4 ms·

> Essence will happily run on low-powered hardware The thing is, when I see a mention of "low-powered hardware", I'm instantly thinking of a Raspberry Pi 4. I

by jhgb 5y ago

> Essence will happily run on low-powered hardware The thing is, when I see a mention of "low-powered hardware", I'm instantly thinking of a Raspberry Pi 4. I assume this isn't supported (yet).

TheFreim 5y ago
I have multiple RPi devices but I don't really think of it when I heard "low-powered hardware", I think of a low end laptop from ~2010.
- simondotau 5y ago
  Whereas my first reaction hearing “low powered hardware” was to think of computers which require a low amount of input power, as measured in watts.
- 7thaccount 5y ago
  But wouldn't this also run on a laptop that is much older? My pentium 4 computer from when I was not much older than my daughter had much better specs than the minimum they need here. I'm sure there are some other limitations though.
Zomatree 5y ago
Its x86 only currently. I know the owner does want to add arm support but its not being worked on.
- nodesocket 5y ago
  Curious, is porting complex C++ projects to arm64 just a matter of updating build/CI systems or does it actually involve changing core code and adding branches if (x64) {} ... if (arm64) {}.
  - estebarb 5y ago
    For common programs it's not very difficult, usually just recompile. But if it uses assembly then you are out of luck. Also if it requires a library that uses it. For an OS it is different, you need to reimplement many parts: bootloader, drivers, task scheduler, virtual memory...
  - 8192kjshad09- 5y ago
    Most user-space code is not difficult to port. An operating system is much more work. Take a look at https://github.com/torvalds/linux/tree/master/arch/arm64 https://github.com/torvalds/linux/tree/master/arch/arm64
  - transitorykris 5y ago
    All of the x86 assembly (see arch and boot/x86 dirs..) and any x86 assumptions being made elsewhere in the rest of the code is where the work is.
  - asveikau 5y ago
    An os kernel needs a lot of custom work for the hardware. Example: manipulating page tables, handling interrupts, making context switches work.
  - pjmlp 5y ago
    Like everything in computing it depends. x86 and ARM don't same the same memory consistency model, so while managed languages do somehow protect their users from the differences, languages like C++ do expose it by default (unless you make use of the C++11 memory model APIs[0]). So it depends how clever the lock-free kernel datastructure were written and other memory access assumptions. [0] - https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/memory_model https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/memory_model

by jhgb 5y ago

> Essence will happily run on low-powered hardware The thing is, when I see a mention of "low-powered hardware", I'm instantly thinking of a Raspberry Pi 4. I assume this isn't supported (yet).

TheFreim 5y ago

I have multiple RPi devices but I don't really think of it when I heard "low-powered hardware", I think of a low end laptop from ~2010.

simondotau 5y ago
Whereas my first reaction hearing “low powered hardware” was to think of computers which require a low amount of input power, as measured in watts.
7thaccount 5y ago
But wouldn't this also run on a laptop that is much older? My pentium 4 computer from when I was not much older than my daughter had much better specs than the minimum they need here. I'm sure there are some other limitations though.

Zomatree 5y ago

Its x86 only currently. I know the owner does want to add arm support but its not being worked on.

nodesocket 5y ago
Curious, is porting complex C++ projects to arm64 just a matter of updating build/CI systems or does it actually involve changing core code and adding branches if (x64) {} ... if (arm64) {}.
- estebarb 5y ago
  For common programs it's not very difficult, usually just recompile. But if it uses assembly then you are out of luck. Also if it requires a library that uses it. For an OS it is different, you need to reimplement many parts: bootloader, drivers, task scheduler, virtual memory...
- 8192kjshad09- 5y ago
  Most user-space code is not difficult to port. An operating system is much more work. Take a look at https://github.com/torvalds/linux/tree/master/arch/arm64 https://github.com/torvalds/linux/tree/master/arch/arm64
- transitorykris 5y ago
  All of the x86 assembly (see arch and boot/x86 dirs..) and any x86 assumptions being made elsewhere in the rest of the code is where the work is.
- asveikau 5y ago
  An os kernel needs a lot of custom work for the hardware. Example: manipulating page tables, handling interrupts, making context switches work.
- pjmlp 5y ago
  Like everything in computing it depends. x86 and ARM don't same the same memory consistency model, so while managed languages do somehow protect their users from the differences, languages like C++ do expose it by default (unless you make use of the C++11 memory model APIs[0]). So it depends how clever the lock-free kernel datastructure were written and other memory access assumptions. [0] - https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/memory_model https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/memory_model