The R6000 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 circ ...

chip set developed by

MIPS Computer Systems MIPS Technologies, Inc., formerly MIPS Computer Systems, Inc., was an American fabless semiconductor design company that is most widely known for developing the MIPS architecture and a series of RISC CPU chips based on it. MIPS provides pro ...

that implemented the MIPS II

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 chip set consisted of the R6000 microprocessor, R6010 floating-point unit and R6020 system bus controller. The R6000 was the first implementation of the MIPS II ISA. The R6000 was implemented with

emitter-coupled logic In electronics, emitter-coupled logic (ECL) is a high-speed integrated circuit bipolar transistor logic family. ECL uses an overdriven bipolar junction transistor (BJT) differential amplifier with single-ended input and limited emitter current to ...

(ECL). In the mid- to late 1980s, the trend was to implement high-end microprocessors with high-speed logic such as ECL. As MIPS was a fabless company, the R6000 chip set was fabricated by

Bipolar Integrated Technology Bipolar Integrated Technology was a semiconductor company based in Beaverton, Oregon which sold products implemented with ECL technology. The company was founded in 1983 by former Floating Point Systems, Intel, and Tektronix engineers. The ini ...

(BIT) who had acted as a foundry for MIPS since November 1989. However, manufacturing issues that had caused "sporadic deliveries" of the R6000 to MIPS Computer Systems resulted in contractual restrictions being imposed on BIT, preventing the company from supplying other potential customers. Such issues, which had persisted for over a year, were reportedly resolved in 1991, enabling BIT to seek other customers for the product and, as part of its separate licensing agreement with MIPS, to be able to manufacture and sell customised versions of the chip. The R6000 had few users.

Control Data Systems Control Data Corporation (CDC) was a mainframe and supercomputer firm. CDC was one of the nine major United States computer companies through most of the 1960s; the others were IBM, Burroughs Corporation, DEC, NCR, General Electric, Honeywell ...

(CDS) used an 80 MHz version in their high-end 4680-300 Series InforServer server. MIPS used the R6000 in their RC6260 and RC6280 servers. One review of the RC6280 published in early 1991 described the product as "the single fastest system we have tested for CPU and FPU performance", enabling a "premium price" to be charged, with such pricing starting from $150,000 for the base configuration. However, delivery times for certain models were estimated at "several months" due to supply uncertainties with the processor.

References

* "MIPS Chip Set Implements Full ECL CPU". (December 1989). ''

Microprocessor Report ''Microprocessor Report'' is a newsletter covering the microprocessor industry. The publication is accessible only to paying subscribers. To avoid bias, it does not take advertisements. The publication provides extensive analysis of new high-perfo ...

''. pp. 1, 14–19. * Horowitz, M. et al. (1990)
"A 3.5ns, 1 Watt, ECL register file"
''ISSCC Digest of Technical Papers'', pp. 68–59, 267. * Roberts, D.; Layman, T.; Taylor, G. (1990)
"An ECL RISC microprocessor designed for two level cache"
''Compcon Spring '90 Digest of Technical Papers'', pp. 228–231. * Thorson, M. (January 1990). "ECL Bus Controller Hits 266 Mbytes/s". ''

''. pp. 12–13. {{MIPS microprocessors MIPS implementations MIPS microprocessors 32-bit microprocessors