[LispM-Hackers] Outageness

[jm@mak.com]

Hi;

Sorry to be so brief...

Nyef wrote:
> On Tue, 26 Feb 2002, Paul Fuqua wrote:
> > I'm in the macroinstruction camp, but at the same time I worry about
> > things like paging (which can probably happen transparently behind the
> > scenes) and GC (which is partly behind the scenes and partly in
> > instructions like %gc-scavenge).

Can you please either elaborate or point me at a section of any
available documentation?

> I certainly agree that for an emulator usable to run the system _as a
> system_, you most likely will want a macroinstruction level emulator.
> 
> But a microinstruction level emulator could be easier to write (since the
> instruction set is simpler), and may be useful in it's own right (for
> answering questions about how the system does certain things).

There are the vestiges of a microinstruction emulator lying about in the
code.  I originally started there, and then despaired of performance and
documentation (not necessarily in that order).  I also seem to recall
finding only the documentation for the E1 (56 bit ucode?) rather than
the E2 (64 bit ucode?).  I know it's in there somewhere -- I don't think
I ripped that code out because of the uncertainty of having to start
over again there...

> > If I ever get my Explorer put back together and get my home PC updated
> > to FreeBSD 4.5, I'll try to do a microcode disassembler and contribute
> > something more than hot air.

I look forward to the day!  Many hands make light work.

-jm

-- 
==== John Morrison
==== MAK Technologies Inc.
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