"... but will RISC run LISP??" (a feasibility study)

Carl Glen Ponder

EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley

Technical Report No. UCB/CSD-83-122

1983

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http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/1983/Archive/CSD-83-122.pdf

The Berkeley RISC microprocessor, developed under the direction of David Patterson & Carlo Sequin [1], is targeted for efficient execution of C programs. The architecture has competed successfully with existing systems such as the Vax-11/780 and MC68000. A major question about such a reduced, targeted architecture is how well it extends to other languages. An important language in symbolic computation is Lisp. Lisp is a functional language which has little in common with the standard block structured languages, such as C. This has led to the often-asked question -- "will RISC run Lisp?".

<

p> The purpose of this paper is to explore the feasibility of a LISP system running on RISC. The major parts of this include a look at the behavior of large-scale "typical" Lisp programs, and an examination of current LISP implementations.

BibTeX citation:

@techreport{Ponder:CSD-83-122,
    Author= {Ponder, Carl Glen},
    Title= {"... but will RISC run LISP??" (a feasibility study)},
    Year= {1983},
    Month= {May},
    Url= {http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/1983/5672.html},
    Number= {UCB/CSD-83-122},
    Abstract= {The Berkeley RISC microprocessor, developed under the direction of David Patterson & Carlo Sequin [1], is targeted for efficient execution of C programs. The architecture has competed successfully with existing systems such as the Vax-11/780 and MC68000.  A major question about such a reduced, targeted architecture is how well it extends to other languages. An important language in symbolic computation is Lisp. Lisp is a functional language which has little in common with the standard block structured languages, such as C.  This has led to the often-asked question -- "will RISC run Lisp?".  <p>  The purpose of this paper is to explore the feasibility of a LISP system running on RISC. The major parts of this include a look at the behavior of large-scale "typical" Lisp programs, and an examination of current LISP implementations.},
}

EndNote citation:

%0 Report
%A Ponder, Carl Glen 
%T "... but will RISC run LISP??" (a feasibility study)
%I EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley
%D 1983
%@ UCB/CSD-83-122
%U http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/1983/5672.html
%F Ponder:CSD-83-122