From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: by vger.rutgers.edu id <154259-10761>; Tue, 8 Sep 1998 16:38:57 -0400 Received: from raptor.cqi.com ([205.252.44.227]:25240 "EHLO raptor.cqi.com" ident: "humbubba") by vger.rutgers.edu with ESMTP id <156089-10761>; Tue, 8 Sep 1998 15:24:32 -0400 From: RHS Linux User Message-Id: <199809082124.RAA16169@raptor.cqi.com> Subject: HW hacks links To: linux-kernel@vger.rutgers.edu Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1998 17:24:36 -0400 (EDT) Content-Type: text Sender: owner-linux-kernel@vger.rutgers.edu Here's a couple of things I find interesting that may be of interest to hardware hackers. Charles Moore "discovered" Forth around 1970. He left Forth Inc. a while ago to do hardware. Forth has a concise simple 2 stack virtual machine that makes a fine real machine. Chuck has done the ShBoom, the Harris RTX, and now the MuP21. I think the only 32 bit Forth engine is still the FRISC from Johns Hopkins APL. Chuck's outfit is called Computer Cowboys. Offete enterprises is one related outfit, and Ultra Technology is another. Related links are at http://www.dnai.com/~jfox . These are tiny machines without luxuries like integer-multiply. They scream though. And you can get dozens of em on one die. In your kitchen. Kinda. With all due respect to the assembled wizards of C/unix, the ultimate one-stack machine, 2 stacks is better. I'm looking into 3. Forth machines ARE what RISC was supposed to be. I'm told the original Cisco router was basically a Moto devel board for thier QUICC microcontroller. I had a mailserver for a while to discuss a from-scratch Forth-oriented platform based on the MC690360 QUICC, which is a E68020 and a dedicated RISC to handle the 7 on-chip IO Ports. There is now a PPC version of the QUICC, with the same RISC and IO ports. AN outtake from the outline of the progress of the "FIRE Proposal" mailserver is at http://cqi.com/~humbubba/fire8.htm Sorry about the topic-skew, but this seems to be a major side-topic. Rick Hohensee http://cqi.com/~humbubba colorg on EFnet IRC #linux chanop Forth C Linux Perl graphics music Md., USA This is your brain on colorg --> (@#*%@#() <---~~~_()()( Any questions? - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/faq.html