3 ms·

The critical mass of talent and capital forming in the RISC-V space happened in 02019 at Alibaba: https://www.cnx-software.com/2019/07/27/alibaba-unveils-xuanti

by kragen 1y ago

The critical mass of talent and capital forming in the RISC-V space happened in 02019 at Alibaba: https://www.cnx-software.com/2019/07/27/alibaba-unveils-xuantie-910-16-core-risc-v-processor/ https://www.cnx-software.com/2019/07/27/alibaba-unveils-xuan... AFAIK MIPS still hasn't shipped a high-end processor competitive with the XuanTie 910 that article is about. And I think the billions of RISC-V microcontroller cores that have shipped already (10 billion as of 02022 according to https://wccftech.com/x86-arm-rival-risc-v-architecture-ships-10-billion-cores/ https://wccftech.com/x86-arm-rival-risc-v-architecture-ships...) are also mostly not from MIPS.

garblegarble 1y ago
off-topic but: I've noticed you prefix years with a zero in your HN comments. First I thought it was just a typo, but I see you've made several comments like that. Is there some significance, or are you just raising awareness of the year 9999 problem?
- rrakow 1y ago
  I think that's some "Long Now Foundation" meme.
  - dcminter 1y ago
    That. Personally I think it's performative nonsense, but you have to admire the commitment to it.
    - MalbertKerman 1y ago
      [flagged]
    - kstrauser 1y ago
      I suspect it’s counterproductive, though, like deliberately not using pronouns and always referring to someone by name. The intent might be to draw attention to the author’s cause, but it’s more likely to come across that the author just writes weirdly.
      - dcminter 1y ago
        Eh, I also think it's harmless, and lends a certain "brand" to their posts - which are usually quite good otherwise. Better to be weird than dull, right?
        kstrauser 1y ago
        I guess, unless the offputting:goodness ratio gets lopsided and makes people start ignoring them. Frankly, something about that leading 0 makes me grit my teeth and stop reading. I can't explain why it affects me like that. Perhaps I'm the only one who does, although threads like this seem to pop up whenever they post so I don't think so. If HN had a mute button, I'd probably use it just because it annoys me to that level. Edit: And now that we're talking about it, they seem to have the need to mention a specific year way more than most, as though deliberately looking for opportunities to draw attention to themselves. Oof. That just made it about 10x more grating to me.
        dcminter 1y ago
        I do get where you're coming from; for me I think it interrupts the way I scan text - a date would be unconsciously absorbed but these stand out as abnormal artefacts requiring full attention.
        kstrauser 1y ago
        Yeah, that's a great way of explaining it. Every time, it raises an exception in my mental parser and I have to go back and consciously evaluate it. Then I see that it's the same person who got me yet again, and I grit my teeth.
        tonyedgecombe 1y ago
        You aren’t the only one, it interrupts the flow when I’m reading.
        andrekandre 1y ago
        idk, i personally was confused by it; i thought they were referencing some node number or referencing some other thing and got hung up on it....
    - kragen 1y ago
      It doesn't require any special commitment because it doesn't cost me anything. Certain people do post a lot of really boring comments about it, but I'm not the one posting those comments, and I don't care about those people's opinions, so I don't care. I don't believe I'm actually doing those people any injury, so while they're obviously free to continue requesting different formatting of my posts, I'm free to ignore them. I think it's important for people to be able to complain about things that bother them, for the reasons described in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44501817 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44501817. In that thread, we were discussing a different commenter requesting that an author please not use AI for editing his own books, although the request was made in a particularly obnoxious fashion. Consider "Please don't play your music so loud at night", "Please don't look at my sister", or "Please don't throw your trash out your car window". But "please format your dates differently" doesn't seem like a very important request, even if it were phrased politely, to the point that it makes me (and, as I've seen, others) think less of the people who are making it. If my date formatting really bothers them, they're free to stop reading the site. After having looked at their comment histories, I wish some of them would, because the only thing they ever post are similarly vacuous complaints. If people had to choose between reading a site where I posted and they didn't, and a site where they posted and I didn't, 100% of people would choose the former. (Others do occasionally post something worthwhile, but nothing that inspires me to wonder how I could earn their admiration.) So, these days, I can easily ignore it. Especially the day after this comment of mine got voted up to +151: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44491713 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44491713
