Python CPU

Sun Apr 3 00:01:41 EDT 2011

On 2011年4月03日 12:10:35 +1200, Gregory Ewing wrote:
> Brad wrote:
>>> I've heard of Java CPUs. Has anyone implemented a Python CPU in VHDL or
>> Verilog?
>> Not that I know of.
>> I've had thoughts about designing one, just for the exercise.
>> It's doubtful whether such a thing would ever be of practical use.
> Without as much money as Intel has to throw at CPU development, it's
> likely that a Python chip would always be slower and more expensive than
> an off-the-shelf CPU running a tightly-coded interpreter.

I recall back in the late 80s or early 90s, Apple and Texas Instruments 
collaborated to build a dual-CPU Lisp machine. I don't remember all the 
details, but it was an Apple Macintosh II with a second CPU running (I 
think) a TI Explorer (possibly on a Nubus card?), with an integration 
layer that let the two hardware machines talk to each other. It was dual-
branded Apple and TI.
It was a major flop. It was released around the time that general purpose 
CPUs started to get fast enough to run Lisp code faster than a custom-
made Lisp CPU could. I don't remember the actual pricing, so I'm going to 
make it up... you got better performance from a standard Mac II with 
software Lisp for (say) 12,000ドル than you got with a dedicated Lisp 
machine for (say) 20,000ドル.
(These are vaguely recalled 1980s prices. I'm assuming 10ドルK for a Mac II 
and 2ドルK for the Lisp compiler. Of course these days a 400ドル entry level PC 
is far more powerful than a Mac II.)
There were also Forth chips, which let you run Forth in hardware. I 
believe they were much faster than Forth in software, but were killed by 
the falling popularity of Forth.
-- 
Steven