Newsgroups: comp.arch
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: integer multiplies on a Sparc
Message-ID: <1991Feb2.062756.23852@zoo.toronto.edu>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <16864@ogicse.ogi.edu>
Date: Sat, 2 Feb 1991 06:27:56 GMT

In article <16864@ogicse.ogi.edu> scottb@ogicse.cse.ogi.edu (Scott Baker) writes:
>been told that a Sparc 1 may actually be -slower- at integer multiplies
>than floating-point multiplies because of a lack of hardware support
>for integer multiplies.  Is this true?! 

Yes.  The original Sparcs are somewhat unbalanced machines.  I don't think
it is definitively a mistake not to have a fast general integer multiply
(since an awful lot of integer multiplies are by small constants, which
can be done better by shift-add sequences), but it is a mistake to put
a lot of effort into fast floating-point and none into fast integer
multiply.  There are signs that the Sparc world now realizes this, but
it comes too late to help a lot of the early machines.

Buy MIPS. :-)
-- 
"Maybe we should tell the truth?"      | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
"Surely we aren't that desperate yet." |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu   utzoo!henry
