[rescue] Cray J90s

[Dave McGuire]

On June 12, ed at the7thbeer.com wrote:
> Opens my eyes, but leads to more and more questions.  Like, at what level
> are vectors considered atomic(I'm guessing the kernel itself for the
> hardware wouldn't treat vectors as the sole atomic value, system-wide,
> would it?)?  Just in program space, or deep in the kernel as well?  What

  In a true vector processor, vectors instructions are just
that...instructions.  Most processors don't allow you to interrupt an
instruction in-progress.

> about memory addressing?

  What about it?  In typical vector register based designs (like
Crays), a list of numbers "becomes" a vector (and becomes eligible for
being operated on as such) when it's loaded into a vector register.
On a Cray, there are instructions to load a sequential list of numbers
from main memory into a vector register.

>  What about...oh hell...is there a decent book to read? :)

  Not many.  I've been toying with the idea of writing one.  I will
dig through my bookshelves and see if I can recommend a few.

         -Dave McGuire