Subject: Re: NetBSD-Mach?
To: Rick C. Petty <pett0019@gold.tc.umn.edu>
From: Kevin P. Neal <kpneal@pobox.com>
List: port-mac68k
Date: 12/11/1996 19:40:43
At 08:25 AM 12/11/96 -0600, Rick C. Petty wrote:
>On Wed, 11 Dec 1996, Wolfgang Solfrank wrote:
>
>> > The 601 is a different-enough chip to make it a little harder.  My
>> > understanding of the 601 is that it was a "time to market" sort of
>> > thing, and that the differences between the 601 to 603 or 604 are
>> > analogous to the differences between the 68020 and the 68040 or 68060.
>> 
>> While I don't know too much about the 68040 and 68060, I think the difference
>> between the 601 and the newer PowerPCs is a bit greater.

>thought it was RISC-based and had an entirely different instruction set 
>then the 000-040 chips.

You heard wrong.

The 68060 is (I believe) missing a couple of instructions that the 68040
has, but it's not a "entirely different instruction set". 

Also, is it just me or does anybody else notice a trend in processors, where
the chips get simpler and simpler in design of features, while they get
more and more complex in the instruction path (to increase speed)? 
--
XCOMM Kevin P. Neal, Sophomore, Comp. Sci. -   kpneal@pobox.com
XCOMM     http://www.pobox.com/~kpn/       -   kpneal@eos.ncsu.edu
XCOMM "Comments in code are kinda useless, anyway."
XCOMM   -- Brian Rumple, TA for my OS class, NCSU. November 6,1996