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- .In
- .NH
- INTRODUCTION
- .NH 2
- Why an EM backend for SPARC processors?
- .PP
- With the introduction of SPARC-based computers like the Sun-4, a
- whole new range of fast computers became readily available to the general
- public. The power of large mainframes had been captured into a small
- desk-top computer at only a fraction of the cost.
- .PP
- In the older days, a new computer used to be very hard to integrate into
- the existing environment, but due to standardization in the software world
- incompatibility in hardware no longer means incompatibility in software.
- Programs that are written for computer A can often be run on computer B
- without major modifications. Unfortunately this is not true for all software.
- .PP
- There will always be programs that rely on the specific
- hardware of a certain computer for many different reasons. They
- can be categorized as:
- .IP -
- poorly written programs
- .IP -
- programs to directly control hardware (device drivers)
- .IP -
- code that requires efficiency (time-critical I/O drivers)
- .IP -
- programs to generate code to run on the hardware (compilers)
- .LP
- This project for instance, the design and implementation of an EM backend
- for SPARC processors, comes in the last category.
- .PP
- We have designed and implemented an algorithm to convert EM programs to code
- that will run directly on the SPARC hardware. Henceforth, both the algorithm
- and the implementation will be referred to as the EM-to-SPARC backend,
- or simply: the backend.
- .NH 2
- Why has nobody done this before?
- .PP
- Since EM was designed around 1981 and even SPARC has been around for some
- years now, one may wonder why nobody has ever written an EM to SPARC backend
- before. The reason is twofold. In the first place, there are some
- non-trivial problems to be solved in the design phase, and secondly,
- the SPARC-design combined with the lack of documentation, would surely
- cost a lot of blood, sweat and tears. The absence of
- clues to any of the design problems, combined with the \(em at first
- glance \(em inhuman
- SPARC instruction set did not make this a very attractive project.
- .PP
- On the other hand, these were exactly the reasons which made us take on
- this particular project: it would require design skills, as well as some
- hard work; a golden combination for a successful project.
- .bp
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