On 2013-06-03, Carlos Nepomuceno <carlosnepomuc...@outlook.com> wrote: > ________________________________ >> Date: Mon, 3 Jun 2013 15:41:41 -0700 >> Subject: Re: How to get an integer from a sequence of bytes >> From: drsali...@gmail.com >> To: python-list@python.org > [...] >> Today though, it would be difficult to sell a conventional (Von >> Neumann) computer that didn't have 8 bit bytes. Quantum computers >> would still sell if they were odd this way - they're going to be really >> different anyway. > > Nowadays it would be a hard task to find a Von Neumann architecture > machine. > > Most of current CPUs are variants of the Harvard architecture: they > separate instructions from data at the cache level.
VN designs are still very common in smaller CPUs (embedded stuff). Even modern desktop CPUs are "logically" still Von Neumann designs from the programmer's point of view (there's only a single address space for both data and instructions). The fact that there are two sparate caches is almost entirely hidden from the user. If you start to do stuff like write self-modifying code, then _may_ start having to worry about cache coherency. -- Grant Edwards grant.b.edwards Yow! I request a weekend in at Havana with Phil Silvers! gmail.com -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list