Aucbvax.5010
fa.works
utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!works
Sat Nov 7 14:26:59 1981
Works Digest V1 #33
>From JSol@RUTGERS Sat Nov 7 13:54:40 1981
WorkS Digest Saturday, 7 Nov 1981 Volume 1 : Issue 33
Today's Topics: Smalltalk Usefulness
Information on IBM System 38
WorkStation Languages
TI 16-Bit Chip
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 6 Nov 1981 09:09 PST
From: TonyWest at PARC-MAXC
Subject: How to get IBM System/38 Documentation
To: Stavros M. Macrakis <MACRAK MIT-MC AT>
cc: TonyWest at PARC-MAXC
About finding out more technical information on the IBM System 38:
There was a nice collection of technical papers published by IBM in
1978. You might try to get hold of it:
"IBM System/38 Technical Developments" published by IBM GSD (then)
publication order number G580-0237
However - I think this report is out of print, in which case, what I
recommend is that you call an IBM branch office, tell them about this
report and what you want, and ask them to look up for you the list of
publications available for the S/38 (which has since been announced,
so there is plenty available about it). All Branch offices have a
list of publications and can order them for you (though you may have
to produce some money sometime for the books).
Tony West
Computer Science Laboratory
Xerox PARC
------------------------------
Date: 5 Nov 1981 01:07:49-PST
From: decvax!ittvax!cox at Berkeley
Subject: Suitable workstation languages?
Being of the Evolutionary, rather than Revolutionary, school of
thought I've been concerned over means for experimenting with a
language like Smalltalk on a UNIX (i.e. READILY portable TODAY) base.
The approach so far has been to use the C compiler as an "assembly
language" for a virtual Smalltalk machine; i.e. to develop a Smalltalk
compiler that produces C language as output, and then bootstrap from
this to versions that bring up more and more of the stuff that UNIX
doesn't help with (automatic garbage collection, incremental
compilation, etc, etc.).
The part that works so far is as follows: a C precompiler (of the
lex/yacc school) reads a language close to C, and turns that into C
language containing data initialization statements that define class
relationships, in a manner as close to Smalltalk as I can glean from
the available information. So with this one can experiment with
programming in objects, classes and messaging, although the input
syntax isn't Smalltalk 81 and most of the Smalltalk 81 environment is
also missing.
The next step isn't working yet, but should be soon, which is to
complete a (non-incremental) compiler for Smalltalk 81 syntax, which
uses primitives generated from the step above for data storage.
This compiler generates interpreted code, for which an interpreter
will be written (in preprocessed C).
Subsequent steps can also be envisioned, but I'll probably stop
this approach well short of "Complete Smalltalk on UNIX".
Any interest out there?
------------------------------
Date: 6 Nov 1981 (Friday) 1236-EDT
From: DREIFU at WHARTON-10 (Henry Dreifus)
Subject: Can smalltalk work ?
Technology wise we will probably see an S-machine, microcoded to do
the byte-code operations very efficiently.
Will the 'programmers of tomorrow' use this concept in programming
versus classical PASCAL/Fortran/ . . . styles ?
Hank
------------------------------
From: decvax!duke!unc!smb at Berkeley
In-real-life: Steven M. Bellovin
Subject: Size of OS/360
In "The Mythical Man-Month", Fred Brooks estimates that over 5000
man-YEARS went into OS/360 between 1963 and 1966.
------------------------------
Date: 5 Nov 1981 09:05:36-PST
From: decvax!duke!unc!smb at Berkeley
In-real-life: Steven M. Bellovin
Location: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Subject: TI 16-bit chip
TI introduced a 24-MHz TMS99000 MPU, with a $65 price in 100-piece
quantities. (Quotes from the Nov. 2nd Electronic News).
It includes an "on-chip macrostore memory with 1K bytes of ROM and 3K
bytes or RAM for storage of frequently-used functions which can then
be accessed at full processor speeds." The company is preparing a
chip version using that macrostore for floating point operations, and
said that part, designated the TMS99110, would be available in
December at $99. The instruction set is a superset of the TMS9995 and
TMS9900, with object code compatibility. There are also new
instructions for multiprecision arithmetic, stack operations, parallel
I/O, and memory bit manipulation. It has "an instantaneous address
reach of 256K bytes of main memory and 120K bytes of internal and/or
external macrostore memory", as well as compatibility with the
TIM99610 memory mapper for control of address space up to 16M bytes.
------------------------------
End of WorkS Digest
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