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From: preston@ariel.rice.edu (Preston Briggs)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Optimal Computer Architectures
Message-ID: <1990Nov13.204059.25235@rice.edu>
Date: 13 Nov 90 20:40:59 GMT
References: <3300209@m.cs.uiuc.edu> <8662@scolex.sco.COM> <1990Nov12.054723.18015@actrix.co.nz>
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In article <1990Nov12.054723.18015@actrix.co.nz> Bruce.Hoult@actrix.co.nz (Bruce Hoult) writes:
>>More to the point, *any* processor with register windows is not going
>>to do too well on deeply recursive code.

>I don't know much about this, but it seems to me that a machine without
>register windows is oiggoing to have to put those values on the stack

The point is _fixed-size_ register windows.
A window-less machine might have to save 3 registers per call.
A fixed-size window machine might save 16 or 32 registers per call.
Even with burtst-mode saves, the volume will overwhelm the cache,
and perhaps virtual memory.

Preston