Paul DeMone (pdemone@igs.net) on 8/19/04 wrote:
---------------------------
>Dresdenboy (M.Waldhauer@gmx.de) on 8/19/04 wrote:
>---------------------------
>>According to my idea to use microcode patching to create customized instructions,
>>which use microcode to do things more efficient than it would be possible with x86
>>code (e.g. MUL), I think that there are several nice candidates. We just have to
>>look for vector decoded x87 or MMX codes.
>
>Ahhh, the home fallout shelter of computer science.
>
>Customizing and/or extending vendor instructions sets
>in application specific fashion using microcode is a
>very old idea in computers and this capability has been
>offered by vendors several times in the past. Writing
>functional microcode is very difficult and the end result
>is extremely non-portable. In practice it was seldom if
>ever used by customers even in the days prior to VLSI
>when microarchitectures were highly self-similar and
>evolved at glacial pace compared to monolithic MPUs
>today. Vendors ended up spending far more developing
>microcode programming tools for end users than they
>ever recouped from increased sales.
>
>So IMO it didn't make sense 30 years ago and it makes
>even less sense today.

So do you see this as a niche for FPGA's to fill (once they can attach to computers properly)?

David