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Just more evidence that modern CPU designs need to die, and that a libre alternative is required.
by setra 10y ago
Just more evidence that modern CPU designs need to die, and that a libre alternative is required.
- mey 10y agoThere are a few groups out there but nothing I would say is commercially viable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_computing_hardware#CPU https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_computing_hardware...
- snaky 10y agoThe vast majority of users are comfortable with status quo. Therefore anyone who would implement and sell their own modern CPU with no 'features' like ME, would sell it by premium price - at least, due the much less target audience - and that will lead to audience shrink yet much more.
- nickpsecurity 10y agoThat's exactly what happened almost every time. Another commenter posted a link to OSS CPU's. Two, LEON3 and SPARCT1/T2, are great CPU's released under GPL. Gaisler had a lot of other I.P. to go with LEON3. Now, tell me what FOSS loving companies brought those to market or have a board to sell me? Anyone? Bueller?
- mappu 10y agoThe Talos Secure Workstation is a libre POWER8. https://www.raptorengineering.com/TALOS/prerelease.php https://www.raptorengineering.com/TALOS/prerelease.php Benchmarks: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=talos-workstation&num=1 http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=talos-wor...
- nickpsecurity 10y agoWhere can I get the full source of POWER8 under GPL or another free license? I thought they were licensing it for money. I'm not sure if it's behavioral or RTL either that they provide. I know very little of it whereas I can download Leon or OpenSPARC of their web sites. I'd go with a version of Leon given Oracle is so sue happy.
- vonklaus 10y agoI mean, they don't need to die, but it would be nice if we had a Steve Wozniak archetype instead of a Steve Jobs running things like this.
- amelius 10y agoMy vote goes to Richard Stallman.
- pjlegato 10y agoThe problem to be solved here is not just software. How do you beat the economies of scale that standard designs have achieved? For most applications, the end user gets vastly more computing power per dollar spent when they buy an off the shelf design that's in large scale mass production. You could port BSD or Linux to your new architecture for a reasonable amount of money (though that's already an uphill battle selling that to a consumer). How are you going to even come close to the unit economies of scale that Intel and other large established players enjoy?
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- chongli 10y agoThe advantage Intel has built up is a tenuous one. They've had a lead in building up fabrication facilities for each new node. When we reach the final node - 5nm? whatever it is - the economies of scale will shift towards generic fabs. This will open the door to open designs such as RISC-V [0]. The future is looking bright for those who love freedom! [0] http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/design/the-death-of-moores-law-will-spur-innovation http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/design/the-death-of-...
- adrianN 10y agoIntel has a massive R&D budget. They'll probably be the first to achieve post-silicon tech if nothing dramatic happens. So the question is whether they'll be quick enough to innovate before generic chips eat their lunch.
- chongli 10y agoI don't doubt that they are a front-runner for post-silicon tech. The question is whether they'll be able to sustain exponential growth in performance. I have my doubts. Radical new technologies are far less predictable than iterative ones.
- gcb0 10y ago
- amelius 10y agoI'm still waiting for that semiconductor technology to become available to the DIY community.