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> Is there anything about RISC-V that is "better" simply because it is a later design than others? A lot of it is because it is newer, and the designers have l
by ansible 6y ago
> Is there anything about RISC-V that is "better" simply because it is a later design than others?
A lot of it is because it is newer, and the designers have learned from previous architectures. It is a relatively clean and straightforward instruction set, designed to be easily and efficiently implemented.
There's not anything that is super crazy revolutionary, in contrast to the (still vaporware) Mill CPU architecture.
> Is it likely to evolve faster because it is open or more modern?
They have a good extension mechanism that allows relatively clean additions to the instruction set. Some of the recent ones like the vector extension aren't finalized yet. Anyone can propose their own extension. Historically, ARM might work with their most important customers to implement an extension, but good luck getting their attention if you're not already paying them millions per year.
- drewm1980 6y agoThe mill has been in development for... 18 ~years now! Soon they will be able to hire engineers who are actually younger than the company. I wonder if there has ever been a tech company that survived so long without bringing a product to market. Duke Nukem Forever took ~14 years.
- CyberDildonics 6y agoTheir product is hardware patents.
- ansible 6y agoI would be happy if they just released a instruction-level simulator to play around with. It would also be super-nice if they released at least a Copper or Tin core (low-end) that can be synthesized to an FPGA for people to try out.
- acehreli 6y agoThat's patently wrong. :) I worked for the Mill for a while The Mill is as real as it gets. EDIT: No, there is no actual CPU but the software, the compiler, the simulator, etc. exist.
- CyberDildonics 6y agoWhere does their income come from? When is the CPU going to be released?
- acehreli 6y agoI haven't worked for them for a few years now but it's still a "sweat equity" organization as described on the web page under "About" at https://millcomputing.com/ https://millcomputing.com/ They consider investments for their minimal costs as well.
- ansible 6y agoFrom what I understand, all the developers have day jobs or are independently wealthy and can afford to work on it without (much?) pay. They haven't accepted VC money, even though that would likely have sped up development considerably.
- mhh__ 6y agoAccording to Ivan on their forums (so take this with a grain of salt as it's from the horses mouth rather than an external assessment) they were apparently supposed to be levelling-up in the summer of 2020. They have at least secured a decent patent portfolio, particularly on the belt.