Re: [tlug] Fortran --> Python (was linux engineer)

[Nicolas Limare <nicolas+tlug@example.com>]

> > I guess it really comes down to how good the compiler is at targeting
> > your architecture, right?
> 
> Fortran was designed for and around the instruction set of the
> IBM 704, which was a 36-bit word, two-address  system.
> Instructions such as the DO loop and the "arithmetic if"
> mapped directly onto instruction set. It was pretty fast for its
> day.

I also suppose that FORTRAN array operations like WHERE() translated
very well into vector processor systems such as the NEC SX machines. I
also heard that on NEC machines, the (NEC) compiler could recognize a
matrix multiplication and replace all the code by a single processor
instruction. Of cource, the execution of this instruction would take
some time, but the hardcoded routine is finely optimized for the
architecture, cache, pipeline, etc.

-- 
Nicolas LIMARE
http://nicolas.limare.net/                         pgp:0xFA423F4F

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