Xref: utzoo comp.arch:21050 alt.folklore.computers:9888
Path: utzoo!utgpu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!tuvie!mike
From: mike@vlsivie.tuwien.ac.at (Michael K. Gschwind)
Newsgroups: comp.arch,alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Braindamaged architectures (was Re: MIPS, Compaq and Microsoft in bed - NYT story)
Message-ID: <2344@tuvie.UUCP>
Date: 25 Feb 91 12:36:34 GMT
References: <29920@usc> <45758@mips.mips.COM> <2445@inews.intel.com>
Sender: news@tuvie.UUCP
Followup-To: comp.arch
Organization: Vienna University of Technology
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In article <45758@mips.mips.COM>, cprice@mips (Charlie Price) writes:
>By the way, even if someone implements 80-bit FP (we don't),
>nobody I know of *stores* 80 bits in memory or on disk.

Just about any architecture which uses 80-bit FP has a way of storing 80
bits. Otherwise, a context switch has desastrous effects
(Undeterministic loss of precision between computations. ;-) Actually,
there once was such a multi-tasking beast (from Honeywell, I think)
which had 80 bit fp (or whatever) in the FPU, but did not allow saving 
of the extra precision bits. Now programs would give results based on
the scheduling behavior of the OS. 


PS: Any other stories of completely brain-dead architectures?	

Michael K. Gschwind, Institute for VLSI-Design, Vienna University of Technology
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