used to model electronic systems. It is most commonly used in the design and verification of digital circuits, with the highest level of abstraction being at the re ...
and
VHDL
VHDL (Very High Speed Integrated Circuit Program, VHSIC Hardware Description Language) is a hardware description language that can model the behavior and structure of Digital electronics, digital systems at multiple levels of abstraction, ran ...
, but has a Pascal-like syntax and is optimized for
two-phase clock designs. However, by the times the fruit of these efforts were being felt in the design, numerous 68k machines were already on the market, notably the
Apple Macintosh
Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...
, and the 32016 never saw widespread use.
The 32016 has a 16-bit external
data bus
In computer architecture, a bus (historically also called a data highway or databus) is a communication system that transfers data between components inside a computer or between computers. It encompasses both hardware (e.g., wires, optical ...
, a 24-bit external
address bus
In computer architecture, a bus (historically also called a data highway or databus) is a communication system that transfers data between components inside a computer or between computers. It encompasses both hardware (e.g., wires, optical ...
, and a full 32-bit
instruction set
In computer science, an instruction set architecture (ISA) is an abstract model that generally defines how software controls the CPU in a computer or a family of computers. A device or program that executes instructions described by that ISA, s ...
. It also includes a
coprocessor
A coprocessor is a computer processor used to supplement the functions of the primary processor (the CPU). Operations performed by the coprocessor may be floating-point arithmetic, graphics, signal processing, string processing, cryptography or ...
interface, allowing coprocessors such as
FPUs and
MMUs to be attached as peers to the main processor. The MMU is based on
demand paging
In computer operating systems, demand paging (as opposed to anticipatory paging) is a method of virtual memory management. In a system that uses demand paging, the operating system copies a disk page into physical memory only when an attempt is m ...
virtual memory, which is the most unusual feature compared to the segmented memory approach used by the competition, and has become the standard for how microprocessors are designed today. The architecture supports an instruction restart mechanism on a page fault, which is much cleaner than the Motorola approach to dump the internal status on a page fault, which has to be read back, before the instruction is continued.

While often compared to the 68k's instruction set, this was rejected by NSC employees; one of the key marketing phrases of the time was "Elegance is Everything", comparing the highly orthogonal Series 32000 to the "kludge". One key difference is Motorola's use of address registers and data registers, with instructions only working on either address or data registers. The Series 32000 has general-purpose registers, described as "address-data" registers in technical documentation.
32032

The 32032 was introduced in 1984. It is almost completely compatible with the 32016, but features a 32-bit data bus (although keeping the 24-bit address bus) for somewhat faster performance, described as "minicomputer performance" comparable with that of a VAX-11 system.
There was also a 32008, a 32016 with a data bus cut down to 8-bits wide for low-cost applications. It is philosophically similar to the
MC68008, and equally unpopular.
National also produced a series of related support chips like the NS32081
floating point unit
A floating-point unit (FPU), numeric processing unit (NPU), colloquially math coprocessor, is a part of a computer system specially designed to carry out operations on floating-point numbers. Typical operations are addition, subtraction, multipli ...
(FPU), NS32082
memory management unit
A memory management unit (MMU), sometimes called paged memory management unit (PMMU), is a computer hardware unit that examines all references to computer memory, memory, and translates the memory addresses being referenced, known as virtual mem ...
(MMU), NS32203
direct memory access
Direct memory access (DMA) is a feature of computer systems that allows certain hardware subsystems to access main system computer memory, memory independently of the central processing unit (CPU).
Without DMA, when the CPU is using programmed i ...
(DMA) and NS32202
interrupt controller
In computing, a programmable interrupt controller (PIC) is an integrated circuit that helps a microprocessor (or CPU) handle interrupt requests (IRQs) coming from multiple different sources (like external I/O devices) which may occur simultane ...
s. With the full set plus memory chips and peripherals, it was feasible to build a 32-bit computer system capable of supporting modern multi-tasking operating systems, something that had previously been possible only on expensive minicomputers and
mainframe
A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterpris ...
s.
