The Intel i860 64-bit processor: a general-purpose CPU with 3D graphics capabilities

A description is given of the Intel i860 processor, which was designed for use in low-cost 3D graphics workstations. These products need high performance to support the operating system, simulations, transforms, and shading calculations. The integer unit provides high performance for Unix and other operating systems, the floating-point unit provides high throughput for computationally intensive applications and the processor includes 3D graphics hardware. The sustained high computation rates are supported by on-chip caches. The processor is supported by compilers and other development tools. The i860 processor will enable cost-effective interactive scientific visualization. This includes not only the numeric computation and 3D matrix transforms but also the pixel-intensive shading calculations that normally are either very costly or very slow. Integrating all these capabilities into one component allows design of a desktop unit or a single add-in card for existing personal computers.<>