3 ms·

You should look into the Mill CPU architecture.[0] Its design should make microkernels much more viable. * Single 64-bit address space. Caches use virtual addr

You should look into the Mill CPU architecture.[0] Its design should make microkernels much more viable. * Single 64-bit address space. Caches use virtual addresses. * Because of that, the TLB is moved after the last level cache, so it's not on the critical path. * There's instead a PLB (protection lookaside buffer), which can be searched in parallel with cache lookup. (Technically, there's three: two instruction PLBs and one data PLB.) [0]: https://millcomputing.com/ https://millcomputing.com/

foobiekr 5y ago
I was also going to mention the Mill, but it's become a bit of a Flying Dutchman that people tell tales of but which probably doesn't exist.
- timschmidt 5y ago
  Fundamental rethinks take time. The ideas expressed by the mill folks have value independent of any specific implementation or absence thereof. Yosys is incredible and the dropping cost and increasing availability of capable FPGA dev boards equally so. I wouldn't put it past a sharp CS major to whip up a toy mill cpu in FPGA these days just based on what's been shared publicly. It's a bit strange to me that I can still see echos of the Datapoint 2200 in a modern machine. I'd also like to see further work related to this: https://core.ac.uk/reader/161119546 https://core.ac.uk/reader/161119546 There's been a lot of recapitulation and growth in the language space recently as well, showing up in languages like Zig and Rust, paving the way for better utilization across heterogeneous and many core architectures. I feel like Rust's memory semantics don't hurt the mill either, and may help a lot.
  - imtringued 5y ago
    They won't commercialize their design. Your best bet would be to reverse engineer their designs and build your own.
    - timschmidt 5y ago
      I went looking and it seems that they're making some progress. I wasn't previously aware of their wiki, which contains ISA documentation and more: http://millcomputing.com/wiki/Main_Page http://millcomputing.com/wiki/Main_Page

foobiekr 5y ago

I was also going to mention the Mill, but it's become a bit of a Flying Dutchman that people tell tales of but which probably doesn't exist.

timschmidt 5y ago
Fundamental rethinks take time. The ideas expressed by the mill folks have value independent of any specific implementation or absence thereof. Yosys is incredible and the dropping cost and increasing availability of capable FPGA dev boards equally so. I wouldn't put it past a sharp CS major to whip up a toy mill cpu in FPGA these days just based on what's been shared publicly. It's a bit strange to me that I can still see echos of the Datapoint 2200 in a modern machine. I'd also like to see further work related to this: https://core.ac.uk/reader/161119546 https://core.ac.uk/reader/161119546 There's been a lot of recapitulation and growth in the language space recently as well, showing up in languages like Zig and Rust, paving the way for better utilization across heterogeneous and many core architectures. I feel like Rust's memory semantics don't hurt the mill either, and may help a lot.
- imtringued 5y ago
  They won't commercialize their design. Your best bet would be to reverse engineer their designs and build your own.
  - timschmidt 5y ago
    I went looking and it seems that they're making some progress. I wasn't previously aware of their wiki, which contains ISA documentation and more: http://millcomputing.com/wiki/Main_Page http://millcomputing.com/wiki/Main_Page