TI 99/4 speed (was Re: Register Allocation and Aliasing)

msnyder@cis.ohio-state.edu (Michael V Snyder)
Tue, 24 Jul 90 23:45:11 GMT

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TI 99/4 speed (was Re: Register Allocation and Aliasing) msnyder@cis.ohio-state.edu (1990-07-24)
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Newsgroups: comp.compilers
From: msnyder@cis.ohio-state.edu (Michael V Snyder)
Followup-To: comp.arch
Keywords: optimize speed
Organization: Ohio State Computer Science
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 24 Jul 90 23:45:11 GMT

In article <1990Jul14.224533.14161@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us> torbenm@diku.dk (Torben [gidius Mogensen) writes:
>(Some people may remember the TI 99/4 home computer, which used a 99000
>processor. It was notoriously slow, but this was (I have heard) mainly due
>to bad programming and system design).
>
> Torben Mogensen (torbenm@diku.dk)


Ah yes. The TI 99/4 was slow only in BASIC, and that was because its
basic interpreter was written not in assembler, not in some high level
compiled language, but in ANOTHER INTERPRETED LANGUAGE! There was,
of course, no way to escape from the BASIC shell and bootstrap
yourself into some kind of assembler or compiler without buying extra
hardware, since the BASIC lacked any kind of peek or poke instruction.
--

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