Language-specific CPUs was Re: uIEC/SD == AWESOME!

[Tim Shoppa]

Chuck wrote:
> On 1 Jan 2009 at 9:51, Rick Bensene wrote:
>
> > Yes, the Wang 2200-series machines used a microcoded architecture that
> > implemented a BASIC interpreter as a native "language".  
>
> Like an IBM 5150 without any disks?    If we're talking about 
> "directly executing" shouldn't the hardware be so tightly wound up 
> with the language that reprogramming it (say, by replacing ROMs) to 
> host some other language is impossible?  Otherwise, it's just a 
> conventional processor executing a stored program.

What about, say, a Western Digital Microengine? It's a LSI-11 chipset
but with different microcode to interpret P-code which by definition
means UCSD Pascal, so in every real respect a language-specific processor
in a way that a PDP-11/03 isn't.

It's not like people just popped in different MICROM chips to go from
a PDP-11/03 to a Microengine to a Alpha Micro WD16. At least, nobody
I knew did. I've had Alpha Micros and Microengines and 11/03's at different
times through the years and while it's obvious they all have WD chips
I never did have the inkling to go muck about with the MICROM's.

I doubt a 11/03 with a WCS would be enough to "become" a Alpha Micro
or a Microengine. I always did my WCS stuff within the context
of the -11 register set, for example. Maybe I was just restrictively
unclever at the time.

Tim.