Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watdragon!lion!ccplumb
From: ccplumb@lion.waterloo.edu (Colin Plumb)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: 64 bit registers
Message-ID: <20836@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
Date: 13 Feb 90 03:02:39 GMT
References: <11121@encore.Encore.COM> <16886@boulder.Colorado.EDU>
Sender: daemon@watdragon.waterloo.edu
Reply-To: ccplumb@lion.waterloo.edu (Colin Plumb)
Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 16

In article <16886@boulder.Colorado.EDU> wallwey@boulder.Colorado.EDU (WALLWEY DEAN WILLIAM) writes:
>	If I remmember right, the i860 already has 64 bit registers.
>Can anybody confirm or deny this?  If so, are these the general
>registers or only floating point ones.  Also I think I remember
>the designers used 128 bit busses on the chip to keep certain parts of
>it from starving.

When I posted my i860 summary, I said that it could lay claim to
being the first 64-bit microprocessor.  It has a 64-bit external
bus, and a fair number of 64-bit operations.  It still has 32-bit
addresses and 32-bit integer registers, but the floating point
unit and the (to my mind, very wierd) graphics units are 64 bits
internally.  Yes, it's far from pure, but all firsts are bastards
in some way.  The position is defnesible.
-- 
	-Colin