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Both? Theoretically amazing hardware that just needs the magic compiler to work well is a well worn path in the hardware world (The itanium being a notable exam
by gchadwick 1y ago
Both? Theoretically amazing hardware that just needs the magic compiler to work well is a well worn path in the hardware world (The itanium being a notable example). A design can be impossible to compile well for and very hard to program manually if it hasn't been developed well. Equally you can indeed have a bad toolchain for that hard to use design making it even harder to get the best out of it.
- djmips 1y agoI'm thinking of the Sony Toshiba IBM Cell processor. In the end with experience you could deliver impressive performance and the lessons learned proved to be valuable on any multi core system. But everyone knows the reputation that the PS3 had and certainly in retrospect it was challenging to say the least.
- reactordev 1y agoNah, the issue with PS3 was everyone coming from a specific set of instructions and having, that, hard wired into their brains. Yes, the cell processor did things differently but it was us engineers who had to learn to think of a world beyond x86. This was a good thing. It let us learn. And when Arm came around, we were ready.
- djmips 1y agoVery much agree. It was a positive experience.