From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=MAILING_LIST_MULTI, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 370 invoked from network); 4 Feb 2021 01:34:24 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (45.79.103.53) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 4 Feb 2021 01:34:24 -0000 Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 83C019C9E4; Thu, 4 Feb 2021 11:34:19 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9E7719C884; Thu, 4 Feb 2021 11:34:01 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id A07619C884; Thu, 4 Feb 2021 11:33:59 +1000 (AEST) Received: from mcvoy.com (mcvoy.com [192.169.23.250]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id E830A9C0A7 for ; Thu, 4 Feb 2021 11:33:58 +1000 (AEST) Received: by mcvoy.com (Postfix, from userid 3546) id 0830F35E086; Wed, 3 Feb 2021 17:33:56 -0800 (PST) Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2021 17:33:56 -0800 From: Larry McVoy To: Arthur Krewat Message-ID: <20210204013356.GA16541@mcvoy.com> References: <202102030759.1137x7C2013543@freefriends.org> <202102030858.1138wuqd011051@freefriends.org> <27567.1612399305@hop.toad.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.24 (2015-08-30) Subject: Re: [TUHS] 68k prototypes & microcode X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.26 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" On Wed, Feb 03, 2021 at 08:10:58PM -0500, Arthur Krewat wrote: > On 2/3/2021 7:41 PM, John Gilmore wrote: > >When the 68000 was announced, it was obviously head-and-shoulders better > >than the other clunky 8-bit and 16-bit systems, with a clean 32-bit > >architecture and a large address space. > The 68K always reminded me of the VAX. I'm not sure if that is a compliment or not. The NS320XX always reminded me more of the PDP-11 (which is by *far* my favorite assembler, so uniform, I had a TA that could read the octal dump of a PDP-11 like it was C). I wasn't that good but I could sort of see what he was seeing and I never saw that in the VAX. 68K was closer but I felt like the NS320xx was closer yet. Pity they couldn't produce bug free chips. Someone mentioned Z80000, I stopped at Z80 so I don't know if that was also a pleasant ISA. The x86 stuff is about as far away from PDP-11 as you can get. Required to know it, but so unpleasant. I have to admit that I haven't looked at ARM assembler, the M1 is making me rethink that. Anyone have an opinion on where ARM lies in the pleasant to unpleasant scale? --lm who misses comp.arch back when CPU people hung out there