[oc] If doing processor, why do one again

[Derek Lassen <kn6td@clubnet.net>]

It seems to me that there is no point in doing an embedded processor if the 
real thing can be bought cheap and glued on externally. What you really 
want to do is create a new processor.

The idea behind having a processor there is to delay evaluation of design 
equations until actual time of use. You could think of a program as a 
collection of macros which have real time as an input term. Now, if you 
consider  that you have control of the hardware definition compiler then 
things could be executed at many time scales. It would be up to the 
compiler to decide which to commit to code streams (with embedded state 
machines) vs macro models.

Of course, in the beginning, you would want to have a processor in there as 
a catch-all, to do the sorts of things that the compiler isn't good at yet 
(or never will be). I am assuming  that eventually, somebody will implement 
just about every standard C library routine (which makes sense to do so) as 
a model. To implement at the macro instruction level of any particular 
processor just constrains the model too much.

Or not.

(s) Derek