5 ms·

Dual ISA would be pretty cool. The more I learn about the differences between ARM and x86, the more it starts to seem like it really is not that much of a stret

by ip26 6y ago

Dual ISA would be pretty cool. The more I learn about the differences between ARM and x86, the more it starts to seem like it really is not that much of a stretch. Just need the market for it.

mschuster91 6y ago
In the server market that could actually work, there are virtually no constraints on power or die size there.
- egsmi 6y ago
  There are plenty of constraints in the server markets. The primary ones are economic.
ineedasername 6y ago
At this point it seems more and more that x86 is still around purely due to legacy reasons and path-dependency. Intel's failure to execute on mobile really opened the door for ARM to have tons of resources over a decade thrown into it's development as a platform, and now the M1 is and extremely solid proof of concept that tentative forways into ARM on desktops/laptops/servers will absolutely warrant the shift in platforms. A few years for software ports and an extra 2 generations of chip improvements, and I think Intel's failure to execute on it's fab processes will just become a moot point. I have more confidence in AMD to pivot, and they have their GPU business as well. Intel may be relegated to aging obsolescence the same way HP and IBM did with their "big iron".
- zinekeller 6y ago
  > Intel may be relegated to aging obsolescence the same way HP and IBM did with their "big iron". Cough cough Itanium is an Intel-HP collaboration cough cough
  - ineedasername 6y ago
    Hah, true. That was absolutely the wrong chip at the wrong time, poorly implemented and lacking the software base of other platforms. I have no idea why they built the thing rather than put more resources behind Xeon, which was basically the end result anyway.
pabs3 6y ago
Multi-ISA chips have been announced from a couple of vendors (Loongson and Tachyum). The Loongson one does a MIPSish native ISA, MIPS, ARM, x86 and RISC-V, with the last three being slower. https://www.zhihu.com/question/414069789 https://www.zhihu.com/question/414069789 (needs Google Translate)

by ip26 6y ago

Dual ISA would be pretty cool. The more I learn about the differences between ARM and x86, the more it starts to seem like it really is not that much of a stretch. Just need the market for it.

mschuster91 6y ago

In the server market that could actually work, there are virtually no constraints on power or die size there.

egsmi 6y ago
There are plenty of constraints in the server markets. The primary ones are economic.

ineedasername 6y ago

At this point it seems more and more that x86 is still around purely due to legacy reasons and path-dependency. Intel's failure to execute on mobile really opened the door for ARM to have tons of resources over a decade thrown into it's development as a platform, and now the M1 is and extremely solid proof of concept that tentative forways into ARM on desktops/laptops/servers will absolutely warrant the shift in platforms. A few years for software ports and an extra 2 generations of chip improvements, and I think Intel's failure to execute on it's fab processes will just become a moot point. I have more confidence in AMD to pivot, and they have their GPU business as well. Intel may be relegated to aging obsolescence the same way HP and IBM did with their "big iron".

zinekeller 6y ago
> Intel may be relegated to aging obsolescence the same way HP and IBM did with their "big iron". Cough cough Itanium is an Intel-HP collaboration cough cough
- ineedasername 6y ago
  Hah, true. That was absolutely the wrong chip at the wrong time, poorly implemented and lacking the software base of other platforms. I have no idea why they built the thing rather than put more resources behind Xeon, which was basically the end result anyway.

pabs3 6y ago

Multi-ISA chips have been announced from a couple of vendors (Loongson and Tachyum). The Loongson one does a MIPSish native ISA, MIPS, ARM, x86 and RISC-V, with the last three being slower. https://www.zhihu.com/question/414069789 https://www.zhihu.com/question/414069789 (needs Google Translate)