17 Apr
2018
17 Apr
'18
12:19 p.m.
On Tue, Apr 17, 2018 at 12:46 PM, Eric Smith via cctalk <
cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
On Tue, Apr 17, 2018 at 9:12 AM, allison via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org
wrote:
> Looked at 8086 and decided it was a 8080 with a bag on the side.
> It was and still is irrational.
With the 386 architecture (32-bit), they actually cleaned it up quite a
bit. I won't go nearly so far as to say that 386 is elegant, but when
running in 32-bit mode with flat addressing it's nowhere near as awful as
16-bit 8086 and 286. AMD did a pretty good job of further extending that
to 64-bit. However, it does keep accumulating ever more bags on the side.
Disassembly still isn't 'simple' or 'easy' on x86 as it is on other
RISC
since the instruction stream can start/stop anywhere. MIPS and Sparc, for
example, are both are word based.
I hope RISC-V eventually drives a stake through it.
I have hopes that my 11-year-old son will never have to deal with the
horrors that are x86 when he's my age... Maybe it will be gone by then :)
Warner