Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!uwm.edu!marque!carroll1!dnewton
From: dnewton@carroll1.UUCP (Dave 'Post No Nicknames' Newton)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: atari ABC  yea or nay  ????
Message-ID: <872@carroll1.UUCP>
Date: 21 Nov 89 08:31:09 GMT
References: <3353@vax1.tcd.ie> <46300077@uxf.cso.uiuc.edu>
Reply-To: dnewton@carroll1.UUCP (Dave 'Post No Nicknames' Newton)
Organization: Organization?  We don't need no steenkin' organization.
Lines: 27


In article <46300077@uxf.cso.uiuc.edu> rjk752@uxf.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
>However,
>they tend to concentrate on theory.  I have had little experience with the
>hardware currently on the market.

   That's too bad...

>"Actually, the 68000 is considered CISC, because of the fact that YOU, the USER
>cannot write programs in its "basic" set.  I am *quite* sure that at the very
>*heart* of the 68000 is a RISC ALU which executes a VERY small program (which
>is stored in the on-chip memory) which reads the instructions from memory and
>decodes them.  So overall, the 68000 is in fact CISC, but it is run by a RISC
>heart.

   Well, by this definition, I would suppose that every micro-programmed CPU
is considered RISC, as microcode only has a limitied amount of instructions.
What makes a CPU a RISCy one, in my mind, is one where the _user_ has few
instructions, and instead of micro-coded, it's hardwired.



-- 
David L. Newton       | uunet!marque!carroll1!dnewton  | The Raging Apostle-- 
(414) 524-7343 (work) |    dnewton@carroll1.cc.edu     | for the future--
(414) 524-6809 (home) | 100 NE Ave, Waukesha WI 53186  | for the world.
"Isn't it fun to take two unrelated sentences and mix the batter lightly?" -me