Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!mslater
From: mslater@cup.portal.com (Michael Z Slater)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Integer Multiply/Divide on Sparc
Message-ID: <25457@cup.portal.com>
Date: 28 Dec 89 23:57:04 GMT
References: <84768@linus.UUCP> <8840004@hpfcso.HP.COM> <84983@linus.UUCP>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 12

With regard to SPARC's lack of integer multiply/divide:

I suspect this is primarily a consequence not of the designer's attitude
toward arithmetic, but was a result of the goal to implement the first
CPU chip in a 20,000-gate ASIC.  They had to be economical with the
transistors.

I expect that future SPARC implementations will add integer multiply and
divide instructions.  Unfortunately, existing software won't use these
instructions.

Michael Slater, Microprocessor Report   mslater@cup.portal.com