Micro emulation: When to do it and when not to do it

• Authors: Lee Hoevel
• Venue: MICRO 6 Conference record of the 6th annual workshop on Microprogramming
• Year: 1973

In this paper, we will attempt to analyze those conditions under which the use of a nontrivial interpreter will enhance the performance of a two-phase processing system. This analysis is couched in terms of a search for an “ideal” DEL, given a particular source language SL and base machine M. This “ideal” DEL would minimize the overall space and time needed to evaluate a typical SL program. There are two obvious choices for such an “ideal” DEL: the source language (SL) and the language accepted directly by the base machine (ML). We intend to show that there exist currently plausible technological conditions under which neither SL nor ML is “ideal” (and hence that further study of DELs may be Justified from space-time considerations alone, without resorting to less “tangible” arguments).