Newsgroups: comp.arch Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!lavaca.uh.edu!menudo.uh.edu!sugar!ficc!peter From: peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) Subject: Re: Translating 64-bit addresses Message-ID: Organization: Xenix Support, FICC References: <6590@hplabsz.HP.COM> <12030@pt.cs.cmu.edu> <6626@hplabsz.HP.COM> Date: Mon, 18 Mar 91 17:24:33 GMT In article , pcg@test.aber.ac.uk (Piercarlo Antonio Grandi) writes: > No, the speed does not increase a lot. Unless the synchronization is > done using hardware primitives, which is nonportable, or at least not > always applicable. Why is that any less portable than doing a floating multiply using hardware primitives, for example? Just make "sendMessage" a primitive operation (put it in a library, for example). Then when you have a fast hardware mechanism for synchronising message transactions you can use it. The performance of the Amiga demonstrates that this is a good idea, and would be badly hurt by the overhead of remapping because in most cases you don't do a context switch for each message. -- Peter da Silva. `-_-' peter@ferranti.com +1 713 274 5180. 'U` "Have you hugged your wolf today?"