Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!orchid!clyde!rutgers!lll-lcc!pyramid!prls!mips!mash From: mash@mips.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: Word vs. Byte Orientation Message-ID: <305@winchester.mips.UUCP> Date: Wed, 15-Apr-87 02:01:58 EST Article-I.D.: winchest.305 Posted: Wed Apr 15 02:01:58 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 18-Apr-87 00:18:10 EST References: <16122@amdcad.AMD.COM> <16125@amdcad.AMD.COM> Reply-To: mash@winchester.UUCP (John Mashey) Organization: MIPS Computer Systems, Sunnyvale, CA Lines: 39 In article <16125@amdcad.AMD.COM> phil@amdcad.UUCP (Phil Ngai) writes: > ...sequence begun by inconvenience of I/O Controllers and word-addressing, with rebuttals, and comments.... >If we are talking about trying to use existing controllers, such as >(particularly, actually) Unibus controllers, it's likely they jammed >the 16-bit registers one after another and a 32-bit word machine >will find it hard to cope with these controllers. Yes. > >If we're talking about building new controllers there's no reason why >you couldn't give each register its own word. It uses a little more >address space but only a few bytes more, nothing really. Yes, this is clearly the thing to do. I've been assuming that part of the logic behind all of this is to expect AMD to come out with carefully- designed controller chips that do this [which will help us all anyway]. However, it is sad but true, that when you go to build densely-packed high-performance systems, your choice is often limited. I.e., the original posting was a current and near-term reality analysis, not a "how it should really be" discussion. >>... (bcase) >>Sigh, I wish we could do such simulations. > (phil again) >Brian, there are plenty of faster machines available at AMD and you >ought to consider using them if CPU time is the only constraint. Or >(hee hee) buy an R2000 to do simulations on. Limiting yourself to your >existing resources is very silly, I think. (I won't post that Brian >does his simulations on an IBM-PC to avoid embarassing him.) I'm sure MIPS would be happy to sell Brian a nice M/500 suitable for running lots of simulations. :-) Doug VanLeuven is the local sales guy... -- -john mashey DISCLAIMER: UUCP: {decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!decwrl!mips!mash, DDD: 408-720-1700, x253 USPS: MIPS Computer Systems, 930 E. Arques, Sunnyvale, CA 94086