Fuck that. You don't have anything to gain. Without competition you've got jack and shit. You wanting one monopoly over another is just showing your lack of understanding of economics. How Palm and WinCE got on your little list confounds me, Palm had a veritable monopoly on the handheld market due to the penetration of the Palm series organizers. WinCE has had a marginal share at best. Do you really think your end products are going to be cheaper because one company dominates the market rather than another? Corporations exist for the sole purpose of making a handful of people alot of money. If Intel ceased to exist AMD would pull the same strong arm tactics that Intel does right now. Most systems are comparable in price and performance anyways only gaining marginally over competitors for short times. Your whole argument is merely brand loyalty.
It isn't tough but it is time consuming. And gcc on some processors really blows. Take Linux on an Alpha for example. Using gcc programs run 20% slower than they do with the free compiler released by Compaq. The dude I was replying to wanted everything to be released as source with the end user having to compile everything. I'm not a big fan of compiling because I don't have the free time to sit for hours while my system compiles. Not only would you have to recompile 30 versions of Quake 3 but you would have to test and debug all those versions of it. Quake 3 also has alot of processor specific assembler to make it run a bit more efficently. You'd need more people coding for projects, ones that were gurus with a particular chip.
Wow really? You've got a Crusoe and used it extensivly in the lab to prove this to me? Oh...wait. Your link is to Transmeta's website. Shucks I almost got excited.
Where the fuck does this corporate hate come from? It's like people side with the underdog and are just itching to see the bigger company die. I don't want Intel to crash and burn, I own Intel stock, their success is my success. Not only my success but the success of many people's future. Being such a large company with a great deal of growth ability they end up in the portfolios of mutual funds, these funds pay for kids' college education or some guy's returement. Intel is also a multibillion dollar company, wherever they have one of their large factories they're providing someone with a job. Intel is just being a corporation that is out to make money. Asshole.
You moron. The kernel has to be changed for any processor in runs on. You can'y simply compile the Pentium kernel for a MIPS or PPC machine. Most if not all of the hardware controls and addressing need to be rewritten for each specific processor.
Software shmoftware, how about the sournd card and video card that even let you use realplayer? In order for you to switch to an Alpha you'd need to find an Alpha mobo that works just dandy with your existing hardware and then drivers to make it all work on said new architecture. Software is a bit trivial at this point, its getting the sound card in my Linux box working that bothers me.
Fuck. Beowulf clusters != true cluster. A Beowulf is a really really dumb cluster that has no real hardware relation, merely a software relation over network cables. With a Beowulf a controlling computer gives all the nodes an algorithm or function and then gives them some data to perform the algorithm or function on. They perform said task and send their results to the controlling computer. A true cluster runs programs as if it were an SMP box. The Crusoe is NOT I REPEAT NOT SMP capable. This means it will not be showing up in true clusters, only Beowulf style setups that use embarassingly parallel computations. You'd be hard pressed to get a machine to turn programs that have only one thread or process into a program that had multiple threads or processes. The computer has no aware knowlege of what you're trying to get at with a function. All it nows is what you tell it. If you're going to tell it how to make your code be ulti-threaded you might as well just do it yourself.
Why the fuck would I run OpenBSD on a virtual machine? The reason I'd run OpenBSD is because it's really secure due to lots of security audits. Who's to say the virtual machine you're talking about is the perfect software with no bugs. The point of having a kernel is to provide a layer of abstraction between the management of the hardware and the functions of an application. If developers had to write in hardware management code in order to write an office app or game you'd see almost no development houses around because that would be way too costly.
AFAIK you seem to have IDE confused with Intel memory architecture. Intel chipsets use DMA which lets all devices to talk directly to one another rather than through a bus controller and such. SGI's use a unified memory model which says the memory bus is the central point of the system rather than the processor. Intel's say the processor is the king of the motherboard. I can't recall any real bandwidth restrictions, just addressing resitrctions which severely limit the number of processors you can have sharing a single bus. If you really push MIPS systems you can get 128 chips all on the same memory bus.
