ot? Simulate something....

[blstuart at bellsouth.net]

In message <20050307172917.L635 at localhost>, Tom Jennings writes:
>On Mon, 7 Mar 2005, Ron Hudson wrote:
>
>> I am beginning to write a simulator for a "microcomputer", it will feature a
>> curses (terminal) front panel. it will be a 12 bit machine. You will be able to
>> issue commands to the simulator without stopping the program (for mounting
>> virtual paper tapes, printing to files etc)
>
>Cool! If you haven't, check out Donald Knuth's fictional MIX
>computer.  It's a mishmash of a bunch of "contemporary" (1970s)
>architectures. The cool thing about is there is SOFTWARE written
>for it, even though it never physically existed.
>
>There was no physical representation, if you were to make one,
>it would add to the coolness of it.

While it doesn't have the same classic factor as MIX, there's
something to be said for his newer MMIX design.  It's a pretty
nice design, though being 64-bit it would be a rather bigger
project.  Simulators (with video) and assemblers exist.  GCC
has even been targeted to it.

Check out:
http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/mmix.html

Brian L. Stuart