How to get an integer from a sequence of bytes

[Grant Edwards]

On 2013-06-03, Carlos Nepomuceno <carlosnepomuceno at 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: drsalists at gmail.com 
>> To: python-list at 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
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