Reproducing old machines with newer technology (Re: PDP-12 at the RICM)

[ben]

On 7/15/2015 3:54 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
> On 07/15/2015 01:30 PM, ben wrote:
>
>> Quick look on the web ... ARG! Max segment length 64K something.
>
> Well, even in the late 70s, 64KB was still a goodly chunk of memory in
> the microprocessor world.  Which reminds me...
>
> To bore you with another STAR tale--the machine had two page sizes--the
> "small" page, which was 512K 64-bit words and the "large page", which
> was 64K words.  What some smart-alec discovered was that in a 512Kw
> system, it was possible (easily) to write an instruction that could
> never get started.  You could have up to 6 addresses in a vector
> instruction (3 operands+3 control vectors).  Storage was managed in 512
> bit "super words".  Start your large-page job, put two of the operands
> near the end of a page and bingo--you get 8 page references just to get
> the instruction started.  Of course, the solution was to sell the
> customer more memory...
>
> --Chuck
>
Good idea  512KW is Dim Complex Foo(512,512)
a small matrix I guess for many things.