The TRansterpreter

Technical Bits
(Part II of III)




Matt Jadud
Berea College
November 12, 2013

The Big Picture

The STack

  • Small stack = fast context switch
  • Majority of operations manipulate the 
    stack in some way
  • Stack is often empty at context switch time
  • Only iptr and wptr need to be stored.

Other registers

oreg is weird

  • To end up with the number
    12345 (or 0x3039)
  1. pfix 3
  2. pfix 0
  3. pfix 3
  4. ldc 9
  • It takes four instructions to load
    a 32-bit number into the Oreg
  • It operates really quickly on 
    4-bit numbers

    • A workspace


    PAR EATS WORKSPACE


    the first implementation






    The current implementation






    Stuff Learned


    • The value of version control
    • Memory and pointers
    • How hardware worked
    • How VMs and hardware interact
    • The challenges of supporting mutliple
      hardware platforms
    • Project management
      • Perhaps, also, things not to do...
    • And...

    Merchandizing






    Silly Explorations






    The Big QUestions


    • Why am I doing this?
    • Is it worthwhile?
    • Is it time for a new direction?
    • Time...
      • For core improvement
      • Hardware support
      • New directions
      • IDE...

    Next Time






    Part III
    Team Process, Lessons Learned

    The TRansterpreter

    By Matt Jadud

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