16 Jul
2014
16 Jul
'14
10:58 a.m.
On Jul 16, 2014, at 1:49 PM, Kevin Keith <krfkeith at gmail.com> wrote:
Basically, my question is what are the major obstacles
(besides the breadth
of the project) to implementing the VAX in an FPGA, as compared to any
other ISA?
You?d have to design an I/O model that the existing OSs support, or adjust the OS code to
fit your I/O model.
Apart from that, and as you point out the size of the effort, it actually helps a lot that
the architecture is quite consistent and well documented. The Architecture manual spells
out what each instruction does, and what all the other major blocks do, in a lot of detail
and with substantial rigor.
You might start with a PDP-11 as a warmup exercise ? that has the same advantages but the
I/O issue is way smaller and so is the overall scope.
paul