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I've been wondering, is it practically possible to have a dual arch hardware + OS? The kernel would run on an ARM processor, along with all the supported softw
by eknkc 10y ago
I've been wondering, is it practically possible to have a dual arch hardware + OS?
The kernel would run on an ARM processor, along with all the supported software. Any x86 binary would be offloaded to the intel cpu. Sharing RAM and even the remaining hardware would be nearly impossible I guess. Not sure though. This way it can be like the integrated / discrete gpu design and switch can be done a lot less painfully.
- gaius 10y agoI've been wondering, is it practically possible to have a dual arch hardware + OS? Yes of course, we were doing it back in the 1980s with hybrid 6502/Z80 systems, the Z80 side running CP/M.
- rogerbinns 10y agoNote that many operating systems today are already multiple architecture. It may not seem like it, but for example x86 and AMD64 are different architectures, just as 32 bit ARM and 64 bit ARM are different. The operating system has to define system call interfaces for them, have copies of libraries for each architecture, ensure the processor(s) are in appropriate modes when running the applications, provide inter-process interoperability even when different architectures etc.