Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!teknowledge-vaxc!sri-unix!garth!walter From: walter@garth.UUCP (Walter Bays) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: separate integer and float register Message-ID: <1241@garth.UUCP> Date: 16 Aug 88 18:58:07 GMT References: <2724@wright.mips.COM> <6800002@modcomp> Reply-To: walter@garth.UUCP (Walter Bays) Organization: INTERGRAPH (APD) -- Palo Alto, CA Lines: 16 In article <6800002@modcomp> joe@modcomp.UUCP writes: >Special floating point registers also slow down context switching, due >to the extra time needed to save/restore them. More registers slow down context switching, whether integer or floating point, windowed or conventional. The net effect depends on the workload; as you point out, some real-time applications may have a very high context switch rate. In choosing/designing a real-time executive for such an application on a machine with many registers I might adopt register usage conventions that treated most registers as volatile. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ My opinions are my own. Objects in mirror are closer than they appear. E-Mail route: ...!pyramid!garth!walter (415) 852-2384 USPS: Intergraph APD, 2400 Geng Road, Palo Alto, California 94303 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------