On: Mill Computing in 2017

[unwind]

Ah, always with the lectures. :) So, the code for strcpy() on the Mill seems to be:

    load    *src, bv
    eql     <load>, 0
    smearx  <eql>
    pick    <smearx0>,None,<load>
    store   *dest, <pick>
    brfl    smearx1, loop

This "vectorizes" a plain while-loop by loading as "byte vector". The size of the vector depends on the exact Mill family member implementation's choices, but is at least 8 according to the lecture. The lack of actual register names is of course a loud signal that the Mill is different.

Pretty cool, and I feel like I learned something. Thanks!

[orlp → unwind]

I refrained from posting the direct assembly, as without the talk the smearx and pick would be meaningless.

If you also look a bit further into the talk they show the 'remaining' instruction, which allows you to do this same thing with fixed-count loops.