Newsgroups: comp.arch Path: utzoo!henry From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) Subject: RISC registers Message-ID: <1988May8.022836.17740@utzoo.uucp> Organization: U of Toronto Zoology References: <1036@nusdhub.UUCP> <1988May3.224604.2252@utzoo.uucp> Date: Sun, 8 May 88 02:28:36 GMT > ... I still think that register windows are a poor design > choice in most cases... Depends on what you are doing. They appear to win heavily when function calls are frequent and relatively unpredictable at compile time, as in languages like C++ and Smalltalk. I agree that their utility is much more debatable for more predictable languages like C and Fortran. > ...I wish that the chip real estate devoted to register windows would > be devoted to a smaller number (32 say) all purpose 64 bit registers > with better floating point support. Surely they should be 80 bits or thereabouts, to support IEEE floating point *properly*? -- NASA is to spaceflight as | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology the Post Office is to mail. | {ihnp4,decvax,uunet!mnetor}!utzoo!henry