Image:NS_NS16032_die.JPG, NS16032 CPU
Image:NS_NS16081_die.JPG, NS16081 FPU
Image:NS_NS32032_die.jpg, NS32032 CPU
Image:NS_NS32081_die.JPG, NS32081 FPU
Image:NS_NS32082_die.jpg, NS32082 MMU
Image:NS_NS32202_die.jpg, NS32202 Interrupt controller
Image:NS_NS32203_die.jpg, NS32203 DMA controller
32332, 32532
In 1985, National Semi introduced the NS32332, a much-improved version of the 32032. From the datasheet, the enhancements include "the addition of new dedicated addressing hardware (consisting of a high speed ALU, a
barrel shifter
A barrel shifter is a digital circuit that can bit shift, shift a word (data type), data word by a specified number of bits without the use of any sequential logic, only pure combinational logic, i.e. it inherently provides a binary operation. I ...
and an address register), a very efficient increased (20 bytes) instruction prefetch queue, a new system/memory bus interface/protocol, increased efficiency slave processor protocol and finally enhancements of microcode." There was also a new NS32382 MMU, NS32381 FPU and the (very rare) NS32310 interface to a
Weitek FPA. The aggregate performance boost of the NS32332 from these enhancements only made it 50 percent faster than the original NS32032, and therefore less than that of the main competitor, the
MC68020.
National Semi introduced the NS32532 in early 1987. Running at 20-, 25- & 30-MHz, it was a complete redesign of the internal implementation with a five-stage pipeline, an integrated Cache/MMU and improved memory performance, making it about twice as performant as the competing
MC68030 and
i80386. At this stage RISC architectures were starting to make inroads, and the main competitors became the now equally dead
AM29000 and
MC88000, which was considered faster than the NS32532. For floating-point, the NS32532 used the existing NS32381 or the NS32580 interface to a Weitek FPA. The NS32532 was the basis of the
PC532, a "public domain" hardware project, and one of the few to produce a useful machine running a real operating system (in this case,
Minix
MINIX is a Unix-like operating system based on a microkernel Software architecture, architecture, first released in 1987 and written by American-Dutch computer scientist Andrew S. Tanenbaum. It was designed as a clone of the Unix operating syste ...
or
NetBSD
NetBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). It was the first open-source BSD descendant officially released after 386BSD was fork (software development), forked. It continues to ...
).
The semi-mythical NS32732 (sometimes called NS32764), envisioned as the high-performance successor to the NS32532, never came to the market.
Swordfish
A derivative of the NS32732 called Swordfish was aimed at
embedded system
An embedded system is a specialized computer system—a combination of a computer processor, computer memory, and input/output peripheral devices—that has a dedicated function within a larger mechanical or electronic system. It is e ...
s and arrived in about 1990. Swordfish has an integrated floating point unit, timers, DMA controllers and other peripherals not normally available in microprocessors. It has a 64-bit data bus and is internally overclocked from 25 to 50 MHz. The chief architect of the Swordfish is
Donald Alpert, who went on to manage the architectural team designing the
Pentium
Pentium is a series of x86 architecture-compatible microprocessors produced by Intel from 1993 to 2023. The Pentium (original), original Pentium was Intel's fifth generation processor, succeeding the i486; Pentium was Intel's flagship proce ...
. The Pentium internal microarchitecture is similar to the preceding Swordfish.
The focus of Swordfish was high-end
PostScript
PostScript (PS) is a page description language and dynamically typed, stack-based programming language. It is most commonly used in the electronic publishing and desktop publishing realm, but as a Turing complete programming language, it c ...
laser printer
Laser printing is an electrostatic digital printing process. It produces high-quality text and graphics (and moderate-quality photographs) by repeatedly passing a laser beam back and forth over a Electric charge, negatively charged cylinder call ...
s, and performance was exceptional at the time. Competing solutions could render about one new page per minute, but the Swordfish demo unit would print out sixteen pages per minute, limited only by the laser-engine mechanics. On each page it would print out how much time it was idling, waiting for the engine to complete.