When GCC is compiling, what exactly do you think it is compiling to? It isn't usually the bare metal, it is compiling to the ISA. And why the fuck would I want to recompile my software if I bought an upgraded CPU? Large programs with alot of linking take a while to compile even on fast processors which means I'd need to wait to actually do anything of important on my system. And then I'd have to compile all the programs I use. Do I really want to waste my time compiling everything (long live binary packaging!)? No I don't. The way to write directly to the metal of an Athlon is to write in Athlon assembler. Writing in assembler is fine and good and optimized if you're a good assembler programmer and the chip manufacturer doesn't change any of the chip components you're writing to. Do you realize how expensive it would be to write 30 different versions of Quake 3 or Office 2000 just to deal with a particular iteration of a processor?
When cosmic rays hit certain materials (metals especially) they cause a tiny nuclear fission which usually makes a charged alpha particle fly off. Alpha particles aren't too large but they can pack a wallop to very small electronics. The sort of electronics found in processors. If you have a very tight die with little space between components, there is a much large change of several of these being famboozled by a stray alpha particle. Wider dies mean if a single part of a circuit is taken out the unit as a whole can still work decently enough for your needs. Make yourself some effective radiaction screens and you can stick a brand new.13 micron processor inside and it will have a reasonable run aboard said spacecraft.
Ever play any games in the Quake series? They've got plenty of parts coded to the metal IIRC. There's one thing you're forgetting with the different architectures. Will my internal components be able to run? Sure my software can be compiled on x86, SPARC, or PPC but can I stick in my Soundblaster and have it work in said OS? Can I plug in my AGP video card and then stick in a driver CD and have it work all dandy? No I can't. Sure companies could write drivers for 20 different operating systems but why would they want to spend that sort of cash? If writing for different architectures meant different OSes they have to write OS specific drivers, or they can completely open their product specs which sort of defeats their patents which means there's no incentive to seel their product. The open sourced world is solcialistic in thinking that a money fairy is going to put clothes on their backs and heat their houses for them. You also need to remember that not all processors are equal, not everyone has the same operations. So if SoftwareA needs to use FunctionFoo and a SPARC or PPC doesn't have a FunctionFoo you're not going to have a very functional program.
DO you not understand that the 3DNow and MMX instructions are corrolated to hardware within the chip? To add MMX to the Pentium's Intel had to increase the size of the integer instruction unit. Telling your system not to include MMX would just shut down the MMX section of the IU. That is rather stupid. If you made a really simple RISC architecture with an emulation layer you'd get so much of a performance hit you'd be shooting yourself in the foot. Without any complex instruction units you're left with a Crusoe, and its already patented.
I have a Maytag Lazyfucker 3000, it has a TV on both the outside and inside to let you watch your sports and soap operas at all times, even whilst getting a snack.
I don't want anyone talking to my regidgerator. Why in the all holy fuck would I want to network into my microwave? I could possibly see my P3 turning into a toaster oven due to the heat it gives off but I'm not sure I'd make such a modification. I don't want a more expensive microwave due to a 1.4 meg EPROM and Pentium processor in it. Being able to turn on your microwave from the office is rather pointless unless you've got a Robotron 5000 personal robot assistant to put your leftovers in the microwave for you. You're raping the American dream you know.
Re:This is exceptionally cool
on
Linux BIOS
·
· Score: 2
And there are also people who run Windows/Intel machines that would find a winBIOS a good thing, especially people buying a new computer that have no idea what the BIOS is anyways.
Not all Linux users think they're l33t by competing with each other to see who can have the longest boot time. Since your mom pays your electricity bill I don't think you see how much power a computer sucks if left on all through the summer. It does add up after a while. A kernel and boot scripts in the BIOS make for some pretty keen terminals too.
