OT: x86 machine code

[Lars Brinkhoff]

Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> writes:
> On 18 September 2015 at 13:35, Lars Brinkhoff <lars at nocrew.org> wrote:
>> I believe the VIA C3 had an undocumented feature to allow executing
>> the underlying RISC instructions.
>
> [[Citation needed]]
>
> I've never heard of anything like this. Are you perhaps thinking of
> the Crusoe family chips?

No, it was not Crusoe.  I'm fairly sure it was VIA, and less sure it was
the C3.  Maybe Cyrix?  Whatever was current technology around 2002 I
guess.

I remember reading the rumour that the RISC instruction set was
accessible, and I contacted VIA about this.  I got an email from someone
I gathered was a company executive, and I signed an NDA to get the
information.  I got a paper document in the mail.

Unfortunately, a few years ago I cleaned out the room where the document
was stored.  As I didn't think it was important at the time, I threw it
away.

I would love to provide a proper citation, but I searched the net and
couldn't find anything to back this up.