Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!uxc!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!mcdurb!aglew
From: aglew@mcdurb.Urbana.Gould.COM
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Bus History Units
Message-ID: <28200280@mcdurb>
Date: 20 Feb 89 15:33:00 GMT
References: <4316@pt.cs.cmu.edu>
Lines: 23
Nf-ID: #R:pt.cs.cmu.edu:4316:mcdurb:28200280:000:1012
Nf-From: mcdurb.Urbana.Gould.COM!aglew    Feb 20 09:33:00 1989


>Well, someone out there is doing it. They plan to make it all easier by
>having "snaphot" register banks that remember the old register states.
>Neat stuff.

Well, from the academic side Berkeley's HPSm project _built_ a 
microprocessor with Tomasulo scheduling, and backup by copying
of the register file. The principals have since left Berkeley:
Wen-Mei Hwu, my advisor, is at Illinois, and Yale Patt is going
somewhere else in the midwest.
    Myself, I'm flogging a hardware renaming technique that is
considerably less expensive than backing up the entire register
file.

Industrially - who knows? :-)

Andy "Krazy" Glew   aglew@urbana.mcd.mot.com   uunet!uiucdcs!mcdurb!aglew
   Motorola Microcomputer Division, Champaign-Urbana Design Center
	   1101 E. University, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
   
My opinions are my own, and are not the opinions of my employer, or
any other organisation. I indicate my company only so that the reader
may account for any possible bias I may have towards our products.