- Rekursiv
Rekursiv was a
computer processor designed byDavid M. Harland in the mid-1980s for Linn Smart Computing inGlasgow ,Scotland . It was one of the fewcomputer architecture s intended to implementobject-oriented concepts directly in hardware. The Rekursiv operated directly on objects rather than bits, nibbles, bytes and words.Virtual memory was used as a persistent object store and unusually, the processor instruction set supportedrecursion (hence the name).The project originated in an initiative within the
hi-fi manufacturerLinn Products to improve its manufacturing automation systems, which at the time ran on aDEC VAX minicomputer . This resulted in the design of Lingo, anobject-oriented programming language derived fromSmalltalk andALGOL . Due to the poor performance of Lingo on the VAX, a subsidiary company, Linn Smart Computing Ltd., was formed to develop a new processor to efficiently run Lingo.The Rekursiv processor consisted of four
gate-array chips named "Numerik" (32-bit ALU), "Logik" (instruction sequencer), "Objekt" (object-orientedmemory management unit ) and "Klock" (processor clock and support logic). A small number of prototypeVMEbus boards, called "Hades", comprising these four chips plus 80 MB of RAM were produced. These were intended for installation in a host system such as aSun-3 workstation .Although the Rekursiv was never fully developed and was not a commercial success, several Hades boards were used in academic research projects in the
UK .One of the last known examples of a Rekursiv computer ended up at the bottom of theForth and Clyde Canal in Glasgow.Fact|date=April 2008References
* cite book
last = Harland
first = David M.
authorlink = David M. Harland
title = Rekursiv: Object-Oriented Computer Architecture (Ellis Horwood Series in Computers and Their Applications)
publisher = Ellis Horwood Ltd
month = August
year = 1988
pages =
id = ISBN 0137719655
*cite journal
last=Baines
first=Rupert
title=Taking RISCs
journal=Personal Computer World
volume=13
issue=3
year=1990
month=March
pages=136–140
* [http://www.brouhaha.com/~eric/retrocomputing/rekursiv/ The Linn Rekursiv Object-Oriented Computer]
* [http://www.computermuseum.org.uk/machines/lynn_recursiv.html The Jim Austin Computer Museum Rekursiv page]
* [http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk/research/projects/rekursiv.html Rekursiv Project at the University of Aberdeen Electronics Research Group]
* [http://www.cpushack.net/CPU/cpu7.html The CPU Shack: Weird and Innovative Chips]
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