But with 1950s-era machines, it was expected that programmers were capable of manually scheduling instructions optimally, because compilers simply didn't exist back then.
VLIW architectures are often proposed to simplify the superscalar logic, but the problem with VLIW is that it forces a static schedule, which is incompatible with any code/architecture where the optimal schedule might be dynamic based on the actual data. In other words, any code that involves unpredictable branches, or memory accesses that may hit or miss the cache--in general CPU terms, that describes virtually all code. VLIW architectures have only persisted in DSPs, where the set of algorithms that are trying to be optimized is effectively a small, closed set.
VLIW architectures are often proposed to simplify the superscalar logic, but the problem with VLIW is that it forces a static schedule, which is incompatible with any code/architecture where the optimal schedule might be dynamic based on the actual data. In other words, any code that involves unpredictable branches, or memory accesses that may hit or miss the cache--in general CPU terms, that describes virtually all code. VLIW architectures have only persisted in DSPs, where the set of algorithms that are trying to be optimized is effectively a small, closed set.