3 ms·
How do you even use all those registers? Serious question. I've toyed with a couple of 256-register ISAs, and the moment you hit function calls/parameter passin
by Joker_vD 3y ago
How do you even use all those registers? Serious question. I've toyed with a couple of 256-register ISAs, and the moment you hit function calls/parameter passing you realize that to utilize those efficiently, you really need some way to indirectly refer to registers, be it register windows, or MMIX's register slide, or Am29k's IPA/IPB/IPC registers; the only other option seems to be to perform global register allocation but that hardly works in scenarios with separate compilation/dynamic code loading.
- benj111 3y agoOff the top of my head I don't really know. But then if you had asked me 20 years ago if we'd need multi core multi GHz multi GB computers to display a web page I'd probably have said no. I suppose the os could reserve registers for itself to save swapping in and out quite so often. Register windows for applications/functions/threads. Or maybe something radically different, like get rid of the stack, and treat them conceptually like a list?
- _a_a_a_ 3y ago> I've toyed with a couple of 256-register ISAs, and the moment you hit function calls/parameter passing you realize that to utilize those efficiently Very revealing, thanks, this had never occurred to me