PL/8 (or PL.8) is a dialect of PL/I developed by IBM Research in the 1970s by compiler group, under Martin Hopkins, within a major research program that led to the IBM RISC architecture.[1] It was so-called because it was about 80% of PL/I.[1] Written in PL/I and bootstrapped via the PL/I Optimizing compiler, it was an alternative to PL/S for system programming, compiling initially to an intermediate machine-independent language with symbolic registers and machine-like operations.[2] It applied machine-independent program optimization techniques to this intermediate language to produce exceptionally good object code. The intermediate language was mapped by the back-end to the target machine's register architecture and instruction set. Back-ends were written for IBM 801, S/370, Motorola 68000,[3][4] and POWER/PowerPC. A version was used on IBM mainframes as a development tool for software that was being designed for the IBM AS/400, as well as to write the "i370" internal code for the "Capitol" chipset used in the IBM 9377 processor and some ES/9370 models[5][6] and the millicode for S/390 and z/Architecture processors.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 Cocke, John; Markstein, V. (January 1990). "The evolution of RISC technology at IBM" (PDF). IBM Journal of Research & Development. IBM. 34 (1): 4–11. doi:10.1147/rd.341.0004. Retrieved 2008-03-06.
  2. ↑ The compiler is described in: The 801 Minicomputer. George Radin. Nov 1983. IBM Journal of Research and Development. Vol 27, No 3.
  3. ↑ Marc Auslander; Martin Hopkins (June 1982). "An Overview of the PL.8 Compiler" (PDF). SIGPLAN Notices. 17 (6).
  4. ↑ Charles H. Ferguson; Charles R. Morris (1993). Computer Wars: The Post-IBM World. p. 44. ISBN 978-1-58798-139-5.
  5. ↑ Maergner, Juergen; Schwermer, Hartmut R. (September 1988). "I370 - a new dimension of microprogramming". ACM SIGMICRO Newsletter. 19 (3): 24–31. doi:10.1145/62185.62189. ISSN 1050-916X. S2CID 2068407.
  6. ↑ Wilhelm Spruth, ed. (6 December 2012). "7.2 High Level Microprogramming in I370". The Design of a Microprocessor. Springer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-642-74918-6.
  7. ↑ Gellerich, W.; Hendel, T.; Land, R.; Lehmann, H.; Mueller, M.; Oden, P.H.; Penner, H. (May 2004). "The GNU 64-bit PL8 compiler: Toward an open standard environment for firmware development". IBM Journal of Research and Development. 48 (3.4): 543–556. doi:10.1147/rd.483.0543.
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