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F8 – an 8 bit architecture designed for C and memory efficiency [video]

(fosdem.org)
76 points mpweiher | 1 comments | 17 Feb 25 21:24 UTC | HN request time: 0.209s | source
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burjui ◴[20 Feb 25 14:35 UTC] No.43115148[source]▶
I wonder what's the point. 8 bits is not enough to store most values for most applications, it's bad for timers and multiplication, it's just a big waste of CPU cycles in general. The more work CPU has to do, the less time it spends sleeping, which is bad for battery-powered embedded devices. Perhaps, it has its place somewhere, but realistically, an 8-bit CPU these days is very niche at best. Imho, it's not going to take off in mainstream embedded.
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1. osigurdson ◴[20 Feb 25 14:49 UTC] No.43115327[source]▶
I haven't use these in a long time but fairly certain the memory address is more like 16 bit (otherwise, yeah how could you do anything). Still with 8 bit instructions many ops require several instructions. If that doesn't matter and it needs to be super cheap / small / etc., I think that is why these exist.