Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!zephyr!tektronix!tekgen!tekigm2!phils From: phils@tekigm2.MEN.TEK.COM (Philip E Staub) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Benchmarks (was: Re: A2620) Message-ID: <5017@tekigm2.MEN.TEK.COM> Date: 18 Jun 89 21:37:51 GMT References: <17837@louie.udel.EDU> Reply-To: phils@tekigm2.MEN.TEK.COM (Philip E Staub) Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Vancouver, WA. Lines: 47 In article <17837@louie.udel.EDU> 451061%UOTTAWA.BITNET@cornellc.cit.cornell.edu (Valentin Pepelea) writes: >"Joseph P. Larson" writes in message <6607@dayton.UUCP> > >> Intel might make fast or reliable chips. But they weren't designed by >> anyone with experience with real assembly languages. (Designers were probably >> ex Z-80 or 6502 programmers.) > >Excuse me, but you don't know what you're talking about. The 6502 had the most >beautiful architecture in its 8-bit era. The way it used its accumulator, >indexed registers, and instruction execution was the summum of that bygone era. IMHO, I think maybe you had better take another look. For example, look at the fact that the stack is *always* in page 1 of memory (0x100 - 0x1ff) and cannot be expanded. Look at the braindamaged definition of the "borrow" flag (= not carry) which causes comparison instructions to work backwards from any processor I can name either before or since. How about the scramble for use of the memory locations in page 0 (0x000 to 0x0ff) that everyone made to avoid an extra byte fetch in the instruction execution. These three alone would prevent me from voting for the "golden design" award, but I also seem to remember having problems keeping the pre-indexed and post-indexed registers straight. (Let's see here... do you use the x for pre-index or the y?). I knew within the first two weeks I worked on this turkey that it was not destined to become my favorite processor. Disclaimer: These are, of course, my own personal opinions. You are certainly entitled to your own. I admit that my previous programming experience (prior to using the 6502) on 8080/8085 and Texas Instruments minis biased my opinions. But I just couldn't resist the temptation to pounce on someone's "those were the good old days" 8-). Not that the current crop of processors are without faults 8-(. >Valentin >_________________________________________________________________________ >"An operating system without Name: Valentin Pepelea > virtual memory is an operating Phonet: (613) 231-7476 (New!) > system without virtue." Bitnet: 451061@Uottawa.bitnet > Usenet: Use cunyvm.cuny.edu gate > - Ancient Inca Proverb Planet: 451061@acadvm1.UOttawa.CA -Phil -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Phil Staub Tektronix, Inc., Vancouver, Washington 98668 phils@tekigm2.MEN.TEK.COM