The Swordfish die is huge, and it was eventually decided to drop the project altogether, and the product never went into production. The lessons from the Swordfish were used for the CompactRISC designs. In the beginning, there were both a CompactRISC-32 and a CompactRISC-16, designed using "Z". National never brought a chip to the market with the CompactRISC-32 core. National's Research department worked with the University of Michigan to develop the first synthesizable Verilog Model, and Verilog was used from the CR16C and onwards.
Others
Versions of the older NS32000 line for low-cost products such as the NS32CG16, NS32CG160, NS32FV16, NS32FX161, NS32FX164 and the NS32AM160/1/3, all based on the NS302CG16 were introduced from 1987 and onwards.
These processors had some success in the
laser printer
Laser printing is an electrostatic digital printing process. It produces high-quality text and graphics (and moderate-quality photographs) by repeatedly passing a laser beam back and forth over a Electric charge, negatively charged cylinder call ...
and
fax
Fax (short for facsimile), sometimes called telecopying or telefax (short for telefacsimile), is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material (both text and images), normally to a telephone number connected to a printer or other out ...
market, despite intense competition from
AMD
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California and maintains significant operations in Austin, Texas. AMD is a hardware and fabless company that de ...
and Intel
RISC
In electronics and computer science, a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) is a computer architecture designed to simplify the individual instructions given to the computer to accomplish tasks. Compared to the instructions given to a comp ...
chips. Especially the NS32CG16 should be noted. The key difference between this and the NS32C016 is the integration of the expensive timing control unit (TCU) which generates the needed two-phase clock from a crystal, and the removal of the floating point coprocessor support, which freed up microcode space for the useful BitBLT instruction set, which significantly improves the performance in laser printer operations, making this 60,000 transistor chip faster than the 200,000 transistor MC68020. The NS32CG160 is the CG16 with timers and DMA peripherals, while the NS32FV/FX16x chips have extra DSP functionality on top of the CG16 BitBLT core for the fax and
answering machine
An answering machine, answerphone, or message machine, also known as telephone messaging machine (or TAM) in the United Kingdom, UK and some Commonwealth countries, ansaphone or ansafone (from a trade name), or telephone answering device (TAD), ...
market. They are complemented by the NS32532 based NS32GX32 later. Unlike the previous chips, there was no extra hardware. The NS32GX32 is the NS32532 without the MMU sold at an attractive price for embedded system. In the beginning, this was just a remarked chip. It is unclear if the chip was redesigned for lower-cost production.
Datasheets exist for an NS32132, apparently designed for multiprocessor systems. This is the NS32032 extended with an arbiter. The bus usage of the NS32032 is about 50 percent, owing to its very compact instruction set, or its very slow pipeline as competitors would phrase it. Indeed, one suggested application of the NS32032 was as part of a "fault-tolerant transaction system" employing "two 32032s in parallel and comparing results on alternate memory cycles to detect soft errors".
The NS32132 chip allows a pair of CPUs to be connected to the same memory system, without much change of the PCB. Prototype systems were built by
Diab Data AB in
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
, but did not perform as well as the single-CPU MC68020 system designed by the same company.
Image:NS_NS32C016_die.jpg, NS32C016 CPU
Image:NS_NS32381_die.JPG, NS32381 FPU
Image:NS_NS32382_die.jpg, NS32382 MMU
Image:NS_NS32532_die.JPG, NS32532 CPU
Machines using the NS32000 series
*
Acorn Cambridge Workstation
The Acorn Business Computer (ABC) was a series of microcomputers announced at the end of 1983 by the United Kingdom, British company Acorn Computers. The series of eight computers was aimed at the business, research and further education markets. ...
– NS32016 (with 6502-based
BBC Micro
The BBC Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a family of microcomputers developed and manufactured by Acorn Computers in the early 1980s as part of the BBC's Computer Literacy Project. Launched in December 1981, it was showcased across severa ...
host)
*
BBC Micro 32016 Second Processor - a separate expansion for the BBC Micro providing the NS32016 capabilities from the Acorn Cambridge Workstation
*
Canon
Canon or Canons may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author
* Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture
** Western canon, th ...
LBP-8 Mark III Laser Printer – NS32CG16
*
CompuPro 32016 – NS32016 S-100 Card
* Definicon DSI-32 - NS32032 PC Add-On Board
*
Encore Multimax – NS32032, NS32332 and NS32532 Multiprocessor
*
E-mu Systems
E-mu Systems was a software synthesizer, audio interface, MIDI interface, and MIDI keyboard manufacturer. Founded in 1971 as a synthesizer maker, E-mu was a pioneer in samplers, sample-based drum machines and low-cost digital sampling musi ...
