Stack Computers: The New Wave

by Philip Koopman

Published in 1989, this was the first book to explore the new breed of stack computers led by the introduction of the Novix NC4016 chip. The author commences with an overview of how stacks are used in computing, and a taxonomy of hardware stack support which includes a survey of approximately 70 stack machines past and present. Detailed descriptions, including block diagrams and instruction set summaries, are given for seven new stack processors from Harris Semiconductor, Novix, Johns Hopkins University/APL, MISC, WISC Technologies, and Wright State University. Major topics covered also include architectural analysis of stack machines, software issues, application areas, and potential for future development.

Genres: Technology, Computer Science, Technical

521 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 6, 2013

Reviews

[Jay Vercellone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interestingly topic, awful writing

Even though the subject can be quite engaging, the writing played against it. I guess that due to his engineering background this is somewhat expected, but the editors could’ve done a better job.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

First few chapters give a good background into the different types of stack computers. But there is little attempt to show the differences in code that a compiler would have to produce. The latter chapters concentrate on the different types of processors with a few sample instructions.
I would have liked to have seem more examples of the code that a compiler would produce for the different types of stack architecture, so that we could really understand the difference