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I'm hoping for the success of RISC-V, an open ISA would solve many binary compatibility issues and free chip makers to compete on the merits of their microarchi
by deepnotderp 9y ago
I'm hoping for the success of RISC-V, an open ISA would solve many binary compatibility issues and free chip makers to compete on the merits of their microarchitecture and not their ISA lock in ( cough cough Intel).
That being said, I doubt it's going to happen. Chip makers have a strong incentive to have a proprietary USA that they can use for lock in a la x86.
- ZenoArrow 9y agoThere are only a handful of high end chip manufacturers left. The lock in you describe only really applies to Intel (and not that strongly either, they have been known to manufacture non-x86/x64 chips in the past). Manufacturers like TSMC are effectively a fab-for-hire, you're unlikely to see them turning down sales just to specialise in a single ISA. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TSMC https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TSMC
- deepnotderp 9y agoI meant fabless companies and ODMs, why on earth would a foundry refuse business?