Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!rutgers!iuvax!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!ccvaxa!aglew From: aglew@ccvaxa.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: Wirth's challenge (was Re: RISC Message-ID: <28200075@ccvaxa> Date: 12 Dec 87 00:20:00 GMT References: <6901@apple.UUCP> Lines: 25 Nf-ID: #R:apple.UUCP:6901:ccvaxa:28200075:000:1150 Nf-From: ccvaxa.UUCP!aglew Dec 11 18:20:00 1987 ..> IBM 360, BCD, and COBOL support I wouldn't go so far as putting packed decimal into a modern machine, but unpacked decimal (ascii) might be another thing... except that it can be composed almost as well out of masks and binary arithmetic. As for COBOL support, well... I think we are about to pass the point where a scientific computer will do better at COBOL support than a business computer. Because, what's a business computer? ...Well, it has BCD - see above. It has good I/O - but scientific computers increasingly have good I/O, since they do graphics. It handles strings well - but most strings are short, or fixed length. And you can move a lot of characters through a 64 bit register, and do a lot of string operations 8 characters at a time, instead of one by one. Andy "Krazy" Glew. Gould CSD-Urbana. 1101 E. University, Urbana, IL 61801 aglew@mycroft.gould.com ihnp4!uiucdcs!ccvaxa!aglew aglew@gswd-vms.arpa My opinions are my own, and are not the opinions of my employer, or any other organisation. I indicate my company only so that the reader may account for any possible bias I may have towards our products.