Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!lll-lcc!mordor!styx!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!decvax!tektronix!uw-beaver!tikal!hplsla!hpvcla!neff From: neff@hpvcla.HP.COM (Dave Neff) Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: assembly programming prefereable to HLL programming ? (LONG) Message-ID: <3910001@hpvcla.HP.COM> Date: Fri, 9-Jan-87 14:14:20 EST Article-I.D.: hpvcla.3910001 Posted: Fri Jan 9 14:14:20 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 11-Jan-87 09:40:34 EST References: <12037@cca.CCA.COM> Organization: Hewlett Packard, Vancouver, WA Lines: 21 The new HP "RISC" machine gets much of its high level language performance benefits due to the fact it has 32 general purpose registers. The HLL compilers partition the usage of these registers and use them for both local variables as well as parameter passing (unless all else fails). When all else fails the optimizer decides what data should be put on the stack. If I recall correctly the conventions allow for up to 16 parameters passed to another subroutine via registers. In my opinion much of the performance benefits of this architecture come from the fact that the machine has many general purpose registers and the compilers sound like they do excellent optimization. I have no direct experience with these machines, all the above info comes from HP Journal articles filtered through my imperfect memory. By the way, the Unix based "RISC" machine has been shipping for a month and seems to be selling well. Dave Neff hpfcla!hpvcla!neff Disclaimer: This is not an ad.