Newsgroups: comp.arch
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!vlsi!ward
From: ward@vlsi.waterloo.edu (Paul Ward)
Subject: Re: Compilers and efficiency
Message-ID: <1991May16.002255.16653@vlsi.waterloo.edu>
Organization: University of Waterloo
References: <28297C23.6984@tct.com> <12164@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> <2831299D.53F7@tct.com>
Date: Thu, 16 May 1991 00:22:55 GMT
Lines: 22

In article <2831299D.53F7@tct.com> chip@tct.com (Chip Salzenberg) writes:
>According to hrubin@pop.stat.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin):
>>That something is not important to everyone is no reason no to make it
>>available to those who can see a use for it.
>
>I agree... unless the inclusion of a feature slows down other, more
>widely used features.
>
>The addition of an instruction can make a CPU slower, harder to build
>and harder to test.  "Neat" instructions are not free.

Even if the "Neat" instruction is free, it should still not be added unless
clearly warrented.  What is free today has to be supported tomorrow.

Paul Ward
University of Waterloo

-- 
They will say, "As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out
of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished
them."  For I will restore them to the land I gave to their forefathers.
                                                                Jeremiah 16:15