OO Machines

[jrc at concurrent.co.uk]

>     Although a virtue of Self is to execute as fast as C, I am
> investigating computer architectures with specific hardware support for
> Object Oriented Programming. If you who have ever read (or researched)
> about tagged architectures; O.O. memory menagement; bytecode emulating
> microprogramming; and so, how about sharing your ideas ?

>     Any piece of information is appreciated.

You did say any piece of information so here goes.  It's been some time
since I looked at this area but here are some architectures that
attempted to support an object oriented approach in some way:

	Intel 432		(deceased)
	BiiN			(deceased)
	Linn Rekursiv		(deceased)
	Monads (Monash University, Australia)
	Intel 960xx
	Mushroom (Manchester University, England)

Whatever the technical merits of object oriented hardware architectures
the verdict of the marketplace seems to be "Not buying a RISC is a big
risk!".  I like the idea of capability architectures but I've never had
the chance to actually use such hardware.

I'm fairly sure that Rekursiv is no more.  If for nothing else I'll miss
the appalling names eg. Algorythms and Linngo (a language).  For the
non-audiophiles among you Linn is parhaps best known for their very high
quality hi-fi equipment.  That side of the business continues to
flourish.

All the above is from my rather unreliable memory.  The papers are near
the bottom of my ever growing pile.

All the best
--
John Connett
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