Re: DEC Alpha architecture issues

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Article #11392

#11392

From: Andrew McRae
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 04:38

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> Another difference is that the instructions available to PALcode are not
> architected.  The assumption is that PALcode will use standard Alpha
> instructions plus up to five additional instructions specific to the
> implementation.  Also, no cpu registers are defined.  The PALcode is what
> implements standard things like interrupts triggered by implementation
> specific mechanisms.  So, the CPU implementations are free to be as creative
> as they can be in making the basic instruction set fast as well as making
> PALcode fast.

If it looks like microcode, smells like microcode ... Why call it PALcode?
(`A rose is a rose by any other name'?)

Andrew McRae (andrew@megadata.mega.oz.au)

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Message-ID: <1992Nov22.043852.764@megadata.mega.oz.au>

Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!munnari.oz.au!metro!dmssyd.syd.dms.CSIRO.AU!megadata!andrew

References: <1992Nov20.064529.20293@nntpd.lkg.dec.com>

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Newsgroups: comp.arch
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!munnari.oz.au!metro!dmssyd.syd.dms.CSIRO.AU!megadata!andrew
From: andrew@megadata.mega.oz.au (Andrew McRae)
Subject: Re: DEC Alpha architecture issues
Message-ID: <1992Nov22.043852.764@megadata.mega.oz.au>
Sender: andrew@megadata.mega.oz.au (Andrew McRae)
Organization: Megadata P/L, North Ryde, Sydney, Aust.
References: <1992Nov20.064529.20293@nntpd.lkg.dec.com>
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 04:38:52 GMT
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