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

From	Charles Richmond <plano.net@aquaporin4.com>
Newsgroups	comp.arch, comp.compilers, alt.folklore.computers
Subject	Re: Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design.
Date	2011-07-20 01:10 -0500
Organization	Canine Computer Center
Message-ID	<11-07-033@comp.compilers> (permalink)
References	<vbhu17tqe8f03a9i8tar3kpoirg02l8iuj@4ax.com> <11-07-028@comp.compilers>

Cross-posted to 3 groups.

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On 7/18/11 5:26 PM, Mark Thorson wrote:
> 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]

Yes, I was very interested in the instruction descriptions for the
NS32016.  Seems it had a "CASE" assembly language instruction.
But I heard that the chip had hardware problems that were *never*
worked out...  Too bad.

--
+----------------------------------------+
|     Charles and Francis Richmond       |
|                                        |
|  plano dot net at aquaporin4 dot com   |
+----------------------------------------+

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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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