PDP11 SEX and Fubar

From: Bill Pechter <pechter_at_bg-tc-ppp733.monmouth.com>
Date: Tue May 15 16:10:49 2001

> Yes, I am well aware of that. Point is, the acronym (the usual expansion
> of which you'd not use in polite company ;-)) was used for said register
> in all the official manuals, etc.
>
> I am quite sure the engineers at DEC knew what they were doing. I suspect
> that the 'suits' didn't spot it until the manuals had already been shipped.


I think this one slipped through the corporate cracks.

>
> One story I heard is that DEC engineers wanted to call the Sign Extension
> instruction on the PDP11 'SEX'. They were stopped, and the mnemonic was
> changed to SXT. Some other DEC engineers (probably), hearing this story,
> decided to get their own back on the managment by calling this register
> in the VAX FUBAR. This time it wasn't spotted before it was too late.

So I was told at DEC Training. The PDP11/34 has the SEX Multiplexer
doing the sign extend.

Seems hardware engineering had a little more leeway than the software
guys working on Macro11 and the assembler mnemonics.

>
> -tony
>

Bill

---
  Bill Gates is a Persian cat and a monocle away from being a 
  villain in a James Bond movie              -- Dennis Miller 
  bpechter_at_shell.monmouth.com|pechter_at_pechter.dyndns.org
Received on Tue May 15 2001 - 16:10:49 BST

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