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From: Steve Casselman <sc@vcc.com>
Subject: Re: Theory #51 (superior(?) programming languages)
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Vivek Sadananda Pai wrote:
> 
> In article <32EFB4B7.2185@vcc.com>, Steve Casselman  <sc@vcc.com> wrote:
> >Most languages would run better if they ran on special
> >machine designed for that language. I'm wondering what
> >the thoughts are on design a machine that accelerates
> >lisp in some way.
> 
> I believe that both Symbolics and TI used to build special-purpose
> Lisp machines. However, consider the resources aspect: general-purpose
> microprocessors can afford a higher design budget, and as a result,
> are likely to run the language faster than a poorly-financed
> special-purpose CPU. I believe this was part of the reason Lisp
> machines died once. However, the wheel of reinvention might spin
> again...
> 
> -Vivek
Reconfigurable processing units come from FPGAs. There is a great
pressure to force down the price of reconfigurable logic for just
hardware engineering purposes. With the new reconfigurable logic
from Xilinx you can build hardware on the fly. The same piece of
silicon that can implement a lisp machine can also implement a 
picojava. But more likely your might just impelment the inner
loop of some problem. 

Check out http://dec.bournemouth.ac.uk/dec_ind/decind6/drhw_page.html
for a real idea of what is being done.

Steve Casselman
