The Nineteenth Byte

but it's a seriously nutty CISC architecture. For example, ADDL2 (SP)-, (SP), three bytes, is a perfectly valid way to implement a 32-bit FORTH's add.

wow i'm full of typos today

petStorm

I really hope that I can find a DEC VAX simulator.

moonheart08

there's SIMH, and that's about it

i'm working on my own

if you want to play with SIMH, here's the (very long) setup instructions for 4.3BSD gunkies.org/wiki/Installing_4.3_BSD_Quasijarus_on_SIMH

Hope you don't make any typos :)

petStorm

I rarely make typos in this case. :)

moonheart08

you'll probably also want the manual

bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/vax/archSpec/…

also hope you have a good PC, SIMH isn't very fast (Which, from my experience working on my own emulator, isn't too suprising.)

the VAX has builtin instructions for a lot of things, which allows it to do a good handful of niche things unusually well. I'd personally compare it to a codegolf language, because it's a suprisingly apt comparison.

it has a dedicated instruction for polynomials, for god's sake

petStorm

Wow. x86 wasn't like that...

moonheart08

12:45 AM

the VAX is too CISC to scale

many implementations run at 7-10 cycles per instruction on average.

it also lacks a seperate register file for the FPU, which doesn't help it much

especially as it supports 128-bit floats

and registers are only 32-bit

so it just uses 4 consecutive registers

the original model in particular is entirely microcoded

with just some hardware assistance for instr decoding

New Main Posts

-3

Q: Making machine learning more accurate

The puzzle here is a very hard one. (I made and tried it myself, it's hard). The goal is to make Machine Learning more accurate using AI. Rules: Must be done in under 300Kb You can't use modules or libraries Hints: I'll give more hints soon! NOTE: I would prefer it be answered in Python...

petStorm

@NewMainPosts (gets distracted..)

moonheart08

hmm, i wonder if I can (ab)use the dedicated string instructions to throw data at a single address, aka an output

aw. seems I can't

moonheart08

1:18 AM

@petStorm but yea, it's quite something. Manages to be both efficient and inefficient at the same time

it's a serious contender for more complex problems especially

(against other architectures, not a golf language)

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A: Sandbox for Proposed Challenges

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A: Sandbox for Proposed Challenges

Does base n have any Rotate-Left-Double numbers? code-golf decision-problem base-conversion Task A Rotate-Left-Double number in base \$n\$ is a number \$m\$, when its base-\$n\$ digits are rotated left once, equals \$2m\$. This is similar to Rotate-Right-Double numbers, just in reverse directio...

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petStorm

7:13 AM

A: Create a programming language that only appears to be unusable

Slindow (vulnerable) Slindow is a surprisingly simple language that is relatively difficult to use. Transpilation process Slindow processes in digraphs (aka 2 consequtive characters). Due to a bug that I'm too lazy to fix (anyway it's part of the challenge! :D ), this groups the instructions l...

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A: Sandbox for Proposed Challenges

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