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Re: Does a compiler use all x86 instructions? (2010)

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Rich <rich@example.invalid> writes:

> ..  Thus RISC chips
> were born.  [2]

<snip>
> [2] And for a time, ruled the performance curve.  But gradually the 800
>     pound gorilla of Intel's extreme profits allowed Intel to work an
>     awful lot of magic on x86 to the point where x86 regained the
>     performance curve (college research lab funding vs. Intel's
>     multi-billion dollar funding...).

That's not how I'd characterise it.  RISC research was mainly academic
early on, but Intel came back at RISC architectures only later when they
were much better funded and proving to be fast.  Sun and DEC and HP (and
no doubt others) all had well-funded RISC architectures.  Intel was
probably only a 400 pound gorilla in those days and it's R&D spend may
well have been smaller than that of Sun, DEC or HP (and almost certainly
smaller then their combined R&D spend).

>     Part of that magic is the fact
>     that internally modern x86 chips are a RISC core surrounded by an
>     x86 hardware instruction translator translating x86 opcodes into
>     the RISC core's actual instruction set.

Yes, RISC won out in the end at the hardware level.  But one key part of
the RISC project was to put more of the magic into compilers.  That part
is only possible when the simple instructions are exposed to the
programmer.

-- 
Ben.

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Does a compiler use all x86 instructions? (2010) RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2016-08-25 01:11 +0000
  Re: Does a compiler use all x86 instructions? (2010) Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2016-08-25 01:24 +0000
    Re: Does a compiler use all x86 instructions? (2010) Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2016-08-25 13:29 +0100
    Re: Does a compiler use all x86 instructions? (2010) Mark Storkamp <mstorkamp@yahoo.com> - 2016-08-25 08:51 -0500
      Re: Does a compiler use all x86 instructions? (2010) Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2016-08-25 16:20 +0000
    Re: Does a compiler use all x86 instructions? (2010) Walter Banks <walter@bytecraft.com> - 2016-08-25 10:34 -0400
  Re: Does a compiler use all x86 instructions? (2010) Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2016-08-24 23:03 -0400
    Re: Does a compiler use all x86 instructions? (2010) Theo Markettos <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2016-08-25 14:23 +0100
    Re: Does a compiler use all x86 instructions? (2010) Mark Storkamp <mstorkamp@yahoo.com> - 2016-08-25 08:39 -0500
  Re: Does a compiler use all x86 instructions? (2010) Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2016-08-25 16:40 +0100
  Re: Does a compiler use all x86 instructions? (2010) BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2016-08-25 19:34 +0100
    Re: Does a compiler use all x86 instructions? (2010) Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2016-08-25 22:41 +0300
      Re: Does a compiler use all x86 instructions? (2010) Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2016-08-25 20:49 +0000
        Re: Does a compiler use all x86 instructions? (2010) Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2016-08-25 22:26 +0100

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