Tartan C compiler revisited

[Bill Mitchell]

I stopped by the Tartan booth at UniForum and picked up a trial license
form, hoping to be able to get a copy of Tartan C for the Vax for
purposes of evaluation.  I guess I didn't read the fine print or something
because I was under the impression that the 30-day trial license was
*free*.  Anyway, I sent the form in a few days ago and today I got a
call from Tartan saying that we have send in a purchase order in for
the full purchase price in order to get the 30-day trial.  They say
they won't cash it unless we keep the system longer than 30 days, but
it seems like what they've got is closer to "money-back guarantee"
than "free trial".  Sigh.

I wonder if Tartan will try and retarget the Vax system for the CCI 6/32
(aka Sperry 7000/40) since the 6/32's instruction set seems to be a very
large subset of the Vax.  If they could get the same performance gains as
they claim for the Vax, one might end up with a system that's an average
of 6-7 times faster than a 780 with pcc.  An interesting possibility to
say the least.

					Bill Mitchell
					whm.arizona at csnet-relay
					{ihnp4,noao,mcnc,utah-cs}!arizona!whm