[comp.sys.dec] instructions in the Vax not used by Unix assembler

llave@phoenix.PRINCETON.EDU (Rafael Llave) (08/19/87)

The vax architecture manual mentions several instructions that
would be very useful such as: quadruple precision and 
evaluation of polynomials.

Has anybody libraries so that routines that use
these instructions can be called say from C programs ??

( they are not quite trivial to write since the unix assembler does not
understand these instructions ).

I would be delighted to get hold of them.

payne@watdcsu.UUCP (08/20/87)

In article <597@phoenix.PRINCETON.EDU> llave@phoenix.PRINCETON.EDU (Rafael Llave) writes:
>The vax architecture manual mentions several instructions that
>would be very useful such as: quadruple precision and 
>evaluation of polynomials.

Try looking at some of the Run-Time Library stuff. VOL 8B pp 9.9-9-16 gives
an overview of RTL routines that 'provide access to VAX machine
instructions'. Examples are LIB$POLYn, LIB$EMODn, etc. They're C callable.

Doug

cik@l.cc.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin) (08/24/87)

No one should _ever_ have to use a necessarily wasteful subroutine call
to do what the hardware provides.  The only reasonable solution is to
provide macros to break the instruction into .bytes, .words, etc.

-- 
Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907
Phone: (317)494-6054
hrubin@l.cc.purdue.edu or pur-ee!stat-l!cik or hrubin@purccvm.bitnet