[comp.arch] [is] RISC a short answer??

daveb@geac.UUCP (David Collier-Brown) (05/06/88)

In article <770@l.cc.purdue.edu> cik@l.cc.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin) writes:
>It seems that, instead, there is great merit in a VCISC design, in which
>useful instructions are included to decrease the number of instructions needed
>in a program.

  They're both tradeoffs, so there **have** to be multiple
solutions.  It happens that RISC fits the external-to-system state
better for small, adventurous companies.  I could do a vCISC and
move more functionality into hardware (assuming I didn't mispredict
what to move!!!!!) and get a competitive processor.  I just couldn't
do it without great expenditures of time and money.
  So I stick with RISC-y little things for Unixes and big Honeybuns
for GCOS-y things.

--dave (I'm not actually working for honeywell any more,
	 but you get the idea) c-b
-- 
 David Collier-Brown.                 {mnetor yunexus utgpu}!geac!daveb
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