On Tue, Apr 17, 2018 at 12:46 PM, Eric Smith via cctalk < [email protected]> wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 17, 2018 at 9:12 AM, allison via cctalk <[email protected] > > > wrote: > > > Looked at 8086 and decided it was a 8080 with a bag on the side. > > It was and still is irrational. > > > > With the 386 architecture (32-bit), they actually cleaned it up quite a > bit. I won't go nearly so far as to say that 386 is elegant, but when > running in 32-bit mode with flat addressing it's nowhere near as awful as > 16-bit 8086 and 286. AMD did a pretty good job of further extending that > to 64-bit. However, it does keep accumulating ever more bags on the side. > Disassembly still isn't 'simple' or 'easy' on x86 as it is on other RISC since the instruction stream can start/stop anywhere. MIPS and Sparc, for example, are both are word based. > I hope RISC-V eventually drives a stake through it. > I have hopes that my 11-year-old son will never have to deal with the horrors that are x86 when he's my age... Maybe it will be gone by then :) Warner
