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From: lyang%scherzo@Sun.COM (Larry Yang)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: What should be in hardware but isn't
Message-ID: <30779@sun.uucp>
Date: Tue, 13-Oct-87 13:24:32 EDT
Article-I.D.: sun.30779
Posted: Tue Oct 13 13:24:32 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 15-Oct-87 00:39:16 EDT
References: <581@l.cc.purdue.edu> <8646@utzoo.UUCP> <705@gumby.UUCP> <8668@utzoo.UUCP> <30382@sun.uucp> <7587@steinmetz.steinmetz.UUCP>
Sender: news@sun.uucp
Reply-To: lyang@sun.UUCP (Larry Yang)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View
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In article <7587@steinmetz.steinmetz.UUCP> oconnor@sunray.UUCP (Dennis Oconnor) writes:
>
>Anyone who can write microcode for the chip considered the STANDARD
>( as in, if you and the '881 disagree on a result , you are wrong )
>for IEEE floating point MUST be a competent software engineer.
>
Hmm.  I'll concede this point.  Microcoders *are* software people, in
some sense.  And in order to understand the mystical IEEE standard,
one would have to be pretty competent.
>
>The 68000, '010 and '020 family are NOT RISCs. Putting a RISCy
>FP Coprocessor on them makes as much sense as putting a
>telescopic sight on a sawed-off shotgun : different design
>contexts bring about different solutions.
>
Good point, although it was hard to extract out of all that sarcasm. :-)
Making the 881 'RISCY' would have been incredibly foolish, given the
'CISCY' design of the 68000 family.  The analogy with the shotgun
is very appropriate.


--Larry Yang [lyang@sun.com,{backbone}!sun!lyang]|   A REAL _|> /\ |  _   _   _ 
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    Hobbes: "Why do we play war and not peace?"  |          <|_/ \_| \_/\| |_\_|
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