On Jan 22, 2008 3:24 PM, SJS <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > begin quoting [EMAIL PROTECTED] as of Tue, Jan 22, 2008 at 02:32:15PM -0800: > > On Tue, Jan 22, 2008 at 02:09:18PM -0800, Andrew Lentvorski wrote: > > > And, BTW, don't underestimate "mainstream" processors. The conventional > > > "wisdom" for a long time was that stack machines were always the way to > > > go even for VM's. Suddenly, VM's are starting to switch to > > > register-based VM's and are getting big performance gains. > > > > Every assembly I've ever learned (x86 and ARM) had a stack *and* registers. > > You seem to be drawing a distinction as if some CPUs have one but not the > > other. Please elaborate. > > When did x86 and ARM CPUs get a stack on the CPU? >
By the way, historically speaking, LISP was developed on mainframes of the IBM 704 variety, vintage 1954. Hence the terms CAR and CDR, which relate to the assembly language of the 704. This was a machine with a paucity of registers (AC, MQ, 3 index registers) and no hardware stack. For some more historical enlightenment, see Wikipedia. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_and_cdr> carl -- carl lowenstein marine physical lab u.c. san diego [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-lpsg
