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From: dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar)
Subject: Re: Waiver question
Date: 1997/04/29
Message-ID: <dewar.862311071@merv>#1/1
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References: <33585385.C8D@lmtas.lmco.com> <dewar.861594356@merv>
 <m2k9luibub.fsf@acm.org> <1997Apr28.151327.1@eisner>
Organization: New York University
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Date: 1997-04-29T00:00:00+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>


Larry says

<<The minimum addressable unit on DEC Alpha is 32 bits, except for the very
latest chip where it was altered for purposes of Intel emulation. GNAT
reportedly "does" DEC Alpha, and I presume that is without relying on
OS traps for every unaligned instruction :-).>>


You are confusing addressibility with accesibility. The minimum addressable
unit on the DEC Alpha (all models) is 8-bits, since it has normal byte
addressing. It is true that to *access* a single byte, you need to generate
a couple of extra instructions, but that is easy to handle.

Where the minimum *addressable* unit is 32-bits, things are more complex,
but the 1750-A port of GCC would indicate that this can certainly be done,
and from reports, there are indeed ports of GCC for 32-bit addressable
machines, so it is certainly feasible.