4 ms·

This is reminiscent of the Mill CPU which had temporal addressing and called the history a “belt”. the Mill was described in an excellent series of talks: http

This is reminiscent of the Mill CPU which had temporal addressing and called the history a “belt”. the Mill was described in an excellent series of talks: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QGw-cy0ylCc https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QGw-cy0ylCc

082349872349872 3y ago
anyone know the status of the Mill IP? Edit: looks good to mid 2030's, eg https://millcomputing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/uspto9513921.pdf https://millcomputing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/us...
imtringued 3y ago
Mill is vaporware. Where is the FPGA version that you can play around with? The Reduceron was developed a decade ago and actually existed on FPGAs and it had an edge over contemporary processors like the Pentium 2 in functional programming workloads. There are modern architectures like Taychium‘s processors that are truly novel and nobody really cares about them. Why exactly would anyone expect the Mill architecture to live up to it's mind share?
- ithkuil 3y ago
  Unfortunately it seems to be worse than vaporware: it's patentware!
  - rbanffy 3y ago
    So, all we need to do is to wait for all the initial claims to expire. Chances are they'll expire well before anything based on it is produced.
- carbotaniuman 3y ago
  A Google for Taychium doesn't show anything, do you have a link or paper?
  - pezezin 3y ago
    GP made a typo, here it is: https://www.tachyum.com/ https://www.tachyum.com/
    - yencabulator 3y ago
      That video really isn't giving me the vibe this is any more real than Mill, just better funded. I think they failed to mention how their new CPU will also fix world hunger.
naasking 3y ago
Yes, they say Clockhands is a straight up a type of belt, which they've patented: https://millcomputing.com/topic/tokyo-universitys-straight-compiler/#post-3958 https://millcomputing.com/topic/tokyo-universitys-straight-c...
- ralferoo 3y ago
  Yeah, I came here to comment that this sounded very similar to the belt. The comment numbered 3929 on the link you provided is useful as it succinctly explains the difference: The addressing (STRAIGHT vs Mill) is different: STRAIGHT refers to the generating instruction in time order, whereas Mill refers to the dropped result. In the hardware STRAIGHT uses a scoreboard approach to block for uncompleted instructions, while Mill uses full static scheduling. Some benefits are shared: no renaming, no encoded result registers. Some are peculiar to one or the other: Mill needs no reorder buffer, while straight need not track instruction retire time in the compiler.
  - ralferoo 3y ago
    Actually, after my third reading, I don't think it does infringe on their patent. The last comment on the GP link (3958) states: "The STRAIGHT addressing is not a belt because it uses ordinal instruction addressing, while a belt uses ordinal drop. But the new Clockhands addressing is a belt, pure and simple." But after re-reading the article again, it sounds like it genuinely is an extension of the STRAIGHT system to just add 4 groups of "ordinal instruction addressed" registers rather. It still definitely doesn't fulfil the criteria for "ordinal drop" as described in the comment (by the same author) that I quoted above.
    - PoignardAzur 3y ago
      The Mill patent is here: https://millcomputing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/uspto9513921.pdf https://millcomputing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/us... I think it covers the STRAIGHT addressing method. IANAL though.
- rwmj 3y ago

082349872349872 3y ago

anyone know the status of the Mill IP? Edit: looks good to mid 2030's, eg https://millcomputing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/uspto9513921.pdf https://millcomputing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/us...

imtringued 3y ago

Mill is vaporware. Where is the FPGA version that you can play around with? The Reduceron was developed a decade ago and actually existed on FPGAs and it had an edge over contemporary processors like the Pentium 2 in functional programming workloads. There are modern architectures like Taychium‘s processors that are truly novel and nobody really cares about them. Why exactly would anyone expect the Mill architecture to live up to it's mind share?

ithkuil 3y ago
Unfortunately it seems to be worse than vaporware: it's patentware!
- rbanffy 3y ago
  So, all we need to do is to wait for all the initial claims to expire. Chances are they'll expire well before anything based on it is produced.
carbotaniuman 3y ago
A Google for Taychium doesn't show anything, do you have a link or paper?
- pezezin 3y ago
  GP made a typo, here it is: https://www.tachyum.com/ https://www.tachyum.com/
  - yencabulator 3y ago
    That video really isn't giving me the vibe this is any more real than Mill, just better funded. I think they failed to mention how their new CPU will also fix world hunger.

naasking 3y ago

Yes, they say Clockhands is a straight up a type of belt, which they've patented: https://millcomputing.com/topic/tokyo-universitys-straight-compiler/#post-3958 https://millcomputing.com/topic/tokyo-universitys-straight-c...

ralferoo 3y ago
Yeah, I came here to comment that this sounded very similar to the belt. The comment numbered 3929 on the link you provided is useful as it succinctly explains the difference: The addressing (STRAIGHT vs Mill) is different: STRAIGHT refers to the generating instruction in time order, whereas Mill refers to the dropped result. In the hardware STRAIGHT uses a scoreboard approach to block for uncompleted instructions, while Mill uses full static scheduling. Some benefits are shared: no renaming, no encoded result registers. Some are peculiar to one or the other: Mill needs no reorder buffer, while straight need not track instruction retire time in the compiler.
- ralferoo 3y ago
  Actually, after my third reading, I don't think it does infringe on their patent. The last comment on the GP link (3958) states: "The STRAIGHT addressing is not a belt because it uses ordinal instruction addressing, while a belt uses ordinal drop. But the new Clockhands addressing is a belt, pure and simple." But after re-reading the article again, it sounds like it genuinely is an extension of the STRAIGHT system to just add 4 groups of "ordinal instruction addressed" registers rather. It still definitely doesn't fulfil the criteria for "ordinal drop" as described in the comment (by the same author) that I quoted above.
  - PoignardAzur 3y ago
    The Mill patent is here: https://millcomputing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/uspto9513921.pdf https://millcomputing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/us... I think it covers the STRAIGHT addressing method. IANAL though.
rwmj 3y ago