Is that the case with Rust too?Auto vectorization not as much.
Yeah. Rust hasn't been around long enough for the tool chain evolve to the level of GCC/LLVM.Is that the case with Rust too?
The VAX had an instruction for just about everything you wanted to do in assembler: enough registers, a nice variety of looping controls, a reasonably regular instruction set so that you didn't have to remember a manual's worth of exceptions and special cases, and some genuinely goofy instructions for fun (such as INSQUE and REMQUE for queues, and POLY for polynomial evaluation).Help us understand why DEC VAX assembly was fun and why x86 assembly is depressing. We (or even just I) would like to feel the despair without actually touching the turdy code
Oh that seems to be a funny contest to have!(The team I worked with once had a contest to see how many ways we could invent to zero a register in a single instruction. I think we got up into the 50's, and even today when I haven't been near a DEC-10 for about 40 years, I can still think of at least 15 easily.)
Not a chance.Major off-topic post
^^^ Reminds me that I used to have a DOS programming reference tome that listed the various functions of DOS that application programmers could use. It was totally gibberish to me coz I was just a teenager and didn't even know C at the time. I remember vaguely that calling any function caused the values of one or two or maybe more registers to change and the programmer was supposed to check the register values to decide if the function executed successfully or whatever. Seemed like a real headache.
So the barrier of entry was high when creating applications, utilities and games and only the really determined souls with super sharp minds attempted writing them. That's why I guess I enjoyed using software in that era because the software was pretty polished and DOS didn't crash as much as Win3.1 and the later Windows did until Windows 2000. Computers were pretty silent too and the loudest thing you could hear was seek noise from the HDD in the dead of night. You could have days and weeks of fun with a limited library of games and other entertainment applications. Now there's just too much out there that deciding what to spend time on becomes a waste of time itself. And to think that we got to this point because Gary Kildall didn't give an F about IBM!
In an alternate reality, there is no x86 ISA. The world runs on Motorola processors, Steve Jobs is still alive, Bill Gates is WORKING for Steve Jobs, everyone affectionately calls their computer Lisa, there is no game called Doom, the fps that started it all is called Marathon and made by Bungie, everyone has a Nokia phone, Java is the dominant language used for phone apps, Blackberry tried to take over the world and failed because Canadians are so peaceful that they don't understand the Art of War, Japanese only use NEC computers, PS5 uses the third generation Cell processor, Xbox does not exist, Nintendo consoles are only played by preteens and younger kids, SEGA is the No.2 console maker and played by everyone that can't afford the PS5, Russians and Chinese use Atari computers with BASIC language coz computer scientists in Western universities caught Russian/Chinese students trying to hack university computers so they got the West to ban export of anything more powerful than an Atari for national security reasons, PowerVR is the dominant GPU company, reverse hyperthreading actually works coz Intel is a memory company so they never bought Soft Machines, John Carmack developed his World Engine that is used to create the Matrix, all psychopaths are identified via psychiatric evaluation and plugged into the Matrix where they only harm each other and the world has never been more peaceful.
DAMN YOU, GARY KILDALL FOR EFFING UP THE ENTIRE WORLD!!!!
An older C&C article about ARM vs x86Recent C&C article that argues that the CISC vs RISC debate needs to die.
Not a chance.
Once upon a time DEC Alpha was kicking 🍑 and taking names.
In fact it actually pioneered many of the fundamental µArch features of CPUs we have come to take for granted today.
Without x86 as competition they could have absolutely taken over the market.
It's not even a question in my mind whether that could have happened.
Intel could still have made it in the Android market if they had a worthy low power SoC. And even if the iPhone x86 had been a success, Apple would still have kicked it to the curb sooner or later with their inhouse SoC. They want to be as much in control of their ecosystem as possible. Absolute control freaks which keeps them from becoming the dominant player in the world of personal computing. Even now, if they were to let existing ARM players license their M1 SoC for use in their own devices with any OS of their choice and keep M2, M3 and all future Mx series to themselves, they could cause quite a dent in the personal computing landscape in terms of efficiency and performance. But they would rather hoard all the advantage for themselves than be a power of good.x86/Intel would have dominated if Intel took that iPhone contract.
Their is no need. Snapdragon X Elite is coming.Even now, if they were to let existing ARM players license their M1 SoC for use in their own devices with any OS of their choice and keep M2, M3 and all future Mx series to themselves, they could cause quite a dent in the personal computing landscape in terms of efficiency and performance.
But it's the same problem. They won't license their core out (even a nerfed version) to other players to cause a significant performance shift in the general computing experience of the masses. I don't have much hope for WoA until AMD enters the foray.Snapdragon X Elite is coming.
How about ARM Cortex X5 (BlackHawk) + Nvidia?But it's the same problem. They won't license their core out (even a nerfed version) to other players to cause a significant performance shift in the general computing experience of the masses. I don't have much hope for WoA until AMD enters the foray.
Don't have much hope of that company enabling worldwide happiness.How about ARM Cortex X5 (BlackHawk) + Nvidia?
I mean that’s no different than AMD and Intel being hoarding the x86 licence from others like Nvidia, Qualcomm, MediaTek and Apple.Intel could still have made it in the Android market if they had a worthy low power SoC. And even if the iPhone x86 had been a success, Apple would still have kicked it to the curb sooner or later with their inhouse SoC. They want to be as much in control of their ecosystem as possible. Absolute control freaks which keeps them from becoming the dominant player in the world of personal computing. Even now, if they were to let existing ARM players license their M1 SoC for use in their own devices with any OS of their choice and keep M2, M3 and all future Mx series to themselves, they could cause quite a dent in the personal computing landscape in terms of efficiency and performance. But they would rather hoard all the advantage for themselves than be a power of good.
It's mainly Intel who won't allow that. AMD has no say in the matter since they don't own x86. Maybe they'll show they've gotten tired of Intel's ISA extension games by giving the world their own RISC-V CPU design.Intel/AMD don’t want to do that because once they share their x86 license the duopoly shatters.
Maybe not RISC-V for now cause software is not ready yet. I do want to see if AMD has arm chip next year.Maybe they'll show they've gotten tired of Intel's ISA extension games by giving the world their own RISC-V CPU design.
As far as I am aware ARM have pretty much always been able to keep ahead of Atom in terms of raw IPC, perf and perf/watt.x86/Intel would have dominated if Intel took that iPhone contract. Also Atom would not be bad. Intel would have been the leader in performance per watt.
That’s a very pretty and sad reality in an alternate universe
From what I understand Apple wanted Intel to build an ARM SOC using Intel's Xscale division. Intel later sold that off to Marvell.x86/Intel would have dominated if Intel took that iPhone contract. Also Atom would not be bad. Intel would have been the leader in performance per watt.
That’s a very pretty and sad reality in an alternate universe
Lol, ironically Xscale being the former StrongARM division of DEC.From what I understand Apple wanted Intel to build an ARM SOC using Intel's Xscale division. Intel later sold that off to Marvell.