Subject: Re: TAoCP (MMIX) was Re: new to lisp
From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net>
Date: Thu, 21 Mar 2002 22:32:46 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Message-ID: <3225738779151315@naggum.net>

* "Geoff Summerhayes"
| Have you taken a look at his new toy, MMIX?

  No, I have not even heard about it.  Is it used in the next edition of
  TAoCP and the remaining volumes?

| 256 64-bit gp registers, 32 special registers, and 2^64 bytes VM.

  Heh, I like.  That probably also means Unicode characters, instead of the
  rather bizarre character set used in MIX. :)  It might be more work to
  implement an emulator, however.  A MIX emulator is not that easy, either,
  due to the TeX-like random complexity.

| Some posters in c.l.forth are livid about register overkill, lack of
| `proper' stack support (the J register is alive and well), combining
| float and integer support in a register, not to mention the number of
| transitors it would take to implement the design.

  I would worry more about the cost of context switching on this design.

///
-- 
  In a fight against something, the fight has value, victory has none.
  In a fight for something, the fight is a loss, victory merely relief.