underdog@portia.Stanford.EDU (Dwight Joe) (04/14/90)
In article <19812@mephisto.UUCP> cheung@bison.UUCP (Shun Yan Cheung) writes: |In article <1990Apr13.230144.25650@athena.mit.edu> |kpchan@athena.mit.edu (Kai P Chan) writes: || ||You (= Dwight Joe) think 80x86 or 680x0 are high-tech stuffs? In my opinion, ||they are just the same old technology scaled up. They just put everything ||(e.g. caching, math co-processor etc.)on chip! | |To be completely honest, there is not much advances in the Von Neumann |achitecture since its conception. Maybe. But both Intel and Motorola has caught-on to RISC. In the latest versions of the 80x86 and the 680x0, the logic circuits have been redesigned so that the most frequently used instructions can now execute in 1 or 2 cycles max. This result was obtained by increasing somewhat the number of cycles needed to execute the more complex instructions. The MIPS ratings of both processors are within striking distance of a "true" RISC processor. The maintenance of compatibility does not necessarily mean that new technology has been forsaken. IMHO, this was a shrewd business decision by both Intel and Motorola. It should help to keep these microprocessor families alive for quite some time despite all the "truly" RISC processors that are available.