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A language-oriented instruction set for the BALM language

Author:

Malcolm C. HarrisonAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGPLAN Notices, Volume 9, Issue 8

Pages 161 - 168

https://doi.org/10.1145/872756.807038

Published: 30 May 1973 Publication History

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Abstract

The availability of microprogramming has increased interest in the design of instruction sets which are oriented towards particular higher-level languages (see (1), for example). We will refer to these as language-oriented instruction sets (or LOISs). In this paper we give a formal definition of a LOIS for the extendable language BALM. This LOIS, which we call MBALM, is used as the basis of the implementation of the current version of the language, BALM4. We will also compare two implementations of the MBALM instruction set, and outline briefly our experiences with them.

The external description of BALM4 is given in detail elsewhere (2,3). Briefly, it is an extendable language with an Algol-like syntax and data-types integer, real, logical, string, pair (list), vector, identifier, procedure, and label. Type information is carried with all data-objects, and run-time type testing and conversion is done when necessary. Garbage collection and a run-time compiler are significant attributes of the system. Outlined below are some of the properties of the implementation, which was designed initially for reasons of simplicity and flexibility, but which illustrate some of the advantages of a LOIS-based system.

References

[1]

H. Weber, "A microprogrammed implementation of EULER on IBM/360 model 30," CACM, September 1967.

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[2]

M.C. Harrison, Introduction to BALM, Courant Institute, 1971.

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[3]

M.C. Harrison, BALM reference manual, Courant Institute, 1971.

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[4]

R. Paige, "An MBALM to 6600 translator," M.S. Thesis, Courant Institute, 1972.

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[5]

J.E. Thornton, Design of a computer: the Control Data 6600, Scott-Foresman, Chicago, 1969.

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[6]

Microdata Corporation, Microprogramming Handbook, 1972.

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Cited By

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Griss MKessler RCrocker SJohnson GParker AAshlstrom J(1978)REDUCE/1700Proceedings of the 11th annual workshop on Microprogramming10.5555/800132.804322(130-138)Online publication date: 19-Nov-1978
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/800132.804322
Griss MKessler R(1978)REDUCE/1700ACM SIGMICRO Newsletter10.1145/1014198.8043229:4(130-138)Online publication date: 19-Nov-1978
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1014198.804322
Griss MSwanson MRauscher TFrieder GCrocker SWittie LDorocak JLutz P(1977)MBALM/1700Proceedings of the 10th annual workshop on Microprogramming10.5555/800102.803311(15-25)Online publication date: 5-Oct-1977
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/800102.803311
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Index Terms

A language-oriented instruction set for the BALM language
1. Computer systems organization
  1. Architectures
    1. Parallel architectures
      1. Very long instruction word
    2. Serial architectures
      1. Complex instruction set computing
      2. Reduced instruction set computing
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. General programming languages
      1. Language types
        Extensible languages

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Information

Published In

ACM SIGPLAN Notices Volume 9, Issue 8

August 1974

174 pages

ISSN:0362-1340

EISSN:1558-1160

DOI:10.1145/872756

Issue’s Table of Contents

Proceedings of the meeting on SIGPLAN/SIGMICRO interface
May 1973
185 pages
ISBN:9781450378819
DOI:10.1145/800232
Chairmen:
H. W. Lawson,
S. Habib,
E. Reigel,
Editor:
R. L. Wexelblat

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 30 May 1973

Published in SIGPLAN Volume 9, Issue 8

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Cited By

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Griss MKessler RCrocker SJohnson GParker AAshlstrom J(1978)REDUCE/1700Proceedings of the 11th annual workshop on Microprogramming10.5555/800132.804322(130-138)Online publication date: 19-Nov-1978
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/800132.804322
Griss MKessler R(1978)REDUCE/1700ACM SIGMICRO Newsletter10.1145/1014198.8043229:4(130-138)Online publication date: 19-Nov-1978
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1014198.804322
Griss MSwanson MRauscher TFrieder GCrocker SWittie LDorocak JLutz P(1977)MBALM/1700Proceedings of the 10th annual workshop on Microprogramming10.5555/800102.803311(15-25)Online publication date: 5-Oct-1977
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/800102.803311
Griss MSwanson M(1977)MBALM/1700ACM SIGMICRO Newsletter10.1145/1014196.8033118:3(15-25)Online publication date: 1-Sep-1977
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1014196.803311
Lloyd GVan Dam A(1974)Design considerations for microprogramming languagesProceedings of the May 6-10, 1974, national computer conference and exposition10.1145/1500175.1500283(537-542)Online publication date: 6-May-1974
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1500175.1500283
Lloyd G(1974)PUMPKINACM SIGMICRO Newsletter10.1145/1217149.12171535:1(45-76)Online publication date: 1-Apr-1974
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1217149.1217153
Lloyd Gvan Dam A(1974)Design considerations for microprogramming languagesACM SIGMICRO Newsletter10.1145/1217149.12171525:1(15-44)Online publication date: 1-Apr-1974
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1217149.1217152
Goates GGriss MHerron G(1980)PICTUREBALMACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics10.1145/965105.80747514:3(93-99)Online publication date: 1-Jul-1980
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/965105.807475
Goates GGriss MHerron GThomas JEllis RKriloff H(1980)PICTUREBALMProceedings of the 7th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques10.1145/800250.807475(93-99)Online publication date: 14-Jul-1980
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/800250.807475
Reigel ELawson H(1973)At the Programming Language - Microprogramming interfaceACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/872756.8070269:8(2-22)Online publication date: 30-May-1973
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/872756.807026
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