I'm starting to get worried about console gaming in the future. I'm worried because it sounds like if you have a Sega console and Sony console they will fight to the death like Kirk and Spock for the Triskellions. I bought an N64 off eBay because it came with the one game I was really wanting to play, Legend of Zelda. Now that the semester is over and my finals have been taken it looks like I'm going to put a little more effort into rescuing princess Zelda. Why in the world would I buy an N64 when I have a PC that is capable of playing a plethora of games? I can only get Ocarina of Time on the N64. That my troll feeding friends is the reason video game consoles exist, they exist to play video games. If said consoles were phalic representations like big trucks and boats we would buy them merely to show people that we had the biggest and best equipment around. Who cares if the PS2 can churn out 18 million more triangles than the Dreamcast, I may really love playing Crazy Taxi (I spent an hour playing it at Gameworks today). I'll most likely end up buying a PS2 after exmas when the prices drop by 75$ so I'll be ready to play Final Fantasy 10 and 11. Final Fantasy 7 was pretty much the sole purpose of my PSX until I got Gran Tourismo. After I get a system I end up buying and renting lots of games for them because I enjoy playing them but there's nothing preventing me from owning more than one console. At this point I think it is a really good idea for Sega to license out the DC, they're now breaking even on console sales and are rolling out seganet which will makes them cash for each person who's using it. Breaking even on console sales means they can let someone else build hardware and they don't lose money. Now if these new hardware manufacturers get their customers hooked up to seganet, Sega makes money off of this and the hardware manufacturer saves money on their new product because it had almost zero development and deployment cost. They're merely putting different styled cases on Dreamcast. Saying that seganet takes off and gets some broadband support added to it, I can see seganet getting to be like a WebTV type setup. The Dreamcast has powerful enough hardware that it could turn into (through licensing and broadband support) a convergance device. Sony has leverage in the area already since they manufacture PCs, entertainment appliances and gaming consoles. Check through a magazine from about a year ago and you'll probably see an ad for the Sony home theater setup. If you combined a set-up like that with broadband internet and a gaming console you'd have an impressive line-up. This is exactly what Sony is doing in-house. Sega is trying to come up from behind and pull off the same thing but out of house. It's all about the games and the bottom line, I don't give a shit who's logo it is as long as I get to play some Crazy Tazi and Final Fantasy.
The DC and PS2 sell at a loss only in the very early stages of production while the companies are still paying off development and implimentation overhead (which ususally if the company is efficient with their outsourcing lasts about a year) with the rest of the life of the console being cake. Since the DC has been out long enough that they are going back into the black on it and moving towards higher profit margins due to licensing (as you pointed out) it makes sense for them to license. Every DC sold now is paying for itself with a little bit of profit but it hasn't saturated the market (I don't own one yet). Now if Phillips and Panasonic start churning out DC compatible DVD players or set-top web boxes they are selling a product with an entrenched production base so they have extremely low development costs and they have a new product to put in many people's living rooms. It's like back in the day when people bought PCs that said "IBM compatible". It's good for the makers of the chip and license owners because they get fees from the licensees but then the licensees push units out the department store's door because it has the licensed logo and software compatibility.
When I first heard about the Nuon I was impressed and hoped for the best for the dudes. Now you can hardly find any info on them. From's what I understood the Nuon was sort of like a graphical DSP which could perform a set number of functions and calculations and was ONLY a rendering chip. I just don't think the people behind Nuon got enough people interested in the thing.
Beowulf and NonStop Clusters are two VERY different clustering schemes. Beowulf is sort of like d.net where a controlling terminal sends problems to the nodes for them to figure out and return their result. A real cluster like the sort SCO has been building for a while lets you run programs on it like the cluster were just one large system. Google has a Beowulf-like architecture where a query is sent out to the cluster and they all sift through the various archives looking for your data like 4000 librarians.
Slashdot Mirror
Fuck that. You don't have anything to gain. Without competition you've got jack and shit. You wanting one monopoly over another is just showing your lack of understanding of economics. How Palm and WinCE got on your little list confounds me, Palm had a veritable monopoly on the handheld market due to the penetration of the Palm series organizers. WinCE has had a marginal share at best. Do you really think your end products are going to be cheaper because one company dominates the market rather than another? Corporations exist for the sole purpose of making a handful of people alot of money. If Intel ceased to exist AMD would pull the same strong arm tactics that Intel does right now. Most systems are comparable in price and performance anyways only gaining marginally over competitors for short times. Your whole argument is merely brand loyalty.
