Re: How many x86 instructions?

Date	Fri, 21 Feb 2014 00:55:02 -0500
From	Yousuf Khan <bbbl67@spammenot.yahoo.com>
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Subject	Re: How many x86 instructions?
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Cross-posted to 3 groups.

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On 20/02/2014 11:21 PM, Paul wrote:
> At one time, a compiler would issue instructions
> from about 30% of the instruction set. It would mean
> a compiled program would never emit the other 70% of
> them. But a person writing assembler code, would
> have access to all of them, at least, as long as
> the mnemonic existed in the assembler.

I think the original idea of the x86's large instruction count was to 
make an assembly language as full-featured as a high-level language. x86 
even had string-handling instructions!

I remember I designed an early version of the CPUID program that ran 
under DOS. The whole executable including its *.exe headers was 
something like 40 bytes! Got it down to under 20 bytes when I converted 
it to *.com (which had no headers)! Most of the space was used to store 
strings, like "This processor is a:" followed by generated strings like 
386SX or 486DX, etc. :)

You could make some really tiny assembler programs on x86. Of course, 
compiled programs ignored most of these useful high-level instructions 
and stuck with simple instructions to do everything.

	Yousuf Khan

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How many x86 instructions? Yousuf Khan <bbbl67@spammenot.yahoo.com> - 2014-02-20 18:26 -0500
  Re: How many x86 instructions? Gene E. Bloch <blochxxxx@someplace.invalid> - 2014-02-20 17:19 -0800
    Re: How many x86 instructions? Gene E. Bloch <blochxxxx@someplace.invalid> - 2014-02-20 17:26 -0800
      Re: How many x86 instructions? Gene E. Bloch <blochxxxx@someplace.invalid> - 2014-02-20 17:29 -0800
    Re: How many x86 instructions? Gene E. Bloch <blochxxxx@someplace.invalid> - 2014-02-20 17:35 -0800
    Re: How many x86 instructions? Yousuf Khan <bbbl67@spammenot.yahoo.com> - 2014-02-20 21:33 -0500
      Re: How many x86 instructions? Gene E. Bloch <blochxxxx@someplace.invalid> - 2014-02-20 19:46 -0800
      Re: How many x86 instructions? Gene E. Bloch <blochxxxx@someplace.invalid> - 2014-02-20 20:02 -0800
      Re: How many x86 instructions? Paul <nospam@needed.com> - 2014-02-20 23:21 -0500
        Re: How many x86 instructions? Gene E. Bloch <blochxxxx@someplace.invalid> - 2014-02-20 21:23 -0800
        Re: How many x86 instructions? Yousuf Khan <bbbl67@spammenot.yahoo.com> - 2014-02-21 00:55 -0500
          Re: How many x86 instructions? "Stanley Daniel de Liver" <admin@127.0.0.1> - 2014-04-25 10:54 +0100
            Re: How many x86 instructions? Yousuf Khan <bbbl67@spammenot.yahoo.com> - 2014-04-25 20:58 -0400
              Re: How many x86 instructions? "Stanley Daniel de Liver" <admin@127.0.0.1> - 2014-04-26 11:29 +0100
      Re: How many x86 instructions? Robert Redelmeier <redelm@ev1.net.invalid> - 2014-02-21 14:23 +0000
        Re: How many x86 instructions? Yousuf Khan <bbbl67@spammenot.yahoo.com> - 2014-02-21 14:15 -0500
          Re: How many x86 instructions? Gene E. Bloch <blochxxxx@someplace.invalid> - 2014-02-21 11:34 -0800
            Re: How many x86 instructions? charlie <cdknospam@msn.com> - 2014-02-23 10:14 -0500
              Re: How many x86 instructions? "J. P. Gilliver (John)" <G6JPG@soft255.demon.co.uk> - 2014-02-23 16:37 +0000
                Re: How many x86 instructions? charlie <cdknospam@msn.com> - 2014-02-23 17:41 -0500
                Re: How many x86 instructions? BillW50 <BillW50@aol.kom> - 2014-02-23 17:15 -0600
                Re: How many x86 instructions? Yousuf Khan <bbbl67@spammenot.yahoo.com> - 2014-02-23 19:30 -0500
                Re: How many x86 instructions? Gene E. Bloch <blochxxxx@someplace.invalid> - 2014-02-24 12:11 -0800
                Re: How many x86 instructions? Jason <jason_warren@ieee.org> - 2014-02-24 18:41 -0500
                Re: How many x86 instructions? krw@attt.bizz - 2014-02-23 19:34 -0500
                Re: How many x86 instructions? charlie <cdknospam@msn.com> - 2014-02-24 04:42 -0500
                Re: How many x86 instructions? Gene E. Bloch <blochxxxx@someplace.invalid> - 2014-02-23 15:45 -0800
                Re: How many x86 instructions? BillW50 <BillW50@aol.kom> - 2014-02-23 17:49 -0600
          Re: How many x86 instructions? Char Jackson <none@none.invalid> - 2014-02-21 19:03 -0600
          Re: How many x86 instructions? Robert Redelmeier <redelm@ev1.net.invalid> - 2014-02-22 02:16 +0000
            Re: How many x86 instructions? Yousuf Khan <bbbl67@spammenot.yahoo.com> - 2014-02-21 21:32 -0500
        Re: How many x86 instructions? Jason <jason_warren@ieee.org> - 2014-02-23 23:21 -0500
          Re: How many x86 instructions? krw@attt.bizz - 2014-02-24 13:02 -0500
            Re: How many x86 instructions? Jason <jason_warren@ieee.org> - 2014-02-24 13:38 -0500
              Re: How many x86 instructions? krw@attt.bizz - 2014-02-24 14:09 -0500
                Re: How many x86 instructions? Jason <jason_warren@ieee.org> - 2014-02-24 16:35 -0500
            Re: How many x86 instructions? pedro1492@lycos.com - 2014-03-28 19:50 -0700
              Re: How many x86 instructions? Yousuf Khan <bbbl67@spammenot.yahoo.com> - 2014-04-02 09:47 -0400
          Re: How many x86 instructions? Robert Redelmeier <redelm@ev1.net.invalid> - 2014-02-25 00:35 +0000
            Re: How many x86 instructions? John Doe <jdoe@usenetlove.invalid> - 2014-04-25 03:33 +0000
  Re: How many x86 instructions? "Jim" <gtfo@stfu.invalid> - 2014-02-27 01:28 -0500

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