4 ms·
I've always viewed x86 as the worst of both worlds. It lacks the orthogonality of a good CISC, and it lacks the simpleness of a RISC. That modern x86 chips perf
by amyjess 11y ago
I've always viewed x86 as the worst of both worlds. It lacks the orthogonality of a good CISC, and it lacks the simpleness of a RISC. That modern x86 chips perform so well is despite their inefficient ISA, not because of it. If as much money and research got poured into anything else, it'd perform even better.
- Symmetry 11y agoI can't believe I'm defending x86 but I think you're being too harsh. Orthogonality isn't really that important these days now that everybody uses compilers and the very messiness of x86 has allowed Intel to keep adding new instructions over time. Linus waxes poetic on 'rep movs' but I'd rather have something like PAL code for architecture specific optimized routines for implementing copies. Still, that's something most ISAs don't have.