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From: rab@mimsy.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: vliw comuputers
Message-ID: <7082@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 16-Jun-87 18:50:27 EDT
Article-I.D.: mimsy.7082
Posted: Tue Jun 16 18:50:27 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 18-Jun-87 02:55:57 EDT
Reply-To: rab@mimsy.UUCP (Bob Bruce)
Organization: University of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Sci.
Lines: 17


I recently read a paper on a `very_long_instruction_word'
(VLIW) computer, specifically the Multiflow TRACE computer.
Each instruction is up to 1024 bits long.  Different bit
fields directly control different functional units in the cpu,
so there is no need for microcode or decoding logic.
This results in very fast execution, but requires a lot
of memory, and very smart compilers.  They have C and Fortran
compilers, and recently got UNIX up and running.

As memory prices continue to decline, this kind of  computer may
become quite common.  If anyone has experience with VLIW computers,
what do you think of them?  How do they really perform and what 
types of problems do you have with them?

rab@mimsy.umd.edu
seismo!mimsy!rab