Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!primerd!ENI!S34!BEAR
From: BEAR@S34.Prime.COM
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: faster bcopy using duffs device (so
Message-ID: <108300004@S34.Prime.COM>
Date: 12 Sep 89 16:43:00 GMT
References: <5180@portia.Stanford.EDU>
Lines: 18
Nf-ID: #R:portia.Stanford.EDU:-518000:S34:108300004:000:858
Nf-From: S34.Prime.COM!BEAR    Sep 12 16:43:00 1989


>In article <19491@mimsy.UUCP> chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek) writes:
>                 This, if nothing else, tells why gcc cannot be used to
>compile C code for a Prime (32 bit word pointers, 48 bit char pointers).
>(In fact, gcc assumes internally that sizeof(any-pointer) == sizeof(int)
>and that all pointers are `byte pointers', as far as I can tell.)

FYI, this is not necessarily true. Without going into lots of details,
our 32IX mode C compiler uses 32 bit pointers for *everything*. This
compiler has been available for about 6 years and can be used on any
of our current 50-series processors. Older machines (shipped before
1983, non-IX mode) do indeed require 48 bit pointers to address anything
smaller than a halfword (the 48 bit pointers are actually bit pointers!).

Bob Beckwith
Prime Computer, Inc.
(508)879-2960 x 4209
bear@s34.prime.com