Kernel LISP - how low down can it go?

[Mike McDonald]

>From: "Dwight Hughes" <dhughes@intellinet.com>
>To: <lispos@math.gatech.edu>, "BRIAN SPILSBURY" <zhivago@iglou.com>
>Subject: Re: Kernel LISP - how low down can it go?
>Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 21:19:57 -0500
>
>| From: BRIAN SPILSBURY <zhivago@iglou.com>
>| 
>  [  snip  ]
>| 
>| I've been thinking about this for a while, I think the best solution
>| may be to extend the lisp-set into covering the assembly-level
>operations.
>| 
>| (bnz #r0)
>| 
>| etc (while keeping this to a minimum)
>
>
>CMU-CL defines some assembly level operations but I've just begun to look
>at what they have done.
>
>If we do this we might want to define a nice generic set of assembly
>language instructions with mapping to the particular CPU and
>architecture being used, though this might be more trouble than
>it's worth. Where has this been done before?
>
>-- Dwight
>

  Why do you think you need access to the underlying machine's
individual instructions? About the only thing I can think of that's
written in assembler in the version of Unix I'm familiar with is the
initialization code (setting up the CPU) and the first level TLB MISS
handler. Nothing else needs to be in assembler.

  Mike McDonald
  mikemac@engr.sgi.com