7 ms·

Something cool is a user's work on putting Picolisp onto an FPGA and making a softcore that runs Picolisp natively, which is called "PilMCU" : https://www.yout

Something cool is a user's work on putting Picolisp onto an FPGA and making a softcore that runs Picolisp natively, which is called "PilMCU" : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMgIvITAMBc&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMgIvITAMBc&feature=youtu.be Note: video is 1h long, so, you may wish to fast forward :-)

snaky 8y ago
That's very interesting, and I quote short summary from 2014 > PilMCU is an implementation of 64-bit PicoLisp directly in hardware. A truly minimalistic system. PicoLisp is both the machine language and the operating system: >* Memory management is trivial, just the Lisp heap and the stack >* The built-in database is extended to hold a "file system" >* One SSD per database file for mass storage >* "Processes" run as tasks and coroutines >* Events (timing and interrupts) via a 'wait' instruction >* Complex I/O protocols are delegated to peripheral chips > The final hardware can be very lightweight. Low transistor count and power consumption. No overhead for an OS. It is conceivable for a later stage to put many interconnected CPUs on a single chip. > At present, we have it running in the Verilog simulator, and in an emulator (adaption of the PicoLisp 'emu' architecture). So, what's the state of affairs for 2018?
- patrickg_zill 8y ago
  The last update was April 2017. The person working on it moved to Japan and presumably is quite busy. see: https://www.mail-archive.com/picolisp@software-lab.de/msg07330.html https://www.mail-archive.com/picolisp@software-lab.de/msg073... beginning of the most recent thread I can find: https://www.mail-archive.com/picolisp@software-lab.de/msg07326.html https://www.mail-archive.com/picolisp@software-lab.de/msg073... announcement of video I linked: https://www.mail-archive.com/picolisp@software-lab.de/msg07351.html https://www.mail-archive.com/picolisp@software-lab.de/msg073...

snaky 8y ago

That's very interesting, and I quote short summary from 2014 > PilMCU is an implementation of 64-bit PicoLisp directly in hardware. A truly minimalistic system. PicoLisp is both the machine language and the operating system: >* Memory management is trivial, just the Lisp heap and the stack >* The built-in database is extended to hold a "file system" >* One SSD per database file for mass storage >* "Processes" run as tasks and coroutines >* Events (timing and interrupts) via a 'wait' instruction >* Complex I/O protocols are delegated to peripheral chips > The final hardware can be very lightweight. Low transistor count and power consumption. No overhead for an OS. It is conceivable for a later stage to put many interconnected CPUs on a single chip. > At present, we have it running in the Verilog simulator, and in an emulator (adaption of the PicoLisp 'emu' architecture). So, what's the state of affairs for 2018?

patrickg_zill 8y ago
The last update was April 2017. The person working on it moved to Japan and presumably is quite busy. see: https://www.mail-archive.com/picolisp@software-lab.de/msg07330.html https://www.mail-archive.com/picolisp@software-lab.de/msg073... beginning of the most recent thread I can find: https://www.mail-archive.com/picolisp@software-lab.de/msg07326.html https://www.mail-archive.com/picolisp@software-lab.de/msg073... announcement of video I linked: https://www.mail-archive.com/picolisp@software-lab.de/msg07351.html https://www.mail-archive.com/picolisp@software-lab.de/msg073...