[geeks] examples of vector processors (vs scalar processors)

[Joshua D Boyd]

On Mon, Aug 05, 2002 at 05:42:03PM -0400, Dave McGuire wrote:
> On August 5, Joshua D Boyd wrote:
> > >   Several modern processors have SIMD functionality which can (somewhat
> > > loosely I suppose) be called vector capabilities.  .UltraSPARC VIS,
> > > Pentium MMX, and PowerPC AltiVec come to mind.  I believe HP's newer
> > > PA-RISC processors have a similar capabilitiy but I don't know what
> > > it's called offhand.
> > 
> > Yes, but does this make them vector processors, or just scalar
> > processors with minor vector units?
> 
>   Well this is a good point, definitely the latter...but where do you
> draw the line?  I don't know of *any* processor that is a pure vector
> machine without scalar capability.

A side question I have is, do the YMP machines have what us people
who've been ruined by intel and risc would call normal integer and
floating point registers?

-- 
Joshua D. Boyd