Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!wivax!decvax!decwrl!turtleva!ken From: ken@turtleva.UUCP Newsgroups: net.arch Subject: Barrel Shifters Message-ID: <209@turtleva.UUCP> Date: Tue, 5-Jul-83 00:32:37 EDT Article-I.D.: turtleva.209 Posted: Tue Jul 5 00:32:37 1983 Date-Received: Thu, 7-Jul-83 01:50:06 EDT Lines: 12 One of the best features in some of the newer microprocessors (29116, RISC) is a barrel shifter. The 29116 allows only rotates, but the RISC also allows arithmetic and logical shifts in one cycle. The barrel shifter makes it much easier to work with packed data (especially with the 29116's rotate, mask, and merge instruction), and also helps when converting between data types that have the radix point in different positions. Are there any other processors, present or future, that have this component? I suspect that it is almost a necessity in 32-bit micros. Ken Turkowski {decwrl,amd70}!turtlevax!ken