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"retooling our entire tech stack for that isn't going to happen. I mean, look at x86." I wonder if today it's easier than people imagine, but the lessons of It

by swalsh 10y ago

"retooling our entire tech stack for that isn't going to happen. I mean, look at x86." I wonder if today it's easier than people imagine, but the lessons of Itanium are used as a signal to not try. Sure there are plenty of apps which make low-level use of x86 features, and those probably aren't going to be updated. However a lot of modern software is written in languages that go through interrupters. Java, C#, Python.. if you can update the runtime, in theory the apps can be supported anywhere.

pjc50 10y ago
Switching to ternary means retooling not just the programming stack but the IC design stack. IC design is actually quite a conservative business, mainly because failures are so expensive. You'd need to spend several years writing a ternary RTL synthesis, place, route and verification suite before starting.
- Symmetry 10y ago
  I would expect that once silicon stops shrinking and both chips and fabs can be allowed to pay for themselves over longer time horizons we're going to see a lot more architectural experimentation.
  - mmmBacon 10y ago
    I hope you're right. The costs of 7nm are so high that even the "big guys" are being very careful about what they do. It's become so expensive they just can't afford a miss in the market. I worry the high costs will stifle innovation and that we'll see something that's more like a tweak here and there for a while.
  - ansible 10y ago
    Oh, for sure that will happen. I like the Mill CPU design, and they're saying it will have a 10x power/performance advantage over traditional architectures. But we're just about done with the times where we had easy gains in price/performance/power by just moving to a smaller process node.
- amelius 10y ago
  Also, how reliable is ternary compared to binary? For instance, would a Schmitt-trigger device be as reliable? What would the consequence be for clock speed?
pantalaimon 10y ago
What about ARM?
- ori_b 10y ago
  It still uses binary logic.

by swalsh 10y ago

pjc50 10y ago

Switching to ternary means retooling not just the programming stack but the IC design stack. IC design is actually quite a conservative business, mainly because failures are so expensive. You'd need to spend several years writing a ternary RTL synthesis, place, route and verification suite before starting.

Symmetry 10y ago
I would expect that once silicon stops shrinking and both chips and fabs can be allowed to pay for themselves over longer time horizons we're going to see a lot more architectural experimentation.
- mmmBacon 10y ago
  I hope you're right. The costs of 7nm are so high that even the "big guys" are being very careful about what they do. It's become so expensive they just can't afford a miss in the market. I worry the high costs will stifle innovation and that we'll see something that's more like a tweak here and there for a while.
- ansible 10y ago
  Oh, for sure that will happen. I like the Mill CPU design, and they're saying it will have a 10x power/performance advantage over traditional architectures. But we're just about done with the times where we had easy gains in price/performance/power by just moving to a smaller process node.
amelius 10y ago
Also, how reliable is ternary compared to binary? For instance, would a Schmitt-trigger device be as reliable? What would the consequence be for clock speed?

pantalaimon 10y ago

What about ARM?

ori_b 10y ago
It still uses binary logic.