The MicroVAX 78032 (otherwise known as the DC333) is a

microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circu ...

developed and fabricated by

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 unt ...

(DEC) that implements a subset of the

VAX VAX (an acronym for Virtual Address eXtension) is a series of computers featuring a 32-bit instruction set architecture (ISA) and virtual memory that was developed and sold by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in the late 20th century. The VA ...

instruction set architecture In computer science, an instruction set architecture (ISA), also called computer architecture, is an abstract model of a computer. A device that executes instructions described by that ISA, such as a central processing unit (CPU), is called an ' ...

(ISA). The 78032 is used exclusively in DEC's

-based systems, starting with the

MicroVAX II The MicroVAX is a discontinued family of low-cost minicomputers developed and manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). The first model, the MicroVAX I, was introduced in 1983.(announced October 1983) They used processors that impleme ...

in 1985. When clocked at a frequency of 5 MHz, the 78032's integer performance is comparable to the original

VAX-11/780 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 ad ...

of 1977. The microprocessor can be paired with the MicroVAX 78132 floating point accelerator for improved floating point performance. The 78032 represents a number of firsts for DEC. It is DEC's first single-chip microprocessor implementation of the VAX ISA and DEC's first self-fabricated microprocessor. The MicroVAX 78032 is also the first semiconductor device to be registered for protection under the

Semiconductor Chip Protection Act of 1984 The Semiconductor Chip Protection Act of 1984 (or SCPA) is an act of the US Congress that makes the layouts of integrated circuits legally protected upon registration, and hence illegal to copy without permission. It is an integrated circuit l ...

. The MicroVAX 78032 contains 125,000 transistors on an 8.7 by 8.6 mm (74.82 mm²)

die Die, as a verb, refers to death, the cessation of life. Die may also refer to: Games * Die, singular of dice, small throwable objects used for producing random numbers Manufacturing * Die (integrated circuit), a rectangular piece of a semicondu ...

that was fabricated in DEC's

ZMOS The V-11, code-named "Scorpio", is a miniprocessor chip set implementation of the VAX instruction set architecture (ISA) developed and fabricated by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). History The V-11 was Digital's first VAX microprocess ...

process, a 3.0 µm

NMOS logic N-type metal-oxide-semiconductor logic uses n-type (-) MOSFETs (metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors) to implement logic gates and other digital circuits. These nMOS transistors operate by creating an inversion layer in a p-type ...

process with two layers of

aluminum interconnect In integrated circuits (ICs), interconnects are structures that connect two or more circuit elements (such as transistors) together electrically. The design and layout of interconnects on an IC is vital to its proper function, performance, power ef ...

. The die is packaged in a 68-pin

surface-mount Surface-mount technology (SMT), originally called planar mounting, is a method in which the electrical components are mounted directly onto the surface of a printed circuit board (PCB). An electrical component mounted in this manner is referred ...

ed leaded chip carrier.

MicroVAX 78132

The MicroVAX 78132 (otherwise known as the DC337) is a

floating-point In computing, floating-point arithmetic (FP) is arithmetic that represents real numbers approximately, using an integer with a fixed precision, called the significand, scaled by an integer exponent of a fixed base. For example, 12.345 can b ...

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 o ...

for the MicroVAX 78032 microprocessor. It interfaces to the MicroVAX 78032 via the DAL bus and a few control lines. The MicroVAX 78132 is responsible for executing 61 out of 70 floating-point instructions defined by the MicroVAX subset of the VAX ISA and accelerates nine integer instructions. The MicroVAX 78132 has a 100 ns microcycle divided into four 25 ns clock phases which is generated by a 40 MHz input clock. It is composed of five "elements": a 67-bit fraction processor, a 13-bit exponent processor, a 1-bit sign processor, a microsequencer and a bus interface unit. The MicroVAX 78132 contains 32,141 transistors on a die measuring 8.4 mm by 6.6 mm (55.44 mm²). It was fabricated in DEC's ZMOS process, a 3.0 µm NMOS process with two layers of

; and is packaged in a 68-pin surface-mounted leaded chip carrier.

Other vendors

An identical copy of the 78032 was manufactured 1989/90 in

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

as the

U80701 The U80701 is a 32-bit microprocessor developed from 1986-1990 in the German Democratic Republic. It was manufactured by VEB Mikroelektronik "Karl Marx" Erfurt (MME) in NMOS technology and is encased in a ceramic quad flat package (CQFP-68 pac ...

. Another clone of the 78032 was manufactured in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

under the

designation Designation may refer to: * Designation (law), the process of determining an incumbent's successor * Professional certification * Designation (landmarks), an official classification determined by a government agency or historical society * Designa ...

KL1807VM3 (russian: КЛ1807ВМ3, italic=yes).

References

External links

"MicroVAX II" at The Computer History Simulation Project
{{Digital Equipment Corporation DEC microprocessors 32-bit microprocessors

MicroVAX 78132

Other vendors

References

Further reading

External links