[skipjack]

Why am I interested? Just as a hobbyist. I've been away from programming for years, except for a brief brush with Java. I'd been working with a book, "The Zen of Assembly Language" (which I can no longer find) years ago, and I know things are different now (i.e., a compiler writing more efficient code than doing so by hand).

I'm using LIDE3 (Fantasm) from Lightsoft. I haven't used MPW since the PPC came out. Does anyone use anything else or have any recommendations? I have "Optimizing PowerPC Code" by Gary Kacmarcik, a book I found on eBay.

[smeger]

I've played around with it, but I've never written anything "real" in PPC. Did some 68K back in the day, though. And Microchip stuff (that was fun).

What are you working on?

[skipjack]

Well, nothing, yet. I'm just back in school and although I'm in a BSEE program, I was looking at the Computer Science requirements. One of the graduation requirements is to give an oral presentation. I'm not good at thinking of original topics. Since the only assembly language courses I've seen are for Intel or MIPS, I thought PPC assembly would be a possible topic. Most resources seem to be from the mid to late 1990s.

[smeger]

I guess EE's must be masochists - that's what I've got my degree in, too

[lgerbarg]

Originally posted by skipjack:
<STRONG>Why am I interested? Just as a hobbyist. I've been away from programming for years, except for a brief brush with Java. I'd been working with a book, "The Zen of Assembly Language" (which I can no longer find) years ago, and I know things are different now (i.e., a compiler writing more efficient code than doing so by hand).

I'm using LIDE3 (Fantasm) from Lightsoft. I haven't used MPW since the PPC came out. Does anyone use anything else or have any recommendations? I have "Optimizing PowerPC Code" by Gary Kacmarcik, a book I found on eBay.</STRONG>

I recommend "The PowerPC Architecture: A specification for a new family of RISC processors" (ISBN 1-55860-316-6) by IBM. Dunno where to get it nowadays, it might be available for free as a PDF. Also you might want to get some of the documents at here. I believe you can get Mot to send you printed copies of some of them (probably only recent ones).

Louis

Edit: Gave a shorter URL because UBB is stupid

[ 03-23-2002: Message edited by: lgerbarg ]

[skipjack]

Thanks for the recommendation and the link! I just found a folder with many .pdfs, including the IBM document on the CD I got from Lightsoft. Good thing I ordered the CD rather than just downloading the software!

[mdcarter1]

Originally posted by skipjack:
<STRONG>Well, nothing, yet. I'm just back in school and although I'm in a BSEE program, I was looking at the Computer Science requirements. One of the graduation requirements is to give an oral presentation. I'm not good at thinking of original topics. Since the only assembly language courses I've seen are for Intel or MIPS, I thought PPC assembly would be a possible topic. Most resources seem to be from the mid to late 1990s.</STRONG>

I think the whole velocity engine and vector stuff would make for an interesting talk....

[skipjack]

Originally posted by mdcarter1:
<STRONG>

I think the whole velocity engine and vector stuff would make for an interesting talk....</STRONG>

Great idea. The Motorola link above provides all sorts of free downloads of PDF format documents. Years ago I'd be spending lots of money to get resources that are now freely available.

Good thing I have a couple of years to practice!

[cutterjohn]

Originally posted by skipjack:
<STRONG>

Great idea. The Motorola link above provides all sorts of free downloads of PDF format documents. Years ago I'd be spending lots of money to get resources that are now freely available.

Good thing I have a couple of years to practice!</STRONG>

pay?! you didn't have a local Motorola sales office to raid for printed documentation? Plus if you were/are an existing customer most IC vendors would ship printed documentation on just about anything you wanted for free... (Many times they would do it for prospective customers as well...)

PPC assembly: yech. Optimization by hand is a pain, and varies significantly between some of the PPC cores in the family(raw and vxWorks init mods for an unsupported(soon to be) new chip)... Hopefully, I'll never see it again, or any other assembly, very tedious & boring.

[skipjack]

Originally posted by cutterjohn:
<STRONG>

pay?! you didn't have a local Motorola sales office to raid for printed documentation? Plus if you were/are an existing customer most IC vendors would ship printed documentation on just about anything you wanted for free... (Many times they would do it for prospective customers as well...)
</STRONG>

Sorry to be misleading. I've been out of the civilian community for 20 years and am trying to start another career. I didn't mean specifically about computers. I used to have to pay lots for books and abstracts when I couldn't find information at the local public library or university libraries. (Well, I guess I could have gotten by with the available information, but back then, I thought I had to look at every article and follow every lead when doing research.) Several years ago, I think, MPW used to cost over $1000, didn't it? Now it's free!

[DevNine]

The motorolla link is dead, anyone got a good link for assembly tutorials for macos x?