Article View: comp.arch
Article #13015Re: subroutine frequency
From: ad
Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1987 21:22
Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1987 21:22
20 lines
1646 bytes
1646 bytes
In article <430@cpocd2.UUCP>, howard@cpocd2.UUCP (Howard A. Landman) writes:
>Procedure calls are grotesquely expensive on the most common machines. A good
>rule of thumb for a VAX is that a procedure call takes as long as executing
>about 100 computational instructions. This is why so much of the stdio package
>is macros instead of procedures. There are several ways to try to avoid this
>overhead. One is hardware support for call/return, as in some RISC machines.
>Another way is to eliminate procedures from your language; this is what Forth
>did with its "threaded code", and is the main reason Forth is so fast. On a
>machine with multiple register windows the speed advantage of Forth would
>evaporate; of course you could also implement a hardware stack, which might
>increase its advantage!
Please explain what you mean by multiple register windows and how they
impact Forth's speed. Thanks.
Alan Dickman 608-262-9421
Arpa: ad@unix.macc.wisc.edu
Bitnet: ad@wisvmacc
UUCP: ...{allegra,ihnp4,seismo}!uwvax!uwmacc!ad
1210 West Dayton Street, Madison, WI 53706
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Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!watmath!clyde!rutgers!uwvax!uwmacc!ad From: ad@uwmacc.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: subroutine frequency Message-ID: <1093@uwmacc.UUCP> Date: Thu, 19-Feb-87 16:22:08 EST Article-I.D.: uwmacc.1093 Posted: Thu Feb 19 16:22:08 1987 Date-Received: Fri, 20-Feb-87 21:34:54 EST References: <1881@homxc.UUCP> <898@moscom.UUCP> <476@mntgfx.MENTOR.COM> <430@cpocd2.UUCP> Organization: UWisconsin-Madison Academic Comp Center Lines: 20 Summary: more info requested