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OpenBSD famously keeps a lot of esoteric platforms around, because running the same code on multiple architectures reveal a lot of bugs. At least that was one o
by mrweasel 8mo ago
OpenBSD famously keeps a lot of esoteric platforms around, because running the same code on multiple architectures reveal a lot of bugs. At least that was one of the arguments previously.
- lproven 8mo agoWhich is why Windows NT was multiplatform in 1993. Developed on Intel i860, then MIPS, and only then on x86, alongside Alpha.
- spijdar 8mo agoBig endian MIPS, no less! At least initially.
- rbanffy 8mo agoI don't think the i860 port lasted very long. IIRC, the performance in context switches was atrocious.
- lproven 8mo agoIt didn't make it to release, and I believe MS switched internal development more or less as soon as it had an alternative. I do not recall reading any specific detailed look into why, so you may well be right! Intel let the i860 and indeed the slightly older i960 wither, which was a damned shame. Ditto the Alpha it ended up with, while it sold its Arm licence to Marvell, which at one point recently was worth more than Intel. I'd like to see a skunkworks project to resurrect one, or several, of these. :-) Attack Arm from a direction it's not expecting. And RISC-V come to that.