3 ms·

If you want to see something truly wacky and inspired, look at how the Transputer loads constants. There's an instruction that does this, IIRC, four bits at a t

by kabdib 11y ago

If you want to see something truly wacky and inspired, look at how the Transputer loads constants. There's an instruction that does this, IIRC, four bits at a time, with rules for what happens to previously loaded bits in terms of shifting, sign extending and so forth. Basically you built up a constant 4 bits at a time. Most of the time you want things like 1, 2, 4, -1, 0 and so forth, so it made sense. Of course, being a stack machine, this is easier (no register to address, just a top-of-stack value). I don't know why the Transputer didn't take off. Probably Occam (which was interesting, but weird). I know of at least one TV set top box that used the T800, but don't know of any other design wins the chip had.

PhantomGremlin 11y ago
I don't know why the Transputer didn't take off. I think for two reasons. 1) "too weird". This eventually dooms all of the goofy architectures like Transputer, IA-64, Transmeta, STI Cell, etc. Nobody wants to deal with something radically different unless there are compelling long-term reasons to do so. Granted, that's a little bit of a chicken-and-egg argument. Without adoption there won't be any long-term existence of an architecture. 2) Support tools and infrastructure. Intel and ARM have an incredible variety of support software. Any new architecture is at a disadvantage unless and until all that supporting stuff is written and works well. This means compilers, IDEs, development hardware, etc. Normally the tools for a new architecture are laughably primitive compared to existing environments. Which puts early adopters at a serious disadvantage. We're in an x86-64 / ARM duopoly now. Nothing else is really relevant. Do you see anything that could change that in the near future? I sure don't.
- ant6n 11y ago
  We could get a monopoly. Maybe OpenRisc/Risc-V will rise. Who'da thunk in 1990 that Linux would rise?

by kabdib 11y ago

PhantomGremlin 11y ago

I don't know why the Transputer didn't take off. I think for two reasons. 1) "too weird". This eventually dooms all of the goofy architectures like Transputer, IA-64, Transmeta, STI Cell, etc. Nobody wants to deal with something radically different unless there are compelling long-term reasons to do so. Granted, that's a little bit of a chicken-and-egg argument. Without adoption there won't be any long-term existence of an architecture. 2) Support tools and infrastructure. Intel and ARM have an incredible variety of support software. Any new architecture is at a disadvantage unless and until all that supporting stuff is written and works well. This means compilers, IDEs, development hardware, etc. Normally the tools for a new architecture are laughably primitive compared to existing environments. Which puts early adopters at a serious disadvantage. We're in an x86-64 / ARM duopoly now. Nothing else is really relevant. Do you see anything that could change that in the near future? I sure don't.

ant6n 11y ago
We could get a monopoly. Maybe OpenRisc/Risc-V will rise. Who'da thunk in 1990 that Linux would rise?