If I recall correctly, the NexGen guys had headed towards decoding x86
instructions into their own microcode and executing that. Quite a similar
design to what everyone is doing nowadays with their x86 decoders on some sort
of RISC core. NexGen had it's pros and cons though; memory access was
seriously fast on it (my NexGen-90Mhz outperformed my Intel P-120), but it did
lack in other areas. Seems that they traded off some of the time to
enhance/perfect certain components by having other components that
outperformed most everything else. Standard trade-off I guess.
-- Graham TerMarsch- 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/