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From: mash@mips.UUCP (John Mashey)
Newsgroups: net.arch
Subject: Re: uninitialized data
Message-ID: <200@mips.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 2-Oct-85 03:21:34 EDT
Article-I.D.: mips.200
Posted: Wed Oct  2 03:21:34 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 4-Oct-85 07:13:10 EDT
References: <436@uvm-cs.UUCP> <164@tulane.UUCP>
Organization: MIPS Computer Systems, Mountain View, CA
Lines: 20

John Kreuter writes:
> This is an extremely high overhead way of checking for uninitialized data.
> An alternative would be an architecture in which a small tag field identifies
> the type of the data.  This would have the further advantage of allowing, say,
> arithmetic operators to be overloaded as they are in high level languages.
> 
> See "Advances in Computer Architecture", by Glenford J. Meyers (John Wiley
> and sons, 1978)
For perspective, let us remember that one finds there [2nd Ed, 1982, p.335]:
"In light of the material discussed so far in this book, the development of
the iAPX 432 system by Intel Corporation might be considered the most
significant architectural development in the last 5-10 years. First,...
Second, it is a commercial product, rather than an experimental vehicle,
and thus is evidence of both the practicality and feasibility
of these concepts."
-- 
-john mashey
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