Lisp, the machine language. Was Re: Hallelujah!

From: Buck Savage <hhacker_at_home.com>
Date: Sun Apr 4 16:44:05 1999

>On Sun, 4 Apr 1999, Chuck McManis wrote:
>
>>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?
>
> --Max Eskin (max82_at_surfree.com)
>

The value of a high-level language capable machine is that the code can run
without the need to invoke language translation. In such cases, the
hardware
becomes a language interpreter, with the speed of processing dramatically
increased. For a well designed system, the speed of processing is actually
greater for a Lisp program running on a Lisp machine than it would be for
the same Lisp program to run on a non-Lisp machine CISC or RISC
processor.

William R. Buckley
Received on Sun Apr 04 1999 - 16:44:05 BST