It isn't tough but it is time consuming. And gcc on some processors really blows. Take Linux on an Alpha for example. Using gcc programs run 20% slower than they do with the free compiler released by Compaq. The dude I was replying to wanted everything to be released as source with the end user having to compile everything. I'm not a big fan of compiling because I don't have the free time to sit for hours while my system compiles. Not only would you have to recompile 30 versions of Quake 3 but you would have to test and debug all those versions of it. Quake 3 also has alot of processor specific assembler to make it run a bit more efficently. You'd need more people coding for projects, ones that were gurus with a particular chip.
Man you're cool.
Wow really? You've got a Crusoe and used it extensivly in the lab to prove this to me? Oh...wait. Your link is to Transmeta's website. Shucks I almost got excited.
Where the fuck does this corporate hate come from? It's like people side with the underdog and are just itching to see the bigger company die. I don't want Intel to crash and burn, I own Intel stock, their success is my success. Not only my success but the success of many people's future. Being such a large company with a great deal of growth ability they end up in the portfolios of mutual funds, these funds pay for kids' college education or some guy's returement. Intel is also a multibillion dollar company, wherever they have one of their large factories they're providing someone with a job. Intel is just being a corporation that is out to make money. Asshole.
You moron. The kernel has to be changed for any processor in runs on. You can'y simply compile the Pentium kernel for a MIPS or PPC machine. Most if not all of the hardware controls and addressing need to be rewritten for each specific processor.
Software shmoftware, how about the sournd card and video card that even let you use realplayer? In order for you to switch to an Alpha you'd need to find an Alpha mobo that works just dandy with your existing hardware and then drivers to make it all work on said new architecture. Software is a bit trivial at this point, its getting the sound card in my Linux box working that bothers me.
Fuck. Beowulf clusters != true cluster. A Beowulf is a really really dumb cluster that has no real hardware relation, merely a software relation over network cables. With a Beowulf a controlling computer gives all the nodes an algorithm or function and then gives them some data to perform the algorithm or function on. They perform said task and send their results to the controlling computer. A true cluster runs programs as if it were an SMP box. The Crusoe is NOT I REPEAT NOT SMP capable. This means it will not be showing up in true clusters, only Beowulf style setups that use embarassingly parallel computations. You'd be hard pressed to get a machine to turn programs that have only one thread or process into a program that had multiple threads or processes. The computer has no aware knowlege of what you're trying to get at with a function. All it nows is what you tell it. If you're going to tell it how to make your code be ulti-threaded you might as well just do it yourself.
Why the fuck would I run OpenBSD on a virtual machine? The reason I'd run OpenBSD is because it's really secure due to lots of security audits. Who's to say the virtual machine you're talking about is the perfect software with no bugs. The point of having a kernel is to provide a layer of abstraction between the management of the hardware and the functions of an application. If developers had to write in hardware management code in order to write an office app or game you'd see almost no development houses around because that would be way too costly.
AFAIK you seem to have IDE confused with Intel memory architecture. Intel chipsets use DMA which lets all devices to talk directly to one another rather than through a bus controller and such. SGI's use a unified memory model which says the memory bus is the central point of the system rather than the processor. Intel's say the processor is the king of the motherboard. I can't recall any real bandwidth restrictions, just addressing resitrctions which severely limit the number of processors you can have sharing a single bus. If you really push MIPS systems you can get 128 chips all on the same memory bus.
When GCC is compiling, what exactly do you think it is compiling to? It isn't usually the bare metal, it is compiling to the ISA. And why the fuck would I want to recompile my software if I bought an upgraded CPU? Large programs with alot of linking take a while to compile even on fast processors which means I'd need to wait to actually do anything of important on my system. And then I'd have to compile all the programs I use. Do I really want to waste my time compiling everything (long live binary packaging!)? No I don't. The way to write directly to the metal of an Athlon is to write in Athlon assembler. Writing in assembler is fine and good and optimized if you're a good assembler programmer and the chip manufacturer doesn't change any of the chip components you're writing to. Do you realize how expensive it would be to write 30 different versions of Quake 3 or Office 2000 just to deal with a particular iteration of a processor?
