From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1PliRX-00064k-GN for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Sat, 05 Feb 2011 13:44:51 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id D2137E0691; Sat, 5 Feb 2011 13:43:24 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mailgate.caprica.metux.de (caprica.metux.de [82.165.128.25]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 73E4FE0691 for ; Sat, 5 Feb 2011 13:43:22 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mailgate.caprica.metux.de (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by mailgate.caprica.metux.de (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id p15De0pL028802 for ; Sat, 5 Feb 2011 14:40:00 +0100 Received: (from uucp@localhost) by mailgate.caprica.metux.de (8.14.4/8.14.4/Submit) with UUCP id p15Ddwpo028798 for gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org; Sat, 5 Feb 2011 14:39:58 +0100 Received: (from weigelt@localhost) by nibiru.metux.de (8.12.10/8.12.10) id p15DYbV3021248 for gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org; Sat, 5 Feb 2011 14:34:37 +0100 Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2011 14:34:36 +0100 From: Enrico Weigelt To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Microcode update AMD Message-ID: <20110205133436.GC2117@nibiru.local> References: <20110117172148.GD5748@solfire> <4d3493c4.0297df0a.7fb2.ffffc8c0@mx.google.com> Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <4d3493c4.0297df0a.7fb2.ffffc8c0@mx.google.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i X-Terror: bin laden, kill bush, Briefbombe, Massenvernichtung, KZ, X-Nazi: Weisse Rasse, Hitlers Wiederauferstehung, 42, X-Antichrist: weg mit schaeuble, ausrotten, heiliger krieg, al quaida, X-Killer: 23, endloesung, Weltuntergang, X-Doof: wer das liest ist doof X-Archives-Salt: X-Archives-Hash: 73b5141ba58f7afce8d0abc490ed29c5 * Volker Armin Hemmann wrote: > the CPU. All CPUs use microcode. For decades. Google, or go straight to > wikipedia. > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcode Borroughs' large systems (b6500+) were designed as microcode machines from ground up, which essentially interpreted an algol bytecode (the whole OS was directly implemented in assembler, w/o any machine specific assembler code). Paired w/ their entirely stack-based architecture (there were no program-visible registers) they could easily do massive-multiprocessing (everything's reentrant by design), 24/7 uptime even w/ hw replacements/upgrades and cpu improvements w/o ever having to recompile. Their successors (now Unisys) are called emode machines - quite the same approach as nowadays w/ Java (interpreter/JIT). BTW: I'm currently designing an emode/microcode-base computer architecture built on an matrix of nanocores, they don't have a concept of main memory, instead a relatively large (linear addressable) register memory, part of the register space is shared with neighbours (multiport-RAMs). These are programmed by an horizontal microcode, which is decoded by an static demux, that directly connects registers to an micro-ALU (so there're no additional load+store cycles) ... cu -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Enrico Weigelt, metux IT service -- http://www.metux.de/ phone: +49 36207 519931 email: weigelt@metux.de mobile: +49 151 27565287 icq: 210169427 skype: nekrad666 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Embedded-Linux / Portierung / Opensource-QM / Verteilte Systeme ----------------------------------------------------------------------