[vcf-midatlantic] Semi-OT: microcontollers (?)

[Dave McGuire]

On 06/29/2017 01:27 PM, systems_glitch via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
> Further, there are some interesting microcontrollers available now that are
> in fact vintage (or almost-vintage) CPU cores at their hearts. In
> particular I'm thinking of the Microchip PIC32 line, which is a MIPS32 core.

  Good thinking there, but it's from 1985, no more vintage than ARM
(also 1985) and a whole lot newer than x86 (1978).

  IMO, thinking of architectures as vintage is probably fallacy.
Implementations, sure, but architectures?  Lots of processors we'd never
consider "vintage" today (ARM is a good example) are implementations of
architectures that are decades old.  This is sorta necessary, as it
takes time, lots of time (as you know) for software to catch up.  Only
in the past 5-6 years or so have the GCC back-ends started generating
really good code for ARM, for example.

            -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA