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ARM and Microsoft care about CHERI, that is enough to eventually make it happen, even if only on high integrity computing, like folks that still care about payi
by pjmlp 4mo ago
ARM and Microsoft care about CHERI, that is enough to eventually make it happen, even if only on high integrity computing, like folks that still care about paying for Unisys ClearPath MCP.
Or eventually have its ideas come into the evolution of ARM MTE, Pluton, and Silicon, which increasingly becoming adopted, alongside the oldie SPARC ADI.
It is the x86 linage that keeps getting it wrong on hardware memory tagging solutions.
- rwmj 4mo agoARM and Microsoft don't "care" enough to do anything beyond a bit of token research. Maybe there will be some extremely niche chips one day, or maybe not because the problem can be solved 90% as well in software on ordinary hardware.
- imtringued 4mo agoMicrosoft and Apple will probably switch to CHERI RISC-V for their Secure Enclave/TPMs once it has proven itself in the field. That means there will be hundreds of millions of CHERI RISC-V processors in the world. Not to mention the smartcard market which would mean billions of processors around the world.
- crote 4mo agoThe Intel Management Engine famously runs MINIX. Tanenbaum has called it "the most widely used computer operating system in the world" - but it hasn't exactly led to mainstream MINIX adoption. Smartcards often run Java Card, which solves the whole memory safety problem the other way around. You don't need CHERI for this kind of limited platforms: want to run memory-safe C today? Just ban all dynamic memory allocations. Throw in the usual UB restrictions and stick to a single thread and very little can go wrong. What's important to remember is that, despite its large deployment figures, those are still niche applications. The number of people developing for them is a rounding error. There is no clear path from there to mainstream adoption.
- pjmlp 4mo agoMore important to remember is that not everything needs to be Web scale to be a success. We don't need to measure technology adoption by the late stage capitalism of Silicon Valley VCs. Many technologies do leave an impact in the industry even when adopted in niche domains.
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- Veserv 4mo agoHave they figured out how to implement free() yet? Last I looked you need a garbage collector to deallocate at which point you might as well use Java which is actually designed for that use case.