[rescue] ASM programing and PDPs (was something about macs a LONG time ago)

[Brian Hechinger]

On Fri, Aug 03, 2001 at 01:30:19PM -0400, joshua d boyd wrote:
> 
> Not that serious about it right now.  Too much else is happening in life

understood.

> to take anything else on.  Need to get things arranged and working, and
> need to get quite a bit of coding done for some people, then get quite a
> bit done for myself.

and then you can do some coding for me after you're finished. :)

> > i've always liked them, but the one big downfall with them is they require a
> > VERY large amount of memory compared to anything else.  but that's the price
> > you pay when you make some choices.
> 
> Memory is cheap these days.  So, you trade memory (cheap) for man hours
> (expensive).  Well, that's should only be within reason.  If you do it so
> much that it makes the machines slow for the end users, well that is just
> evil.

but RISC wasn't designed today.  hell, when i got my sparc5 6 years ago and
wanted to upgrade it from 16MB ram to any amount at all that was higher than
16MB) i think i was looking at $300 for a single 32MB stick of memory.

so was memory (not so cheap) still cheaper than manhours? (always expensive)

> Err, you use the polynomial functions alot?  And the linked list
> instructions alot?

actually i don't use any of them at all, haven't touch ASM since my 370 days.

ok, i'm a smartass and avoiding the true point of your question. :)

ok, but how many VAX instructions are there? (i know, i'm a terrible DEC 
worshiper to not know that, sod off dave)  enough to monospace onto a trifold
"cheat sheet"??  i still have my 370 reference pamphlet around here somewhere.
it's pcoketable, and has everything you need to know about 370 assembly in it.

-brian