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Subject: Re: 65 bits!

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 10:33:07 10/22/03

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On October 22, 2003 at 11:28:09, Gerd Isenberg wrote:

>On October 22, 2003 at 03:33:05, Daniel Clausen wrote:
>
>>On October 21, 2003 at 15:29:19, Eugene Nalimov wrote:
>>
>>>On Itanium integer registers are actually 65 bits wide. 64 bits for data and one
>>>NAT (not a thing) bit.
>>>
>>>:-)
>>>
>>>Thanks,
>>>Eugene
>>
>>If there is a way to use this bit for yourself too, I'm sure Gerd will come up
>>with another cool new algorithm! :)
>>
>>Sargon
>
>;-)
>
>I'm really not familar with this very interesting processor architecture. It has
>an integer register file of 128! * 64+NaT. It seems well designed to do a lot of
>parallel fill cycles.
>I guess a set NaT-bit may trigger some exceptions/interrupts if you do some
>operations with uninitialited registers, allowing some lowlevel try-catch like
>control structures (including stack rewind?).
>
>Gerd


I suspect it is an integer equivalent of the IEEE NaN concept, so that the
hardware can help you catch using unitialized values.



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