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Re: ZF Microsystems MachZ

From: Christopher Allen <>
Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2000 19:40:47 -0800 (PST)

Rich Fletcher wrote:

> Semantic questions aside, I just read about a MachZ PC-on-a-chip by ZF
> Microsystems

>
> Price: "as low as" $50.  Probably bulk rate of course.  Double for small
> batches, maybe?  Beats me.
EMJ has the chip by itself for $82. EMJ also sells it with the development
board for $841. I would like to know the size of the dev board, but I'm
having problems communicating w/ ZFMicro. Someone please help here (but be
very careful how you approach them!).

> http://www.zfmicro.com has more info.  I couldn't divine how fast this
> thing would run in the real world; maybe someone else could elucidate
> (or at least *guess*).
It's a 586 so at 133MHz it should run exactly as fast as Thad's supermops
rig.

In a different E-mail message, Mark Willis wrote:
> This is an "embedded" processor, not particularly set up for a wearable
> application

...and...

> I'm not sure yet how hard it'd be to make this run desktop-style Linux,
> though.  I would bet it runs a Real Time Linux variant, those are aimed
> at embedded applications.

The MachZ isn't a processor. It's a 35mm x 35mm x86 motherboard. It's core
is a 32bit 586 processor with "full floating point capability." It
features "traditional PC hardware features including PCI, ISA and Access
(I2C) buses, serial and parallel I/O, floppy and hard disk controllers;"
an SDRAM controller for a maximum of 256MB; and two independent USB
interfaces.

It comes loaded with Linux 2.0.38. (Apparently they don't consider 2.2
stable.) It's guaranteed to run Windows 95, 98 and NT.

I'm no expert though. This thing is basically the same thing as the AMD
Elan, right?

http://www.zfmicro.com
http://www.emj.com

-Chris

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