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From: ldo@waikato.ac.nz (Lawrence D'Oliveiro, Waikato University)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Bitfield instructions
Message-ID: <1991Apr16.153010.3446@waikato.ac.nz>
Date: 16 Apr 91 03:30:10 GMT
References: <1991Apr15.193425.3436@waikato.ac.nz> <2302@spim.mips.COM>
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
Lines: 16

The example I mentioned was a decompressor for pixel data stored in a
GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) file. This is compressed according to
a variant of the LZW algorithm, with a variable-length symbol size. In
short, there's an awful lot of bit manipulation going on.

I just wondered, when RISC designers talk about "dynamic instruction
frequencies", what mix of programs they start with. Would you include
an LZW compressor/decompressor in your mix? What weighting would you assign
it? What are the grounds for your decision?

Lawrence D'Oliveiro                       fone: +64-71-562-889
Computer Services Dept                     fax: +64-71-384-066
University of Waikato            electric mail: ldo@waikato.ac.nz
Hamilton, New Zealand    37^ 47' 26" S, 175^ 19' 7" E, GMT+12:00
To someone with a hammer and a screwdriver, every problem looks
like a nail with threads.