Re: Constructed Computer Architectures (Concomps?)

2009/2/8 Paul Bennett <paul.w.bennett@...>:
> Where does the design of imaginary computer architectures (and programming
> languages) stand in the ranks of con-somethinging?
>
> It's probably a highly esoteric question, but that's what I'm doing right
> now, instead of conlanging: noodling around with a few programming language
> designs that each started off as attempts to create notation systems for
> specific problems, and dummying up a few completely impractical computers to
> do thought experiments on. At the hazy borderlines of the two live my
> thoughs of assembler opcodes and register sets (etc) for best implementing a
> given language on one of those computers.
>
> Anyone else ever dug into that sort of stuff?
I have been working on designing a fictional computer architecture,
and a programming language to go with it.

This is for a fictional steampunk world, where the machine's data is
stored in huge punched bands, and the 'terminal' is essentially a
typewriter.

Inspired by both Von Neumann's architecture and the Turing Machine,
the computer is capable of both opening and closing holes in both
internal and external memory. Internal memory is, in the current
design, 16 bit. External memory can be arranged in varying ways,
though the band is usually 8 or 16 bits wide.

Random Access Memory bands are currently sized between 64 and 512 kB.
With the most modern (in the setting) bands taking up 0.4cm for every
16 bit piece of data, that is a band of data over one kilometer long,
for a 512kB set of internal memory.

I'm still not sure on the registers and exact assembly commands, but
that'll come once I understand more how I want this machine to work.