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Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.arch
Subject: flexible-instruction-set machines
Message-ID: <5694@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 18-Jun-85 12:53:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: utzoo.5694
Posted: Tue Jun 18 12:53:11 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 18-Jun-85 12:53:11 EDT
References: <1452@ecsvax.UUCP>, <290009@acf4.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 16

> 	A reasonable approach to producing CISC machines ... to have the 
> 	instruction set be changeable for different languages.  
> 
> Who is working on flexible instruction set computers now-a-days?

Actually, my impression was that most everyone had been discouraged by
the B1700's flaws.  The concept was fine, but performance was not, and
there was also the nasty problem that with different microcode for each
language, it becomes very difficult to mix languages (e.g. to call Fortran
number-crunching routines from a program written in something else).

Burroughs also did a lousy job on software and marketing, as I understand
it, from the viewpoint of researchers and non-Cobol production shops.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry