4 ms·

cuda is basically equivalent to the combination of the instruction set and the C/C++ language, API and standard library, and all bundled together. In the CPU's

by russli1993 6y ago

cuda is basically equivalent to the combination of the instruction set and the C/C++ language, API and standard library, and all bundled together. In the CPU's case, C/C++, API and standard library are designed to be hardware platform agnostic, instruction sets is separate and open, and x86 have two players. Cuda became this way because it is designed by the hardware company and its business need. We really should be thankful that C/C++, open compilers, API and library exists in the CPU world back then. And hardware vendors like Intel published raw instruction sets and allow any software to target the instruction sets. I can't imagine in a world where people uses the programming language and libraries designed by a hardware CPU company and all that software only runs on hardware from such company.

sorenjan 6y ago
Some things were better back in the day. E-mail could not be invented today, it would be a mix of incompatible mail system like Facebook mail, Google mail, Apple mail, Slack mail, some distributed open source mail nobody used, etc.
- meepmorp 6y ago
  Go read the SMTP and related RFCs and see if you still think that email back in the day wasn’t already a mix of incompatible systems. The parts about address formats alone was quite an eye opener for me.
  - brian_cunnie 6y ago
    Yes, I remember IBM had its own email system back in the early 80's when I worked there, AT&T had its own in the later 80's. Even Prodigy/Compuserve/AOL had proprietary email systems (IIRC) with internet email bolted on. And getting email to the internet at large was no mean feat: I remember having to do a slew of UUCP addressing to get an email from AT&T to the internet (something along the lines of "astevens@redhill3!ihnp4@mit.edu). It was the wild west.
    - macintux 6y ago
      I applied for a sysadmin job at BBN in the late 90s, and X.400 knowledge was listed in the description. Thankfully that turned out to be a red herring.
  - baq 6y ago
    email wouldn't be invented by private institutions today because nobody in their right mind would willingly get rid of their moat... it'd take government regulation to get there and you know how efficient that would be. technical problems are easy in comparison.

sorenjan 6y ago

Some things were better back in the day. E-mail could not be invented today, it would be a mix of incompatible mail system like Facebook mail, Google mail, Apple mail, Slack mail, some distributed open source mail nobody used, etc.

meepmorp 6y ago
Go read the SMTP and related RFCs and see if you still think that email back in the day wasn’t already a mix of incompatible systems. The parts about address formats alone was quite an eye opener for me.
- brian_cunnie 6y ago
  Yes, I remember IBM had its own email system back in the early 80's when I worked there, AT&T had its own in the later 80's. Even Prodigy/Compuserve/AOL had proprietary email systems (IIRC) with internet email bolted on. And getting email to the internet at large was no mean feat: I remember having to do a slew of UUCP addressing to get an email from AT&T to the internet (something along the lines of "astevens@redhill3!ihnp4@mit.edu). It was the wild west.
  - macintux 6y ago
    I applied for a sysadmin job at BBN in the late 90s, and X.400 knowledge was listed in the description. Thankfully that turned out to be a red herring.
- baq 6y ago
  email wouldn't be invented by private institutions today because nobody in their right mind would willingly get rid of their moat... it'd take government regulation to get there and you know how efficient that would be. technical problems are easy in comparison.