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Re: Java left shift and right shift operators.

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Owen Jacobson wrote:
> 
> One of the things that could've made Itanic so cool was the ability to
> pre-emptively evaluate both sides of a branch, many instructions in
> advance, and throw away all the alternatives but the one that "actually
> happened". Unfortunately, programming around this was really hard even
> for experienced compiler writers, and the chips were notoriously
> power-hungry and expensive, so it never really took off.

Eh? Speculative execution is hardly a rare CPU feature, among modern
general-purpose CPUs. At least one reference[1] claims "all modern
CPUs" have spec-exec - which seems dubious, but I suppose one could
quibble over what a "modern" CPU is. x86 CPUs have had it at least
since the Pentium Pro (P6).[2] PPC has had it since at least the 603.[3]

If it's branch predication (note I'm talking about *predication*, not
*prediction*, here) you're thinking of, that also antedates Itanium
and continues to be implemented in modern CPUs. DEC Alpha and HP
PA-RISC had limited predication, where stores to memory on a
speculative branch could be rewritten to write to a register instead,
with a predicate-controlled store after the branch result was known;
and PPC has had aggressive predication since at least the 604.[4]

US patent 5,471,593 describes predicated execution; it was filed in
1995. And it cites prior work, including the Cydra 5 from the late
'80s - which I don't know much about, but which apparently had a basic
predicated-execution system.

So, not new in the Itanium, and not sinking with it either.

[1] http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/printpage/209
[2] http://www.datasheetarchive.com/datasheet-pdf/078/DSAE0072944.html
[3] http://www.cs.pitt.edu/~alanjawi/history.html
[4]
http://www.princeton.edu/~rblee/ELE572Papers/the-effects-of-predicated.pdf

-- 
Michael Wojcik
Micro Focus
Rhetoric & Writing, Michigan State University

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Java left shift and right shift operators. Sanny <softtanks22@hotmail.com> - 2011-04-26 00:38 -0700
  Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Lothar Kimmeringer <news200709@kimmeringer.de> - 2011-04-26 09:55 +0200
    Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-04-26 03:16 -0700
    Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Lew <noone@lewscanon.com> - 2011-04-26 09:49 -0400
      Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Travers Naran <tnaran@gmail.com> - 2011-04-26 07:09 -0700
        Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Lew <noone@lewscanon.com> - 2011-04-26 11:21 -0400
        Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2011-04-26 15:37 +0000
      Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Sanny <softtanks22@hotmail.com> - 2011-04-26 09:32 -0700
        Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-04-26 11:09 -0700
          Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-04-26 13:09 -0700
        Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Travers Naran <tnaran@gmail.com> - 2011-04-26 22:40 -0700
          Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-04-27 05:34 -0700
            Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Owen Jacobson <angrybaldguy@gmail.com> - 2011-04-28 00:37 -0400
              Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-04-28 16:02 -0700
              Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Michael Wojcik <mwojcik@newsguy.com> - 2011-04-28 19:22 -0400
          Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. bugbear <bugbear@trim_papermule.co.uk_trim> - 2011-04-27 14:28 +0100
          Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Thomas Richter <thor@math.tu-berlin.de> - 2011-04-30 00:02 +0200
      Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2011-04-27 19:25 -0700
        Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Lew <noone@lewscanon.com> - 2011-04-27 23:08 -0400
  Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Sanny <softtanks22@hotmail.com> - 2011-04-26 02:04 -0700
    Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2011-04-26 07:34 -0400
      Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Lew <noone@lewscanon.com> - 2011-04-26 09:47 -0400
        Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-04-27 09:23 -0700
          Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Lew <noone@lewscanon.com> - 2011-04-27 14:49 -0400
            Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Paul Cager <paul.cager@googlemail.com> - 2011-04-27 17:28 -0700
              Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Lew <noone@lewscanon.com> - 2011-04-27 22:06 -0400
      Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Sanny <softtanks22@hotmail.com> - 2011-04-26 09:39 -0700
        Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-04-26 11:17 -0700
        Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Lew <noone@lewscanon.com> - 2011-04-26 14:55 -0400
          Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Lew <noone@lewscanon.com> - 2011-04-26 14:57 -0400
          Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Daniele Futtorovic <da.futt.news@laposte-dot-net.invalid> - 2011-04-26 21:38 +0200
          Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-04-26 23:32 +0000
            Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Lew <noone@lewscanon.com> - 2011-04-27 00:08 -0400
              Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-04-27 06:57 +0000
                Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2011-04-27 07:00 -0300
                Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Lew <noone@lewscanon.com> - 2011-04-27 08:42 -0400
                Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-04-27 14:03 +0000
                Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Lew <noone@lewscanon.com> - 2011-04-27 14:54 -0400
        Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2011-04-26 21:14 -0400
    Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Travers Naran <tnaran@gmail.com> - 2011-04-26 07:30 -0700
      Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Lew <noone@lewscanon.com> - 2011-04-26 11:24 -0400
        Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Lew <noone@lewscanon.com> - 2011-04-26 11:35 -0400
          Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Sanny <softtanks22@hotmail.com> - 2011-04-26 09:46 -0700
            Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Lew <noone@lewscanon.com> - 2011-04-26 15:02 -0400
      Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Lothar Kimmeringer <news200709@kimmeringer.de> - 2011-04-28 09:14 +0200
  Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Joshua Cranmer <Pidgeot18@verizon.invalid> - 2011-04-26 08:41 -0400
  Re: Java left shift and right shift operators. Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> - 2011-04-26 22:06 +0200

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