Emax – NS32008
* E-mu Systems
Emulator III – NS32016
*
ETH Zürich
ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ra ...
Ceres workstation – NS32032
* ETH Zürich
Ceres-2 workstation – NS32532
* ETH Zürich
Ceres-3 workstation – NS32GX32
* General Robotics Corp. Python – NS32032 & N32016
Q-Bus card
* Heurikon VME532 – NS32532 VME Card (with cache)
*
IBM RT PC
The IBM RT PC (RISC Technology Personal Computer) is a family of workstation computers from IBM introduced in 1986. These were the first commercial computers from IBM that were based on a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) architecture. Th ...
– Some early models used the NS32081 FPU as a coprocessor for the
IBM ROMP microprocessor
*
Intermec
Intermec, Inc. was a manufacturer and supplier of automated identification and data capture equipment, including barcode scanners, barcode printers, mobile computers, RFID systems, voice recognition systems, and life cycle services.
Intermec hel ...
(previously A-Tech and then UBI) Label Printer – NS32CG16
*
Intergraph
Intergraph Corporation was an American software development and services company, which now forms part of Hexagon AB. It provides enterprise engineering and geospatially powered software to businesses, governments, and organizations around the w ...
Interpro 32 (NS 32032)
* Labtam Unix System NS32032 and NS32332 CPUs
* Lauterbach Incircuit Emulator ICE (System Controller 32-bit, first version in 1996, max 16 MB ZIP20-RAM, Z180 to serve Ethernet)
* Mosaic Technologies' – Shared Vision Systems graphics workstations, introduced in 1984, using the NS32032, NS32081 floating-point unit and NS32082 paged memory management unit, together with a proprietary 64-bit graphics processor based on Am29116 bit-slice microprocessor technology offering a 16-million colour palette and resolutions of or , running BSD Unix 4.1 with elements of BSD 4.2 and System V
*
National Semiconductor
National Semiconductor Corporation was an United States of America, American Semiconductor manufacturing, semiconductor manufacturer, which specialized in analogue electronics, analog devices and subsystems, formerly headquartered in Santa Clara, ...
ICM-3216 – NS32016
* National Semiconductor ICM-332-1 – NS32332 w/ NS32016 I/O processor
* National Semiconductor SYS32/20 – NS32016 PC add-on board w/ Unix
* Opus Systems Opus516 Personal Mainframe – NS32016 PC Add-On Board
* Opus Systems Opus532.32 Personal Mainframe – NS32032 PC Add-On Board
*
PC532 – NS32532
*
Sequent
In mathematical logic, a sequent is a very general kind of conditional assertion.
: A_1,\,\dots,A_m \,\vdash\, B_1,\,\dots,B_n.
A sequent may have any number ''m'' of condition formulas ''Ai'' (called " antecedents") and any number ''n'' of ass ...
Balance – NS32016, NS32032 and NS32332 multiprocessor
*
Siemens
Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...
PC-MX2 – NS32016
* Siemens MX300-05/-10/-15/-30 – NS32332 (−05/-10) or NS32532 (−15/-30) under
SINIX (MX300-55 and later use
i486
The Intel 486, officially named i486 and also known as 80486, is a microprocessor introduced in 1989. It is a higher-performance follow-up to the i386, Intel 386. It represents the fourth generation of binary compatible CPUs following the Inte ...
)
* Siemens MX500-75/-85 – NS32532 (2-8x CPUs; Sequent Boards / MX500-90 uses 2-12x i486)
* Symmetric Computer Systems S/375 – NS32016, used to cross-develop
386BSD
386BSD (also known as "Jolix") is a Unix-like operating system that was developed by couple Lynne and William "Bill" Jolitz. Released as free and open source in 1992, it was the first fully operational Unix built to run on IBM PC-compatible s ...
