VLIW Processors of the 1990s
The 1990s were an era of experimentation and platform development in high-performance computing. While general purpose computing mostly used 1980s CISC CPUs, technical computing progressed a lot during the 90s with new RISC platforms and experimental VLIW architectures.
The decade of the 1990s were an era of processor research and architecture experimentation. Technology companies developed many architectures when CPUs moved from 32-bit to 64-bit and migrated from CISC to RISC platforms. Many CPUs and architectures of that time are mostly unknown today.
| Processor | Versions | Architecture Bits |
Width VLIW |
Clock max |
Cache max |
Years first |
Special |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apollo PRISM | RISC and LIW 32-bit |
3-way | 20 MHz | 192 KB | 1988 | ||
| Intel iWarp | RISC and LIW 32-bit |
3-way 96-bit |
20 MHz | 1 KB | 1989 | IPC | |
| Intel i860 | i860XP, i860XR | RISC and LIW 32-bit |
2-way 64-bit |
50 MHz | 32 KB | 1989 | Graphics |
| Philips LIFE | LIFE-1 | VLIW 32-bit |
50 MHz | - | 1988 | ||
| Philips TriMedia | TM1000, TM1100, TM1300, PNX1300 |
VLIW 32-bit |
5-way 220-bit |
200 MHz | 48 KB | 1996 | Media, DSP |
| TI TMS320C6000 | TMS320C6x | VLIW 32-bit |
8-way 256-bit |
250 MHz | varies | 1997 | DSP |
| Sun MACJ | MACJ-5200 | RISC and VLIW 32-bit |
4-way 128-bit |
500 MHz dual |
48 KB | 1999 | DSP, SOC |
| Transmeta Crusoe | TM3200, TM5400 TMS5700, TM5900 |
VLIW 32-bit |
4-way 128-bit |
1.0 GHz | varies | 2000 | x86 |
| Intel Itanium | HP EPIC, IA64 | VLIW 64-bit |
6-way 128-bit |
2.6 GHz | varies | 2001 |
Information on VLIW and RISC stems from archives and 1990s CPU conferences.