From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,e17a4d5bc0d42b86 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-02-05 11:46:53 PST Path: supernews.google.com!sn-xit-02!supernews.com!news.tele.dk!128.230.129.106!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsxfer.eecs.umich.edu!news.bu.edu!inmet!not-for-mail From: Tucker Taft Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Ada and JVM? Why not AdaVM? Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2001 14:46:51 -0500 Organization: AverStar (formerly Intermetrics) Burlington, MA USA Message-ID: <3A7F032B.380BD35D@averstar.com> References: <94vdt9$a2g1@news.cis.okstate.edu> <957b5d$fji6p$1@ID-25716.news.dfncis.de> <3A79FE73.3D7F12A0@home.com> <95da8h$13s$1@nnrp1.deja.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: nebula.burl.averstar.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: inmet2.burl.averstar.com 981402412 8248 141.199.8.77 (5 Feb 2001 19:46:52 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@inmet2.burl.averstar.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 5 Feb 2001 19:46:52 GMT X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.75 [en] (X11; U; SunOS 5.7 sun4u) X-Accept-Language: en Xref: supernews.google.com comp.lang.ada:4944 Date: 2001-02-05T19:46:52+00:00 List-Id: Robert Dewar wrote: > > In article <3A79FE73.3D7F12A0@home.com>, > "Larry J. Elmore" wrote: > > Nick Roberts wrote: > > > > I believe the original 'Ada chip' (as such) was the Intel > > > 432, many moons > > > ago (a 16-bit single backplane multiprocessor > > > architecture). Sadly, it was > > > cancelled due to lack of intere$t*. > > > > > > (Anyway, you don't need an Ada-specific CPU, you only need > > > an Ada-specific OS ;-) > > The i432 was a very odd design, which was certainly not done > with Ada in mind (not clear *what* was in mind, this chip was > doomed to fail, since it was impossible to implement > efficiently). ... > Nothing could have rescued it in my opinion. The design had the > appearence of being done by high level language folks with no > view of what could be implemented efficiently. There was really > nothing specifically Ada about the design. I thought the 432 was an attempt to implement many of the ideas of the capability-based Hydra operating system in hardware. Capability-based operating systems were pretty hot for a while, but someone forgot that 90% of the usefulness of an operating system (as opposed to a real-time executive) is at the shell/tool level, and Hydra never got there. Mach, which was a follow-on to the Hydra work, included a Unix emulator on top of it, and that is probably what has kept it alive so long, and now appearing in a local MacOS-X near you... -- -Tucker Taft stt@avercom.net http://www.averstar.com/~stt/ Chief Technology Officer, AverCom, Inc. (A Titan Company) Burlington, MA USA (AverCom was formed 1/1/01 from the Commercial Division of AverStar) (http://www.averstar.com/services/ebusiness_applications.html)