3 Apr
2006
3 Apr
'06
1:25 a.m.
On 4/2/2006 at 9:57 PM Don Y wrote:
Moving to something like a 99000 can be terribly
distressing
for the register rich crowd to become accustomed to! ;)
I think the hardest machines to program for are the ones with "not quite
enough" registers. Programming an IBM 1620 is easy--there are no
accumulators, so there isn't much choice. Even a single accumulator calls
out a certain programming style. But, say 3 or 4 registers gets you taking
time to think about how to best use them. On the other hand, with the CDC
Cyber 200, you had 256 64 bit registers, so you could keep just about
everything in registers--no tough thought there. But on the 808x, there
are just few enough and they're orthogonal enough to make you think.
Cheers,
Chuck