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Article #2674Re: What's RISC all about ... REALL
From: aglew
Date: Thu, 31 Jul 1986 02:28
Date: Thu, 31 Jul 1986 02:28
22 lines
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1527 bytes
>Hmmm. It just occurred to me that the speed of main memory is a big
>factor in the opcode/microcode trade-off. Could Vaxen have been designed
>with much slower main memory in mind? (Or faster cache?)
> Ronald O. Christian (Fujitsu America Inc., San Jose, Calif.)
> seismo!amdahl!fai!ronc -or- ihnp4!pesnta!fai!ronc
The cost (both in dollars and in space) of memory also plays a factor.
I have a card (an old punch card - I scrounged several boxes when the site
I was working at finally threw out the keypunches) on my wall with this on
it:
WOW! In the early 1970s, 8K of ROM = 8 bits of register.
What a reason for microcode! [from one of Patterson's papers]
I'm waiting for this to happen again, probably in the early days of
optical computers.
Of course, you can always execute microcode from RAM...
Andy "Krazy" Glew. Gould CSD-Urbana. USEnet: ihnp4!uiucdcs!ccvaxa!aglew
1101 E. University, Urbana, IL 61801 ARPAnet: aglew@gswd-vms
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Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbatt!cbosgd!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!ccvaxa!aglew From: aglew@ccvaxa.UUCP Newsgroups: net.arch Subject: Re: What's RISC all about ... REALL Message-ID: <5100117@ccvaxa> Date: Wed, 30-Jul-86 22:28:00 EDT Article-I.D.: ccvaxa.5100117 Posted: Wed Jul 30 22:28:00 1986 Date-Received: Sat, 2-Aug-86 01:27:51 EDT References: <278@fai.UUCP> Lines: 22 Nf-ID: #R:fai.UUCP:278:ccvaxa:5100117:000:963 Nf-From: ccvaxa.UUCP!aglew Jul 30 21:28:00 1986