      - avhception 1y ago
        Every time I encounter it, I think to myself: ah, that guy again. Always brings a little smile to my face. Keep it up!
        kragen 1y ago
        Thanks!
      - dcminter 1y ago
        > I don't care about those people's opinions, so I don't care. This was stronger before you edited in the longer paragraphs telling us that you look through their comment histories. Look, you do you, but I'd rather hear your passionate promotion of the leading zero approach since you apparently know it irritates people. Edit: PS Isn't it interesting that the comment that you are justly proud of doesn't have any dates in it? :)
- acdha 1y ago
  It’s the Long Now Foundation’s convention - a bit cultish but harmless. https://longnow.org/ideas/long-now-years-five-digit-dates-and-10k-compliance-at-home/ https://longnow.org/ideas/long-now-years-five-digit-dates-an...
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
nine_k 1y ago
(BTW why do you write years with a leafing zero? Do you expect these post to still matter past year 9999?)
- dcminter 1y ago
  ...and if he does, why does he then consider the year 99999 to be out of reach? As I understand it the idea is to promote "long term thinking" but I really don't see how this affectation is actually supposed to achieve anything beyond mildly irritating/confusing the reader. At least the Long Now Foundation stuff comes with that context built-in. https://longnow.org/ https://longnow.org/
  - ndiddy 1y ago
    Good point, I will start the Longer Now foundation and start adding two zeroes to the front of all my years.
    - hypercube33 1y ago
      This whole line of conversation and use of the leading zero reminds me of The Church of MOO from the old internet.
      - dcminter 1y ago
        Huh, I know about Bob Dobson et al, but MOO-ism somehow escaped my notice back in the day. http://textfiles.com/occult/MOOISM/ http://textfiles.com/occult/MOOISM/ I have some retro-reading to do.
hulitu 1y ago
> AFAIK MIPS still hasn't shipped a high-end processor competitive with the XuanTie 910 that article is about The last high end MIPS was in the SGI times, 30 years ago.
- kragen 1y ago
  Yes, but their claims over the last few years have been that their RISC-V implementations will be super fast, not like all those pikers, because they're using MIPS microarchitectural techniques. And so far I haven't seen them ship anything that substantiates that.
- chasil 1y ago
  Loongson was making them until recently. https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/06/loongson_inspur_cloudos/ https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/06/loongson_inspur_cloud...
  - kragen 1y ago
    Yes, but MIPS wasn't.
Findecanor 1y ago
It was some time ago that MIPS did announce that they had competitive RISC-V cores and had signed customers for them: LG and in the automotive sector. I'd think those should be taped out by now, but who knows... I think the C910 looks better on paper than it performs in practice. I hope that isn't the case for MIPS.
- kragen 1y ago
  Do you have any details?
  - Findecanor 1y ago
    I can only refer to MIPS' own press releases, unfortunately. They mention 4-wide OoO, RV64GH + Zbb + Zba. no V. That is a frustrating pattern in the RISC-V world. Many companies that boast having x wide cores with y SPECint numbers but nothing that has been independently verified.
    - kragen 1y ago
      No V sounds like a bad sign for performance. Do they have any part numbers?
  - monocasa 1y ago
    Adding to what was said, it also suspiciously looks like a MIPS core with a RISC-V frontend strapped to it sort of like Qualcomm did with their Nuvia AArch64 core. Particularly stuff like the soft fill TLB from m-mode looks just like MIPS coprocessor 0.
    - ajb 1y ago
      There's nothing especially wrong with using an existing backend design and transitioning it to another ISA; a number of teams did that from mips->arm and had success with the result. Of course, if you ship too early you may be missing some features.

