The idea of loading/storing multiple registers very much predates microprocessors and very much predates the VAX. The earliest appearance I know of is in the I

The idea of loading/storing multiple registers very much predates microprocessors and very much predates the VAX. The earliest appearance I know of is in the IBM System/360, first released in 1964. The instruction is probably even older than that. The ARM did change the instruction, arguably improving it. The IBM instruction loaded/stored multiple registers, but the registers were required to be consecutive. The ARM instruction has a register mask. See IBM System/360 Principles of Operation, page 26: http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/ibm/360/princOps/A22-6821-0_360PrincOps.pdf http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/ibm/360/princOps/A22-...