23 Sep
2004
23 Sep
'04
12:05 a.m.
At 07:40 AM 9/23/2004, you wrote:
I've always wondered what systems/processors (other
than IBM mainframes)
that had hardware decimal arithmetic support. I don't mean 'decimal
adjust' instructions, I'm talking about full
add/subtract/multiply/divide/etc. The only other one I know of is the
Wang VS, which came standard with support for 'packed decimal' data, and
even floating-point decimal. The Wang VS instruction set was very
similar to the IBM 360/370, even the packed decimal data format was the
same.
DEC PDP11/23 CPU has sockets for 2 extra chips (40 pin DIPS).
One is hardware floating point. This is fairly common.
The other for a CIS - Commercial Instruction Set with full set of decimal
instructions as you list.
Never used one though.
Ed K.