On 07/24/11 07:27, Tomas Vavrys wrote: > Hello, > > I am looking for a new cheap PC for assembly learning purposes, > because I don't want to break my current workstation. > > I was thinking about > http://www.tekmote.nl/epages/61504599.sf/nl_NL/?ObjectPath=/Shops/61504599/Products/CFL-006 > > but I am a little bit worried about current status "All on-board > devices are supported, but the framebuffer is currently limited to the > 640x400x8 video mode set up by the firmware." What is the status in > -current at the moment? > > This device will be used only for my learning purposes. I would like > to jump on C and compilers later. Is it better to start with RISC or > CISC? Should I buy rather x86?
"yes" I'm assuming you mean "assembly language", not putting hardware together... If so, what's your purpose? Learning a particular assembly language? In which case, you get a machine of the exact type you plan to be coding for. If you are after the more generic "learning microprocessors at a low level", you need SEVERAL, really. Its a bit like learning a human language, I suspect (while I learned many different processors Way Back When, I'm hopelessly monolingual in the human world, but I've heard multi-lingual people tell me this) -- Learn one, you know one barely. Learn two, the third and later come quickly and easily, and you learn a lot more about your first. The good news is you don't need to buy new hardware. For anything you are likely to do for the near term, the slowest processor will assemble code and run rapidly for you. So, get yourself a PII or PIII for x86, a sparc and a sparc64, an amd64 system (this one you probably have to pay for), and a mac68k (we're bringing that port back. I don't think I can fully answer "why"). Nick.
