Modern CPUs can execute Lisp just fine, like they execute languages like Java and Javascript, which also use a lot of pointers. Just like those, Lisp offers vectors, strings, hash tables, structures/records and objects.
> This was not a problem on earlier CPUs because all memory was the same with similar access time.
That's not true. Many early systems had small RAM sizes (example: a DEC VAX 11/780 had a few Megabytes and often served dozens of users) and 10 (or more) times larger slow virtual memory.
Lisp systems then tried to deal with that with the first generational garbage collectors, often also compacting (related objects stayed near in memory). Ephemeral GCs watched for changed memory in RAM.
> This was not a problem on earlier CPUs because all memory was the same with similar access time.
That's not true. Many early systems had small RAM sizes (example: a DEC VAX 11/780 had a few Megabytes and often served dozens of users) and 10 (or more) times larger slow virtual memory.
Lisp systems then tried to deal with that with the first generational garbage collectors, often also compacting (related objects stayed near in memory). Ephemeral GCs watched for changed memory in RAM.