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From: bbeckwit@next.com (Bob Beckwith)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: More on Linpack pivoting: isamax and instruction set design
Message-ID: <987@rosie.NeXT.COM>
Date: 18 Jun 91 22:00:29 GMT
References: <396@validgh.com> <1991Jun13.234834.22970@neon.Stanford.EDU> <1991Jun14.134338.4673@linus.mitre.org>
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In article <1991Jun14.134338.4673@linus.mitre.org> bs@frieda.mitre.org (Robert D. Silverman) writes:
>
> [example code deleted]
>
>How can this statement get executed WITHOUT a branch??
> 
>I also have never seen a machine that has conditional assignment
>implemented as an instruction! (As indicated above). What machine is
>this? Could you show us the assembler syntax??
>
>I ** believe ** that the above conditional assignment will get compiled
>into a test and branch. I don't know of any machine that provides
>instructions to do otherwise.

  Someone who knows better can correct me if I'm wrong (and they might also 
provide the assembler syntax, any ex-Multifloyds wanna speak up?), but I believe
that the Multiflow Trace machines had a conditional assignment instruction.

  --Bob

--
Bob_Beckwith@NeXT.COM
Digital Hardware Engineering
NeXT Computer, Inc.
900 Chesapeake Drive
Redwood City, CA USA