Re: Superscalar vs. multiple CPUs ?

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Article #1177

#1177

From: Dan Prener
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 08:09

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In article <1992Dec13.063930.8687@netcom.com> norm@netcom.com (Norman Hardy) writes:

> In article <PRENER.92Dec12010123@prener.watson.ibm.com> prener@watson.ibm.com (Dan Prener) writes:
> >In article <1992Dec11.060038.27494@netcom.com> norm@netcom.com (Norman Hardy) writes:
> >
> >> How about sharing expensive functional units (multiply, divide, 
> >> DES) between processors on the same chip. This gives the economic 
> >> advantages of heterogeneous processors (division of labor) without 
> >> the software pain. The processors would appear to the operating 
> >> system as CPUs sharing memory. Indeed this approach makes special 
> >> purpose hardware more attractive as functional units.
> >
> >Doesn't that make saving the state of a processor somewhat complicated?
> >--
> >                                   Dan Prener (prener@watson.ibm.com)

> I see no need to change the programmer's model in order to share 
> functional units. Functional units have no state if you interrupt 
> between instructions as in most architectures.

  [ ... and more ... ]

I was thinking of situations such as a floating-point functional unit
having state that includes the current rounding mode.
--
                                   Dan Prener (prener@watson.ibm.com)

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<1992Dec10.173032.1418@twisto.eng.hou.compaq.com> <1992Dec11.060038.27494@netcom.com> <PRENER.92Dec12010123@prener.watson.ibm.com> <1992Dec13.063930.8687@netcom.com>

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Newsgroups: comp.sys.intel,comp.arch
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!newsgate.watson.ibm.com!yktnews!admin!yktnews!prener
From: prener@watson.ibm.com (Dan Prener)
Subject: Re: Superscalar vs. multiple CPUs ?
Sender: news@watson.ibm.com (NNTP News Poster)
Message-ID: <PRENER.92Dec13030928@prener.watson.ibm.com>
In-Reply-To: norm@netcom.com's message of Sun, 13 Dec 1992 06:39:30 GMT
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 08:09:28 GMT
Disclaimer: This posting represents the poster's views, not necessarily those of IBM
References: <1992Dec10.173032.1418@twisto.eng.hou.compaq.com>
 <1992Dec11.060038.27494@netcom.com>
 <PRENER.92Dec12010123@prener.watson.ibm.com>
 <1992Dec13.063930.8687@netcom.com>
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Organization: IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, Hawthorne, New York
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