Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!news
From: alan@cogswell.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Alan S. Mazer)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Compilers taking advantage of architectural enhancements
Message-ID: <1990Oct18.195527.22676@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov>
Date: 18 Oct 90 19:55:27 GMT
References: <1990Oct9> <3300194@m.cs.uiuc.edu> <11922@ganymede.inmos.co.uk> <339@fjcp60.GOV>
Sender: news@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov (Usenet)
Organization: Image Analysis Systems Group, JPL
Lines: 29
Nntp-Posting-Host: cogswell.jpl.nasa.gov

I hesitate to get in the middle of this since I'm not an authority on either
architecture or compilers (I've written a couple very small compilers, but
note the .signature), but...

In article <339@fjcp60.GOV>, golds@fjcnet.GOV (Rich Goldschmidt) writes:
> I was not trying to suggest that compiler technology should be frozen.  I
> thought I was suggesting an area of research for compiler designers.

And it seems like an interesting area.  Some compiler development (ala lex
and yacc) is already fairly automated.  It seems that you are simply suggesting
more of the same.  And I actually find it hard to believe that such doesn't
exist already, although it's probably proprietary.

> The point of automating compiler generation is not necessarily to produce
> a final product, but to couple compiler development more tightly with
> chip development, and avoid the kind of situation we see with the i860
> where there is no compiler which can really take advantage of the chip
> long after its introduction.

But this is a double-edged sword.  It seems that what one wants to do is get
the best (fastest, cheapest, ...) hardware-software combination.  It's not
good to make chips for which there almost certainly can be no compilers in the
near future, but I would hate to constrain chip design totally to compiler
technology.  It's chips like the i860 that force advances in compilers.
-- 

-- Alan			       # My aptitude test in high school suggested that
   ..!ames!elroy!alan	       # I should become a forest ranger.  Take my
   alan@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov     # opinions on computers with a grain of salt.