Message-ID: <19990706172737.25638@atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz>
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1999 17:27:37 +0200
From: Jan Hubicka <hubicka AT atrey DOT karlin DOT mff DOT cuni DOT cz>
To: pgcc AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: K7 potentials
References: <3 DOT 0 DOT 32 DOT 19990520004516 DOT 00aa4930 AT pop DOT xs4all DOT nl> <000401bec489$71489b60$41d16482 AT ellemtel DOT se> <19990705180407 DOT D206 AT cerebro DOT laendle>
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In-Reply-To: <19990705180407.D206@cerebro.laendle>; from Marc Lehmann on Mon, Jul 05, 1999 at 06:04:07PM +0200
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> On Fri, Jul 02, 1999 at 01:50:20PM +0100, David Jonsson wrote:
> > > >    Will the K7 be less "register starved" than the rest of the x86
> > > >archictecture, or was this simply not possible while maintaining x86
> > > >compatibility????
> > > >    If it will have more registers, how much difference will this make
> > 
> > The only way to increase register amounts is to introduce new CPU states just like they have with PIII.
> 
> Not really. Thats a clean way but doesn't help existing software. There
> are methods to increase the number of registers (e.g. register
> renaming). These methods might even be more efficient in some cases since
Interesting trick to increase register file is used by Cyrix CPUs.
They allow lock page of memory in cache and accesses are then af fast as to
registers. This is not 100% replacement, but also quite crazy idea.
Best way to increase number of registers is to buy Ultrasparc anyway :)

Honza
> they save on the number of bits necessary to encode a register.
> 
> --  
>       -----==-                                             |
>       ----==-- _                                           |
>       ---==---(_)__  __ ____  __       Marc Lehmann      +--
>       --==---/ / _ \/ // /\ \/ /       pcg AT goof DOT com      |e|
>       -=====/_/_//_/\_,_/ /_/\_\       XX11-RIPE         --+
>     The choice of a GNU generation                       |
>                                                          |

-- 
                       OK. Lets make a signature file.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|        Jan Hubicka (Jan Hubi\v{c}ka in TeX) hubicka AT freesoft DOT cz         |
|         Czech free software foundation: http://www.freesoft.cz          |
|AA project - the new way for computer graphics - http://www.ta.jcu.cz/aa |
|  homepage: http://www.paru.cas.cz/~hubicka/, games koules, Xonix, fast  |
|  fractal zoomer XaoS, index of Czech GNU/Linux/UN*X documentation etc.  | 
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