Lisp, the machine language. Was Re: Hallelujah!

From: Allison J Parent <allisonp_at_world.std.com>
Date: Sun Apr 4 13:00:11 1999

<>They are micro-coded to run LISP, sorta like the WD P-Engine machines run
<>PASCAL.
<
<So, an assembly language program for them would look like lisp, as opposed
<to MOVs, ADDs, and so forth? And same with Pascal? But why would anyone
<want something that was microcoded to run Pascal? Are there any other
<languages that have gotten microcoded into a processor?

Pascal was never microcoded, the P-interpreter was microcoded on one system.
The difference is significant. The P-engine was a theorhetical stack
machine that Pascal would optimally compile to. The idea was everything
above the P-engine level would be standard code and only the P-engine would
ahve to be rewritten for each different processor (which is why it was on
PDP-11, Z80, 6502 to name a few).

Allison
Received on Sun Apr 04 1999 - 13:00:11 BST