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

[Tony Duell]

> 
> 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.

OK, suppose we take a typicel microcomputer with BASIC in ROM and replace 
the ROMs with a (very large) set of AND and OR gates to carry out the 
same logic function (after all, a ROM is just a fixed AND matrix 
(the address decoder) follered by a programablt OR matrix (combines the 
outputs of that decoder into the desired output words). Is that a 
hardware implenentation of BASIC or not :-)

-tony