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I recently received some advertising literature and a user manual for what looks like an exciting new development called the PGM - Personal Graphics Machine, manufactured by Superset, Inc., 10633 Roselle St, San Diego, CA 92121, Tel: (714) 452-8665. It is a single-process personal computer designed for FORTRAN, with a 48-bit word, an architecture which is influenced by the old CDC 3600 and Burroughs 6700 machines, a file system reminiscent of the Univac 1108 series, and a 24-bit word virtual address space (100 Mbytes). What is more, the instruction set is essentially micro-coded FORTRAN, with an average of 1.1 to 1.4 instructions generated for each FORTRAN statement. It looks like an excellent machine for debugging, with features like * a hardware undefined-value bit pattern which causes a trap when referenced, * a hardware stack for storing the last 64 instructions, or the last 64 jumps, or the last 64 memory references, * hardware array bounds checking, * argument list length checking, * symbolic debugger available for all programs. The price for the PGM, including a 29-Megabyte Winchester disk drive and 48K words physical memory (expandable), is about $27K. The entire system sits in a box about the size of an apple crate, and runs FORTRAN programs from 3 to 5 times faster than a DEC VAX-11/780.