From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.2 (2018-09-13) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS, MAILING_LIST_MULTI,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.2 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (minnie.tuhs.org [45.79.103.53]) by inbox.vuxu.org (OpenSMTPD) with ESMTP id 04faf999 for ; Mon, 24 Sep 2018 19:47:41 +0000 (UTC) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 31ACFA1DCC; Tue, 25 Sep 2018 05:47:40 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1ED1494119; Tue, 25 Sep 2018 05:47:14 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 1F09494119; Tue, 25 Sep 2018 05:47:11 +1000 (AEST) Received: from vtr.rulingia.com (vtr.rulingia.com [45.77.232.82]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 722EE9410D for ; Tue, 25 Sep 2018 05:47:10 +1000 (AEST) Received: from server.rulingia.com (ppp59-167-167-3.static.internode.on.net [59.167.167.3]) by vtr.rulingia.com (8.15.2/8.15.2) with ESMTPS id w8OJkuHY033571 (version=TLSv1.2 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256 verify=OK); Tue, 25 Sep 2018 05:47:03 +1000 (AEST) (envelope-from peter@rulingia.com) X-Bogosity: Ham, spamicity=0.000000 Received: from server.rulingia.com (localhost.rulingia.com [127.0.0.1]) by server.rulingia.com (8.15.2/8.15.2) with ESMTPS id w8OJklJp025947 (version=TLSv1.2 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256 verify=NO); Tue, 25 Sep 2018 05:46:47 +1000 (AEST) (envelope-from peter@server.rulingia.com) Received: (from peter@localhost) by server.rulingia.com (8.15.2/8.15.2/Submit) id w8OJklls025946; Tue, 25 Sep 2018 05:46:47 +1000 (AEST) (envelope-from peter) Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2018 05:46:47 +1000 From: Peter Jeremy To: Paul Winalski Message-ID: <20180924194647.GA29897@server.rulingia.com> References: <1686170E-4323-4BDF-B95C-8A6B3FFD5288@gmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha512; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="liOOAslEiF7prFVr" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: X-PGP-Key: http://www.rulingia.com/keys/peter.pgp User-Agent: Mutt/1.10.0 (2018-05-17) Subject: Re: [TUHS] SPARC is CRAPS spelled backwards. X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.20 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Cc: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" --liOOAslEiF7prFVr Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On 2018-Sep-23 17:17:35 -0400, Paul Winalski wrot= e: >In general, a CISC instruction set encoding can express the same >algorithm more compactly than a RISC instruction set. Once CISC >technology solved the instruction pipelining and decoding problem, it >gained an advantage over RISC architectures such as Alpha because the >instruction set stream was less verbose. RISC architectures have another advantage that instructions are always aligned on known boundaries (typically 2 or 4 bytes). This simplifies the logic around (pre-)fetching instructions. >Modern x86 designs have a >bit of logic stuck in one corner that translates the x86 instruction >stream into a string of RISC-style micro-operations. Where "modern" is "this century". =2E.. >the best of both worlds--the compactness of a CISC instruction stream >and the simpler and faster circuitry of RISC. In the specific case of x86, I would dispute that. The various warts in the x86 instruction set and "architecture" mean that x86 code density is relatively low and on a par with SPARC code. I agree that the overall performance is impressive but that is more a measure of the abilities of Intel's engineers than the overall approach. --=20 Peter Jeremy --liOOAslEiF7prFVr Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iQKTBAEBCgB9FiEE7rKYbDBnHnTmXCJ+FqWXoOSiCzQFAlupPydfFIAAAAAALgAo aXNzdWVyLWZwckBub3RhdGlvbnMub3BlbnBncC5maWZ0aGhvcnNlbWFuLm5ldEVF QjI5ODZDMzA2NzFFNzRFNjVDMjI3RTE2QTU5N0EwRTRBMjBCMzQACgkQFqWXoOSi CzSvVw//TXbfmXcCbmHxJkDs3dd/ckUpqnYKlEgMvEWSLdUjEoiXV7E1FYt2JmPj 25GjZ/n3nYs2visF2xELXKjYsfYrcvrI97VQ5VlzYDXDmhAa6RN+oTHDM83AZ5PB 2exmp9jP/CaKMmkSrfKXqQHVqWdJTnqNtQhHFeqgc7ZjjyDX77aOfPfYYhRcWO53 xeeULxY1+B+U1dUyRJlMDh/f+RhsehwhMtdYqFYemZ7hVmWby2WsrPrZqS5piZtO RnMWI+CtJcsFugFn4mFJeTLmTcerZ4mwaiZ1KpTLyEoY3l65guOZf4HuBedy5KYg 8ZuIVomSb5GV6u/sK7Gz8pWzRt9WPY1sMaeAQJtjJPcmKRCA7p/P3WACEJ61lTTS 5eshvYWfhQXRa/yVbVzKn2WyYjGuYh32MoRzdYb4/Y0XNoSjCc4LeNZ+tIsZ6gHu CHZ9mhPCVLP+5ZASJoozJB2JaIpOMSx8i+qCv03kewfnA3ufVjd5lnDAmXNeiXN6 KtSZZsV98d2xl4dmsaRPFVVzR2z0xRosvJG75OnaAatAl+vptp7+cdVjc9x1vwxt S/1pQZrhtsQTPHpE1gCTQ61rk60UZC4Wkh8rWJz/a3+gex7j1fZMZB+ljRWTkRPt gQMsCwG60mj9HKdCCq4EpKriQQJz6Az1NUd4XEJtfJ/93VC7Odc= =wZ5m -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --liOOAslEiF7prFVr--