Megan wrote: Yes, but if you paid attention to the original claim, you would see that I asserted that it was true for horizontal microcode with large amounts of data dependency. This is *very* different than trying to compile C (or Pascal, or Bliss, or whatever) for a typical architecture (which more closely resembles vertical microcode). One of the systems I microcoded had 512 words of control store (of about 72 bits each), and running my microprogram source code through the compiler produced 514 words of microinstructions. With about two weeks of concentrated effort, I was able to eventually squeeze out two microinstructions. Total development time: 6 weeks. If I had tried to write all of the microcode in "assembly", it would have taken me longer to write, and it probably would have been *bigger* on the first pass. And I still would have had to spend a lot of time on hand optimization. I think this would have taken at least 12 weeks of development time, although since I didn't do it that way I'll never know.