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- Newsgroups: comp.arch,sci.math,comp.lang.misc,comp.lang.fortran,comp.edu
- Path: sparky!uunet!mcsun!dxcern!dscomsa.desy.de!zeus02.desy.de!hallam
- From: hallam@zeus02.desy.de (Phill Hallam-Baker)
- Subject: Re: Re: Scientists as Programmers (was Re: Small Language Wanted)
- Message-ID: <1992Sep11.004523.20552@dscomsf.desy.de>
- Sender: news@dscomsf.desy.de (USENET News System)
- Nntp-Posting-Host: zws006.desy.de
- Reply-To: Hallam@zeus02.desy.de
- Organization: Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron, Experiment ZEUS bei HERA
- References: <1992Aug31.170849.11927@mprgate.mpr.ca> <1992Aug31.195540.13074@ctr.columbia.edu> <1992Sep1.115849.13522@relay.nswc.navy.mil> < <KERS.92Sep7084415@cdollin.hpl.hp.com>
- Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 00:45:23 GMT
- Lines: 33
-
- In article <KERS.92Sep7084415@cdollin.hpl.hp.com>, kers@hplb.hpl.hp.com (Chris
- Dollin) writes:
-
- |>In article ... hallam@zeus02.desy.de (Phill Hallam-Baker) writes:
- |>
- |> RISC machines are fast bercause they abolish support for assembly code. On
- |>a
- |> RISC machine instructions are provided for the sole benefit of compilers.
- |>
- |>Funny, that, because the RISC machine I have at home has an operating system
- |>written primarily in assembler.
- |>
- |>[Perhaps we Acornites could say; on the ARM, machine instructions are
- |>provided for -- and by -- the benefit of Roger Wilson!]
-
- Well since the guy can assemble 6502 code in his head (including branches) you
- would expect that sort of thing. All I would say is that the ARM is a "real"
- RISC machine, ie it is genuinely a reduced instruction set, if you look at the
- die it is pad bound with lotsa empty space. It is also a pretty unsuccessful
- chip considering that it beat the rest of the RISC crowd to the market. Acorn
- used RISC to allow them to build a chip very fast, the point about RISC though
- is not reducing the instruction set, it is rationalising it, optimising it to
- the demands of the task in hand. As with object oriented RISC is now an
- information content free word. Rest assured that any new chip will be dubbed
- "RISC" even a chip like DECchip "Alpha" with more variants for instructions than
- Joan Collins has had husbands. I bet if Motorola were to reintroduce the 68000
- as a 64 bit chip they would start by passing it off as a "RISC" design! I'm
- waiting to find a label on toasters saying "object oriented" - you give the
- toaster object a "bread" message and it returns a "toast" message...
-
- --
-
- Phill Hallam-Baker
-