【NEC】 NEC MS120, MS140, MS190

In 1982, NEC marketed a series of 32-bit high-performance minicomputers: the NEC MS120, MS140 and MS190.

In addition to employing a 32-bit architecture, this 32-bit family achieved higher system speed by employing features such as pipeline control, memory interleave, partial firmware conversion of operating system functions, and a high-speed standard bus. In particular the MS190, which was announced in January, achieved the world's highest performance in terms of scientific and engineering calculation by employing Current-Mode Logic LSI, a technology from the ACOS System 1000 ultra-large general-purpose computer.

The operating system, NCOS1, was a multi-service operating system used for a variety of applications, including communications network control, industrial control, scientific and engineering calculation and distributed processing, and it efficiently achieved simultaneous execution of multiple online real-time processing, time-sharing processing and batch processing tasks.

NEC MS Series 32-bit Family Main Specifications
  MS120 MS140 MS190
Announcement date April 1982 April 1982 January 1982
Memory Maximum memory capacity 2MB 4MB 16MB
Word configuration 32bit
Cycle time 510ns/4byte 435ns/4byte 498ns/16byte
Error correction ECC (Automatic error detection and correction)
Memory element LSI (64Kbit/chip)
Arithmetic Control system Microprogram
Number of instructions Max. 171, Additional 62 Basic 207, Additional 85
Arithmetic system Binary parallel, Fixed point
Decimal operations
(Optional)
Decimal operations
Floating point (Optional)
Registers 33 Standard 34, Additional 4
Interrupt levels 37
Other mechanisms Cache memory none Standard 32KB
Memory protection mechanism Standard 32KB
Scientific operation mechanism Optional
Vector operation control mechanism none optional

 
MS140MS190