Other people have already pointed this out, but....
Franz Kafka wrote:
> Petter Gustad wrote:
>
> >Personally I think it would be more fun to
> >make the FPGA version :-)
> >
>
>
> A CPU specification language could be used to write a Symbolics type
> CPU.
Once you have chosen your Hardware Design Language (VHDL, Verilog or one
you have implemented from scratch in CL) you can start writing the
"Symbolics type CPU".
Can you estimate the cost for this enterprise?
>
> Then the CPU could be emulated by people who want to play with the
> Lisp OS
This assumes you have the OS. Can you estimate the cost of this enterprise?
>
> and turned into a chip by people who want to hardware-hack a Lisp
> machine.
Again, can you estimate the cost of this enterprise, given the cost of
producing hardware?
>
>
> If you could somehow create some mircocode for a Intel or AMD
> processor to turn it into an Ivory-type (LISP) processor--that would
> be cool.
Yes. And this is usually beyond the time-frame of a Ph.D. thesis.
>
> Prehaps someone could write a good quality Lisp compiler in a ROM and
> use it like BIOS to build a Lisp Machine out of stock chips.
Once you have done all of the above, yes.
>
>
> How hard would it be to write a Lisp Compiler on a EPROM and create a
> Lisp board or even a board for any other language.
It isn't hard. It's costly.
>
> If you wrote a BIOS in Lisp you'd be well on your way to creating a
> Lisp machine.
>
> And, after the kernal is written--the rapid prototyping and
> interactive development that Lisp provides would make it easier to
> create a Lisp OS.
>
> I'm sure that people are working on such kernals--if anyone needs help
> with such projects please e-mail me I'm a Lisp programmer who's
> willing to help.
How about helping on many other less risky, less costly, more directly
useful projects out there first? McCLIM for example.
Cheers
--
Marco Antoniotti
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