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I love that the TMS34082 math coprocessor had user-definable microcode! This was intended to work with 3D graphics, so you could really get the most out of the

I love that the TMS34082 math coprocessor had user-definable microcode! This was intended to work with 3D graphics, so you could really get the most out of the ALU by chaining operations for your specific need (e.g. divide-and-sqrt single instruction) See chapter 8: http://www.bitsavers.org/components/ti/TMS340xx/TMS34082_Designers_Handbook_1991.pdf http://www.bitsavers.org/components/ti/TMS340xx/TMS34082_Des...

kjs3 4y ago
Numerous machines had user-definable microcode. For example, the PDP-11/60 had a "Writeable Control Store" (WCS) option, as did the early VAX-11s. I once knew someone who actually did create his own VAX instruction (I want to say it was an FFT, but that might be wrong).