* Syte Information Technology Model 300 – NS32032-based Unix graphics workstation,
several such "multiple tightly coupled microcomputers organized in a mainframe architecture" comprising the Syte Series 3000 "micro-mainframe" running the Global Environment Manager to manage multiple virtual environments on each processor node,
with Syte eventually failing before initial product shipments
*
Tektronix
Tektronix, Inc., historically widely known as Tek, is an American company best known for manufacturing test and measurement devices such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and video and mobile test protocol equipment. Originally an independent c ...
4132 workstation - NS32016
* Tektronix
6100 series - lab controller (6110) and workstations (6120/6130) - NS32016
* Tektronix
6200 series workstations – NS32016 I/O processor (all models); NS32016 CPU (6205), NS32032 CPU (6210), or multiple NS32032 CPUs (6212)
*
Tolerant Systems Eternity Series – NS32032 w/ NS32016 I/O processor
* Trinity College Workstation – NS32332
*
Teklogix 9020 network controller – NS32332
* Teklogix 9200 network controller – NS32CG160
*
Whitechapel
Whitechapel () is an area in London, England, and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in east London and part of the East End of London, East End. It is the location of Tower Hamlets Town Hall and therefore the borough tow ...
MG-1 – NS32016
* Whitechapel MG200 – NS32332
Legacy
The emergence of workstations based on microprocessors such as the Motorola 68000 encouraged Digital to contemplate introducing a low-end, 32-bit "supermicro" product.
Prompted by "an unsolicited proposal from a semiconductor manufacturer", later identified as
Zilog
Zilog, Inc. is an American manufacturer of microprocessors, microcontrollers, and application-specific embedded System on a chip, system-on-chip (SoC) products.
The company was founded in 1974 by Federico Faggin and Ralph Ungermann, who were soo ...
,
seeking to develop a high-volume, high-performance chipset implementing a subset of the VAX architecture, Digital sought more capable semiconductor partners for such an effort without success.
Although the company later pursued this effort alone, resulting in the
MicroVAX
The MicroVAX is a discontinued family of low-cost minicomputers developed and manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). The first model, the MicroVAX I, shipped in 1984. The series uses processors that implement the VAX instruction se ...
architecture and product family, the lack of industry interest and concerns about resourcing led some in the program team to consider adopting the then-unreleased NS32032 and porting VMS in order to realise their original objective.
In June 2015, Udo Möller released a complete
Verilog
Verilog, standardized as IEEE 1364, is a hardware description language (HDL) used to model electronic systems. It is most commonly used in the design and verification of digital circuits, with the highest level of abstraction being at the re ...
implementation of an NS32000 processor on
OpenCores
OpenCores is a community developing digital open-source hardware through electronic design automation (EDA), with a similar ethos to the free software movement. OpenCores hopes to eliminate redundant design work and significantly reduce developm ...
. Fully software-compatible with an NS32532 CPU with N32381 FPU, it is significantly faster when implemented on an
FPGA
A field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is a type of configurable integrated circuit that can be repeatedly programmed after manufacturing. FPGAs are a subset of logic devices referred to as programmable logic devices (PLDs). They consist of a ...
,
M32632 Performance
(cpu-ns32k.net) both operating at a higher clock rate and using fewer cycles per instruction.
References
* Trevor G. Marshall, George Scolaro and David L. Rand: ''The Definicon DSI-32 Coprocessor''. Micro Cornucopia, Aug/September 1985,
* Trevor G. Marshall, George Scolaro and David L. Rand: ''The DSI-32 Coprocessor Board''. Part 1, BYTE
The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable un ...
, August 1985, pp 120–136; Part 2, BYTE, September 1985, p 116.
External links
; Datasheets
Data book NS32000 family (1986)
NS32532
NS32C032
NS32381
an excellent "fan site" and home of the M32632 FPGA clone.
{{Authority control
320xx
32-bit microprocessors