Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design.

From	Mark Thorson <nospam@sonic.net>
Newsgroups	comp.arch, comp.compilers, alt.folklore.computers
Subject	Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design.
Date	2011-07-18 14:26 -0800
Organization	none
Message-ID	<11-07-028@comp.compilers> (permalink)
References	<vbhu17tqe8f03a9i8tar3kpoirg02l8iuj@4ax.com>

Cross-posted to 3 groups.

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Roberto Waltman wrote:
>
> Recently I've become (very) interested in Wirth's Lilith/Modula-2
> workstation, which leads me to ask:
>
> What other systems were developed in a similar fashion?
>
> That is, to support mainly one language with the language guiding the
> architectural design.

It could be argued that the National Semiconductor NS16032 (later
renamed NS32016) qualifies.  The designers Les Kohn and Dan O'Dowd
started with an instruction set more-or-less based on the VAX and
pared it down to what they considered a minimum.  Dan wrote a Pascal
compiler that guided the design of the architecture in the sense that
every time the chip designers in Israel asked whether they could
delete a feature Les would turn to Dan and ask how that would affect
the compiler.  That chip was intended to be a general-purpose
architecture, but the compiler guided decisions on what features were
important.

Four instructions were deleted relatively late in the design process,
and you can see the places where they would have been if you look at
any early 32000 family die.  There are four clear stripes that span
the microcode ROM.  I believe these are visible on all 32000 family
devices through the NS32332.  If I remember correctly, the CPU was
reimplemented in the NS32532, at which point the stripes disappeared.

[Too bad they didn't have time to debug the chip before they shipped
it.  The NS chips, at least the early ones, were so buggy as to be
almost unusable. -John]

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Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. Roberto Waltman <usenet@rwaltman.com> - 2011-07-14 15:37 -0400
  Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. blp@cs.stanford.edu (Ben Pfaff) - 2011-07-14 13:03 -0700
    Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. Peter Flass <Peter_Flass@Yahoo.com> - 2011-07-14 21:16 -0400
  Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. Peter Flass <Peter_Flass@Yahoo.com> - 2011-07-14 16:06 -0400
    Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. Charles Richmond <frizzle@tx.rr.com> - 2011-07-14 20:42 -0500
      Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. Peter Flass <Peter_Flass@Yahoo.com> - 2011-07-15 07:50 -0400
        Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2011-07-15 09:56 -0400
        Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. John Levine <johnl@iecc.com> - 2011-07-15 17:38 +0000
          Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. Charles Richmond <frizzle@tx.rr.com> - 2011-07-15 23:22 -0500
            Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. John Levine <johnl@iecc.com> - 2011-07-17 19:33 +0000
  Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. cb@mer.df.lth.se (Christian Brunschen) - 2011-07-14 20:25 +0000
  Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. EricP <ThatWouldBeTelling@thevillage.com> - 2011-07-14 17:42 -0400
    Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. mac <acolvin@efunct.com> - 2011-07-17 15:31 +0000
      Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. Bill Findlay <yaldnif.w@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2011-07-17 16:59 +0100
      Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2011-07-17 12:11 -0400
        Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. Mike Hore <mike_horeREM@OVE.invalid.aapt.net.au> - 2011-07-19 12:04 +1000
      Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. EricP <ThatWouldBeTelling@thevillage.com> - 2011-07-17 13:02 -0400
        Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. Terje Mathisen <"terje.mathisen at tmsw.no"> - 2011-07-17 20:42 +0200
          Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2011-07-18 11:49 +0000
        Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. Andrew Reilly <areilly---@bigpond.net.au> - 2011-07-17 23:14 +0000
          Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. EricP <ThatWouldBeTelling@thevillage.com> - 2011-07-19 12:54 -0400
            Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. Andrew Reilly <areilly---@bigpond.net.au> - 2011-07-19 22:16 +0000
      Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. Roberto Waltman <usenet@rwaltman.com> - 2011-07-17 19:20 -0400
        Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. EricP <ThatWouldBeTelling@thevillage.com> - 2011-07-19 12:54 -0400
          Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. Roberto Waltman <usenet@rwaltman.com> - 2011-07-19 14:50 -0400
        Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. EricP <ThatWouldBeTelling@thevillage.com> - 2011-07-19 16:24 -0400
  Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. Andrew Reilly <areilly---@bigpond.net.au> - 2011-07-14 22:57 +0000
    Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2011-07-19 16:16 -0700
  Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. EricP <ThatWouldBeTelling@thevillage.com> - 2011-07-14 19:04 -0400
  Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. Al Kossow <aek@bitsavers.org> - 2011-07-14 17:15 -0700
  Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2011-07-14 20:34 -0500
  Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. torbenm@diku.dk (Torben Ægidius Mogensen) - 2011-07-15 10:28 +0200
  Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. kenney@cix.compulink.co.uk - 2011-07-15 04:31 -0500
  Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. Mark Thorson <nospam@sonic.net> - 2011-07-18 14:26 -0800
    Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design. Charles Richmond <plano.net@aquaporin4.com> - 2011-07-20 01:10 -0500

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