by kragen 1y ago

garblegarble 1y ago

off-topic but: I've noticed you prefix years with a zero in your HN comments. First I thought it was just a typo, but I see you've made several comments like that. Is there some significance, or are you just raising awareness of the year 9999 problem?

rrakow 1y ago
I think that's some "Long Now Foundation" meme.
- dcminter 1y ago
  That. Personally I think it's performative nonsense, but you have to admire the commitment to it.
  - MalbertKerman 1y ago
    [flagged]
  - kstrauser 1y ago
    I suspect it’s counterproductive, though, like deliberately not using pronouns and always referring to someone by name. The intent might be to draw attention to the author’s cause, but it’s more likely to come across that the author just writes weirdly.
    - dcminter 1y ago
      Eh, I also think it's harmless, and lends a certain "brand" to their posts - which are usually quite good otherwise. Better to be weird than dull, right?
      - kstrauser 1y ago
        I guess, unless the offputting:goodness ratio gets lopsided and makes people start ignoring them. Frankly, something about that leading 0 makes me grit my teeth and stop reading. I can't explain why it affects me like that. Perhaps I'm the only one who does, although threads like this seem to pop up whenever they post so I don't think so. If HN had a mute button, I'd probably use it just because it annoys me to that level. Edit: And now that we're talking about it, they seem to have the need to mention a specific year way more than most, as though deliberately looking for opportunities to draw attention to themselves. Oof. That just made it about 10x more grating to me.
        dcminter 1y ago
        I do get where you're coming from; for me I think it interrupts the way I scan text - a date would be unconsciously absorbed but these stand out as abnormal artefacts requiring full attention.
        kstrauser 1y ago
        Yeah, that's a great way of explaining it. Every time, it raises an exception in my mental parser and I have to go back and consciously evaluate it. Then I see that it's the same person who got me yet again, and I grit my teeth.
        tonyedgecombe 1y ago
        You aren’t the only one, it interrupts the flow when I’m reading.
      - andrekandre 1y ago
        idk, i personally was confused by it; i thought they were referencing some node number or referencing some other thing and got hung up on it....
  - kragen 1y ago
    It doesn't require any special commitment because it doesn't cost me anything. Certain people do post a lot of really boring comments about it, but I'm not the one posting those comments, and I don't care about those people's opinions, so I don't care. I don't believe I'm actually doing those people any injury, so while they're obviously free to continue requesting different formatting of my posts, I'm free to ignore them. I think it's important for people to be able to complain about things that bother them, for the reasons described in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44501817 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44501817. In that thread, we were discussing a different commenter requesting that an author please not use AI for editing his own books, although the request was made in a particularly obnoxious fashion. Consider "Please don't play your music so loud at night", "Please don't look at my sister", or "Please don't throw your trash out your car window". But "please format your dates differently" doesn't seem like a very important request, even if it were phrased politely, to the point that it makes me (and, as I've seen, others) think less of the people who are making it. If my date formatting really bothers them, they're free to stop reading the site. After having looked at their comment histories, I wish some of them would, because the only thing they ever post are similarly vacuous complaints. If people had to choose between reading a site where I posted and they didn't, and a site where they posted and I didn't, 100% of people would choose the former. (Others do occasionally post something worthwhile, but nothing that inspires me to wonder how I could earn their admiration.) So, these days, I can easily ignore it. Especially the day after this comment of mine got voted up to +151: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44491713 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44491713
    - avhception 1y ago
      Every time I encounter it, I think to myself: ah, that guy again. Always brings a little smile to my face. Keep it up!
      - kragen 1y ago
        Thanks!
    - dcminter 1y ago
      > I don't care about those people's opinions, so I don't care. This was stronger before you edited in the longer paragraphs telling us that you look through their comment histories. Look, you do you, but I'd rather hear your passionate promotion of the leading zero approach since you apparently know it irritates people. Edit: PS Isn't it interesting that the comment that you are justly proud of doesn't have any dates in it? :)
acdha 1y ago
It’s the Long Now Foundation’s convention - a bit cultish but harmless. https://longnow.org/ideas/long-now-years-five-digit-dates-and-10k-compliance-at-home/ https://longnow.org/ideas/long-now-years-five-digit-dates-an...
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

nine_k 1y ago

(BTW why do you write years with a leafing zero? Do you expect these post to still matter past year 9999?)

dcminter 1y ago
...and if he does, why does he then consider the year 99999 to be out of reach? As I understand it the idea is to promote "long term thinking" but I really don't see how this affectation is actually supposed to achieve anything beyond mildly irritating/confusing the reader. At least the Long Now Foundation stuff comes with that context built-in. https://longnow.org/ https://longnow.org/
- ndiddy 1y ago
  Good point, I will start the Longer Now foundation and start adding two zeroes to the front of all my years.
  - hypercube33 1y ago
    This whole line of conversation and use of the leading zero reminds me of The Church of MOO from the old internet.
    - dcminter 1y ago
      Huh, I know about Bob Dobson et al, but MOO-ism somehow escaped my notice back in the day. http://textfiles.com/occult/MOOISM/ http://textfiles.com/occult/MOOISM/ I have some retro-reading to do.

hulitu 1y ago

> AFAIK MIPS still hasn't shipped a high-end processor competitive with the XuanTie 910 that article is about The last high end MIPS was in the SGI times, 30 years ago.

kragen 1y ago
Yes, but their claims over the last few years have been that their RISC-V implementations will be super fast, not like all those pikers, because they're using MIPS microarchitectural techniques. And so far I haven't seen them ship anything that substantiates that.
chasil 1y ago
Loongson was making them until recently. https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/06/loongson_inspur_cloudos/ https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/06/loongson_inspur_cloud...
- kragen 1y ago
  Yes, but MIPS wasn't.

Findecanor 1y ago

It was some time ago that MIPS did announce that they had competitive RISC-V cores and had signed customers for them: LG and in the automotive sector. I'd think those should be taped out by now, but who knows... I think the C910 looks better on paper than it performs in practice. I hope that isn't the case for MIPS.

kragen 1y ago
Do you have any details?
- Findecanor 1y ago
  I can only refer to MIPS' own press releases, unfortunately. They mention 4-wide OoO, RV64GH + Zbb + Zba. no V. That is a frustrating pattern in the RISC-V world. Many companies that boast having x wide cores with y SPECint numbers but nothing that has been independently verified.
  - kragen 1y ago
    No V sounds like a bad sign for performance. Do they have any part numbers?
- monocasa 1y ago
  Adding to what was said, it also suspiciously looks like a MIPS core with a RISC-V frontend strapped to it sort of like Qualcomm did with their Nuvia AArch64 core. Particularly stuff like the soft fill TLB from m-mode looks just like MIPS coprocessor 0.
  - ajb 1y ago
    There's nothing especially wrong with using an existing backend design and transitioning it to another ISA; a number of teams did that from mips->arm and had success with the result. Of course, if you ship too early you may be missing some features.