Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!biar!trebor
From: trebor@biar.UUCP (Robert J Woodhead)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Pierce Explains RISC. was new mac rumors
Message-ID: <161@biar.UUCP>
Date: 26 Feb 89 16:43:22 GMT
References: <70755@ti-csl.csc.ti.com> <9770@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Reply-To: trebor@biar.UUCP (Robert J Woodhead)
Organization: Biar Games, Inc.
Lines: 22

In article <9770@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> wetter@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu (Pierce T. Wetter) writes:
>     The speed of a mircoprocessor is somewhat proportional to the number
>of instructions it has to implement. For instance the 6502 can do every 
>instruction in one clock cycle, while the 68000 can take up to 70.

Many 6502 instructions are >1 cycle long, as a glance at any 6502 programming
manual will quickly confirm.  The true speed of any processor is

(# of cycles per second) * (how much an average instruction does)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
        (average number of cycles per instruction)

The answer to the question "how much an average instruction does" depends
on who you are talking to.  However, it is a safe bet to say that an
average 68000 instruction does more than an average 6502 instruction.

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