From owner-freebsd-chat Fri Jan 21 19:57: 8 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from smtp7.atl.mindspring.net (smtp7.atl.mindspring.net [207.69.128.51]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 80E1F15683 for ; Fri, 21 Jan 2000 19:56:59 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from jhix@mindspring.com) Received: from wghicks.mindspring.com (user-33qtgp5.dialup.mindspring.com [199.174.195.37]) by smtp7.atl.mindspring.net (8.9.3/8.8.5) with ESMTP id WAA21987 for ; Fri, 21 Jan 2000 22:12:35 -0500 (EST) Received: from wghicks.mindspring.com (IDENT:jhix@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by wghicks.mindspring.com (8.9.3/8.9.2) with ESMTP id TAA03896 for ; Fri, 21 Jan 2000 19:14:44 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from jhix@wghicks.mindspring.com) Message-Id: <200001220314.TAA03896@mindspring.com> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.1.0 09/18/1999 To: chat@FreeBSD.ORG (freebsd-chat) Subject: Re: funny repair remark In-reply-to: Your message of "Sat, 22 Jan 2000 02:00:19 GMT." <200001220200.TAA26106@usr09.primenet.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2000 19:14:43 -0800 From: W Gerald Hicks Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org > > >The AS/400 is unsuited to running C. It uses a 64 bit pointer, > > >8 bits of which are a check-value. This means that running C > > >code that does pointer arithmatic or array indexing would be > > >nearly impossible with a free compiler. Well, sorta :-) The machine that uses those pointers is a virtual machine, down deep under the covers you'll find that the processors are now POWER architecture, although I don't think the first AS400s were. Now, none of the "real computer in there" is directly accessible by customers and not even known by a lot of people outside IBM Rochester. The AS400 was derived of the System 38, a product of IBM's Advanced Systems Group. I remember in the early eighties getting my hands on an S/38 architecture document that really surprised me; It was quite a conventional looking 32-bit processor buried in there with lots of general purpose registers (32) and a really nifty looking virtual memory management arrangement. I also remember a slight sense of deja-Vu some years later studying Intel's new 386 and wondering about that IBM copyright on top of the chip ;-) > > > > So do AS/400 programmers use proprietary C compilers or do they write > > in another language? > > Proprietary C compilers. For the p-machine too, not the native one :-( C/400 came out after I swore off working on AS400s. During the period I worked on the pre-release AS400 (Silverlake was the code name) we used Pascal, the p-machine's assembly language PL/MI [machine interface] and (UGH!) RPG/400. PL/MI is also what they use for the compiler IR. I know some business programmer types who *really* know how to do database apps on these systems. Cheers, Jerry Hicks jhix@mindspring.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message