Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!husc6!rutgers!att!cbnewsl!smw From: smw@cbnewsl.ATT.COM (scott.wincklhofer) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: Re: what is sweet 16? Summary: Sweet-16 Description Message-ID: <402@cbnewsl.ATT.COM> Date: 7 Apr 89 06:40:10 GMT References: <1568@husc6.harvard.edu> Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 58 In article <1568@husc6.harvard.edu>, nakada@husc4.HARVARD.EDU (Paul Nakada) writes: > > From what I gather, Sweet 16 is some instruction set for a 16 bit > P-Code machine... I have Merlin Pro, which allows for assembly of sweet > 16 opcodes, but I have never seen or heard of any documentation for the > sweet 16 interpreter not have i seen the actual interpreter... > > Where is sweet 16? how does one get it and its documentation? > thanks for your help.. > -paul nakada > __ > | Paul Nakada '89 #8-) | > North House | nakada@husc4.HARVARD.EDU > Harvard College | seismo>!harvard!husc4!nakada.UUCP > Cambridge, MA 02138 | rutgers/ nakada@husc4.BITNET > 617/498-6255 || 6264 | __| Sweet 16 is a meta processor, that is it is an immaginary 16 bit processor which was invented by Woz. As a sixteen bit processor it is fairly flexible, featuring 16 16 bit registers 12 of which are general purpose. The instruction set is about as extensive as that of the 6502 if maybe even a little less so. So what is the catch? How can you use this processor? Why have you not heard about it before? The swweet 16 was implemented as an interpreter, that is you would write 6502 code to jump to this interpreter, after which it was expected that sweet 16 code would follow the subroutine call. Thus sweet 16 code runs about half as fast as 6502 code. The final catch to using sweet 16, and this is why not many people have heard about it is that the interpreter was located in the integer basic ROMs that came with the original apple II's. So the only way for anyone without integer basic to use sweet 16 is for the programmer to include the interpreter in his program. I think that I have a disassembled listing of this interpreter somewhere but I'm not sure if I should post it knowing how touchy Apple can be with its software copyrights. If anyone can advise me on this I would appreciate it. Sorry this went on so long, but I've been writing a paper for the past two weeks and its hard to stop being verbose when I'm not writing it. Hope this helps Scott Wincklhofer ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scott Wincklhofer AT&T Bell Laboratories Whippany NJ whuts!smw