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From: andrey mirtchovski <andrey@lanl.gov>
Subject: Re: [9fans] minimal-instruction-sets (was: How can I shift a variable
	other than ?)
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 09:40:11 -0600
To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@cse.psu.edu>
Topicbox-Message-UUID: 21be25de-ead2-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025

> in the late 60s the fad was to rewrite bigger instruction sets in
> terms of smaller ones (the metric was # of instructions).  somebody
> had a 16 instruction set that someone else reimplemented in 8
> instructions.  the apollo guidance computer had 12 instructions and
> a few magic memory locations.  it was finally determinted you could  
> get by on
> one instruction --- some variation on predecrement and branch
> if negative.  "look ma, no instructions."  unfortunately, this machine
> was somewhat difficult to program
>
> - erik

i think you're referencing the One Instruction Set Computer (OISC).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OISC