Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!csun!kithrup!sef
From: sef@kithrup.COM (Sean Eric Fagan)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Let's pretend
Keywords: Intel, 586, windows
Message-ID: <1990Dec18.173039.882@kithrup.COM>
Date: 18 Dec 90 17:30:39 GMT
References: <3042@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> <1990Dec18.082623.16648@kithrup.COM> <1990Dec18.141944.5041@athena.cs.uga.edu>
Organization: Kithrup Enterprises, Ltd.
Lines: 19

In article <1990Dec18.141944.5041@athena.cs.uga.edu> is@athena.cs.uga.edu ( Bob Stearns) writes:
>While more registers sound like motherhood and apple pie, in the UNIX world
>they can be a distinct losing proposition. The commonest service provided by
>the kernel is a state switch between processes. The more registers, the longer
>this state switch must necessarily take. 

Uhm, have you taken an OS course?  And actually *read* the material?

Saving the registers is a tiny part of a unix context switch.  Most of it is
dealing with checking which process can run next, etc.

On the other hand, having more registers means that you don't have to go to
memory as often, which *will* speed things up.

-- 
Sean Eric Fagan  | "I made the universe, but please don't blame me for it;
sef@kithrup.COM  |  I had a bellyache at the time."
-----------------+           -- The Turtle (Stephen King, _It_)
Any opinions expressed are my own, and generally unpopular with others.