29 Nov
2021
29 Nov
'21
8:23 a.m.
On Nov 28, 2021, at 5:12 PM, Larry McVoy <lm(a)mcvoy.com> wrote:
On Sun, Nov 28, 2021 at 07:19:08PM -0500, Clem Cole wrote:
Indeed.
As far as processor design is concerned, I believe one of the
problems is that there are fewer and fewer people who can do
both h/w and s/w design competently. This is why I think more
programmers should roll up their sleeves and design a
processor and understand the issues involved, especially now
that programming FPGAs is becoming common. May be start with
an existing RISC-V core in some HDL, and push and pull it
into (what you think is) an ideal minimalist design. Even
adding a codegen target for such a processor (to at least tcc
or Ken's C compiler) won't be all that hard. I believe this
sort of co-design is what is needed to move past the current
designs. It will likely be some young whippersnapper who
doesn't know what is impossible, rather than one of us
greybeards!
64 bit PDP-11
That would be pretty cool. Your comments about minimalist approaches ring
really true for me. The last conversation I had with Greg Chesson was
a 2 hour rant from him about the fact that nobody who is doing anything
these days understands the value of a minimalist approach, it's one
complex framework or whatever after another.