bem94

13 ms·

91.
by bem94 8y ago
I would argue that yes it does. You're right, maybe not as much complexity, but enough to make arguments for their being simpler look thin. Also, I don't know how the 500 ARMv8 instructions was reached. If there are 500 instructio
92.
by bem94 8y ago
x86 is undoubtedly a very complex beast, so ARM/MIPS are fair er comparisons. Never mind the fact that a Xeon CPU is boggling complex on top of that. I think you are right about how problems are more likely to come from interractions
93.
by bem94 8y ago
There is so much to unpack in this article. I pick this claim: That RISC-V is a simple(r) architecture and therefore meaningfully easier to verify[0]. The base RISC-V ISA is indeed very small. However, to compete with ARM/MIPS/x
94.
by bem94 8y ago
I understand this is nitpicking, but it's not accurate to say "RISC-V has speculative execution" or "ARM has OoO execution" and that they therefore suffer from spectre and friends. RISC-V/ARM are specifications
95.
by bem94 8y ago
> Particularly when you plan to build a series of chips, the continuous approach taken by software is massively preferable. For sure. I think continuous integration and cataloging of things like coverage collection is something hardware
96.
by bem94 8y ago
> 2) writing tests is awful. Testbenches are crazy confusing. Much better would be some sort of unit testing system that does a better job of segregating of what constitutes "testing code" versus the "language of the gates
97.
by bem94 8y ago
Depending on what I eat, I need different ammounts of insulin, and adjust the dose acordingly using my insulin pen and needle. How does one adjust the dose in a pill? Do I take more or fewer pills? They mention the insulin is "freeze d
98.
by bem94 8y ago
I don't think that is universally the case. I transitioned back into academia after being in industry. Admittedly, I was only out in industry a couple of years and I've not found academia to my liking. My background is microelectr
99.
The AI renaissance is simply expensive hardware and PR thrown at an old idea(theregister.co.uk)
8 points by bem94 8y ago|2 comments
100.
by bem94 8y ago
I'd assume that by "moving parts" they mean transistors. Ofcourse this is somewhat confusing to people who know how computers are composed of transistors and what transistors are. But if you just want to convey to the lay per
101.
by bem94 8y ago
This is such an important point. Engineering does so much to shape society and the lives of individuals. But we give zero training to new engineers in these issues. Worse, so many engineers I speak to are willfully ignorant or disdainful of
102.
by bem94 8y ago
"Everything is worth what its purchaser will pay for it." - Publilius Syrus, ~100 BC Nor is there any accounting for taste. Looked at purely logically, it is absurd to spend 1K on a phone. Humans aren't always logical. We do
103.
by bem94 8y ago
Whoa. This is very impressive! It does seem to hilight an increasing unease I have with riscv. Implementations are many and cheap, but reusable verification is rare and people don't use what is out there. They have maybe the riscv-test
104.
by bem94 8y ago
So yeah, I guess they aren't "impossible" to live with out in the strictest sense. But having lived with them for some years and then going cold turkey becomes impractical to the point of impossible the next time you organise
105.
by bem94 8y ago
> Most people do not subscribe fully or exclusively to the ideals embedded in the smart-tech utopian vision, yet they’ll have no choice but to live by those ideals. All too true. The kinds of comment like "but they can just not use
106.
Nexpnr – a vendor neutral, timing driven, FOSS FPGA place and route tool(github.com)
1 points by bem94 8y ago|0 comments
107.
by bem94 8y ago
Do you think that humanity is well placed to be responsible wielders of quantum computing as a tool, and what do you feel your role (as a scientist with a large public following) is in shaping those future perceptions of responsibility?
108.
by bem94 8y ago
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess. I remember reading somewhere that the control room at the Chernobyl nuclear plant looked like someone had taken a grab bag of knobs and dials and thrown them at the wall. The report concluded th
109.
by bem94 8y ago
Ah, Thanks.
110.
by bem94 8y ago
Context: MIPS and Wave are owned (mostly) by the same VC firm, Tallwood. The head of Tallwood, Dado Bannato sits on the board / is the interim CEO of Wave and MIPS.
111.
ArsTechnica – This is what we learned about our science-reading audience(arstechnica.com)
3 points by bem94 8y ago|0 comments
112.
PicoEVB – Artix-7 FPGA board with M.2 interface(picoevb.com)
109 points by bem94 8y ago|34 comments
113.
by bem94 9y ago
Please excuse my brevity, I'm on a phone. I think you are right about the "coalition" between liberals and leftists. I've noticed it falling apart for a while but not really been able to describe it. Talking with friends
114.
by bem94 9y ago
This is an excellent expression of the kinds of conversations I want to be able to have with conservatives and liberals without being called one by the other. We need more nuanced discussions like this. I hope to have, hear and see more of
115.
by bem94 9y ago
Player piano by Kurt Vonnegut. Essential reading for anyone who forgets how powerful and often out of touch engineers are as a class of professionals.
116.
by bem94 9y ago
I think this is going to be one of the biggest challenges in the field of AI going forward. How do we make sure that as an extremely powerful tool, it gets used responsibly. Also, acknowledging that like all tools, AI will be misused or a
117.
by bem94 9y ago
In practice and in principle, this is horrifying. I don't trust the people buying these systems, and I especially don't trust the engineers building them. Nor do they give me any reason to trust them. Is this sort of thing what we
118.
by bem94 9y ago
The problem (in my understanding) is not with the specification of the x86 ISA, but with the implementation of the speculative execution micro-architecture and probably the memory sub-system as well. That is why Intel is so badly affected b
119.
by bem94 9y ago
It's sad that the author has felt the need to take this down after the HN induced whirlwind of comments. Some of the replies could have been a lot more constructive / supportive. For someone starting out with FP (myself included)
120.
Engineers, philosophers and sociologists release ethics design guidelines(theconversation.com)
1 points by bem94 9y ago|0 comments

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