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They were not that conventional. The first Lisp Machines were using micro-coded processors with special instruction sets tailored for compiled and interpreted L
by lispm 12y ago
They were not that conventional. The first Lisp Machines were using micro-coded processors with special instruction sets tailored for compiled and interpreted Lisp.
* tagged architecture
* stack-oriented architecture with large stack buffers
* hardware assisted GC
* support for generic Lisp operators. For example a simple + operator.
* support for basic Lisp data structures like cons cells
The result is that Lisp programs compile to very compact machine code.
- ANTSANTS 12y agoI'm guessing that by "far more radical" the GP meant "directly evals s-expressions." Especially since, IIRC, that's how PicoLisp works. I don't think there is much benefit to that approach over simpler register machines, but it's an interesting idea at least.