When cosmic rays hit certain materials (metals especially) they cause a tiny nuclear fission which usually makes a charged alpha particle fly off. Alpha particles aren't too large but they can pack a wallop to very small electronics. The sort of electronics found in processors. If you have a very tight die with little space between components, there is a much large change of several of these being famboozled by a stray alpha particle. Wider dies mean if a single part of a circuit is taken out the unit as a whole can still work decently enough for your needs. Make yourself some effective radiaction screens and you can stick a brand new .13 micron processor inside and it will have a reasonable run aboard said spacecraft.
Ever play any games in the Quake series? They've got plenty of parts coded to the metal IIRC. There's one thing you're forgetting with the different architectures. Will my internal components be able to run? Sure my software can be compiled on x86, SPARC, or PPC but can I stick in my Soundblaster and have it work in said OS? Can I plug in my AGP video card and then stick in a driver CD and have it work all dandy? No I can't. Sure companies could write drivers for 20 different operating systems but why would they want to spend that sort of cash? If writing for different architectures meant different OSes they have to write OS specific drivers, or they can completely open their product specs which sort of defeats their patents which means there's no incentive to seel their product. The open sourced world is solcialistic in thinking that a money fairy is going to put clothes on their backs and heat their houses for them. You also need to remember that not all processors are equal, not everyone has the same operations. So if SoftwareA needs to use FunctionFoo and a SPARC or PPC doesn't have a FunctionFoo you're not going to have a very functional program.
DO you not understand that the 3DNow and MMX instructions are corrolated to hardware within the chip? To add MMX to the Pentium's Intel had to increase the size of the integer instruction unit. Telling your system not to include MMX would just shut down the MMX section of the IU. That is rather stupid. If you made a really simple RISC architecture with an emulation layer you'd get so much of a performance hit you'd be shooting yourself in the foot. Without any complex instruction units you're left with a Crusoe, and its already patented.
I have a Maytag Lazyfucker 3000, it has a TV on both the outside and inside to let you watch your sports and soap operas at all times, even whilst getting a snack.
I don't want anyone talking to my regidgerator. Why in the all holy fuck would I want to network into my microwave? I could possibly see my P3 turning into a toaster oven due to the heat it gives off but I'm not sure I'd make such a modification. I don't want a more expensive microwave due to a 1.4 meg EPROM and Pentium processor in it. Being able to turn on your microwave from the office is rather pointless unless you've got a Robotron 5000 personal robot assistant to put your leftovers in the microwave for you. You're raping the American dream you know.
And there are also people who run Windows/Intel machines that would find a winBIOS a good thing, especially people buying a new computer that have no idea what the BIOS is anyways.
Not all Linux users think they're l33t by competing with each other to see who can have the longest boot time. Since your mom pays your electricity bill I don't think you see how much power a computer sucks if left on all through the summer. It does add up after a while. A kernel and boot scripts in the BIOS make for some pretty keen terminals too.
I'm starting to get worried about console gaming in the future. I'm worried because it sounds like if you have a Sega console and Sony console they will fight to the death like Kirk and Spock for the Triskellions. I bought an N64 off eBay because it came with the one game I was really wanting to play, Legend of Zelda. Now that the semester is over and my finals have been taken it looks like I'm going to put a little more effort into rescuing princess Zelda. Why in the world would I buy an N64 when I have a PC that is capable of playing a plethora of games? I can only get Ocarina of Time on the N64. That my troll feeding friends is the reason video game consoles exist, they exist to play video games. If said consoles were phalic representations like big trucks and boats we would buy them merely to show people that we had the biggest and best equipment around. Who cares if the PS2 can churn out 18 million more triangles than the Dreamcast, I may really love playing Crazy Taxi (I spent an hour playing it at Gameworks today). I'll most likely end up buying a PS2 after exmas when the prices drop by 75$ so I'll be ready to play Final Fantasy 10 and 11. Final Fantasy 7 was pretty much the sole purpose of my PSX until I got Gran Tourismo. After I get a system I end up buying and renting lots of games for them because I enjoy playing them but there's nothing preventing me from owning more than one console.
At this point I think it is a really good idea for Sega to license out the DC, they're now breaking even on console sales and are rolling out seganet which will makes them cash for each person who's using it. Breaking even on console sales means they can let someone else build hardware and they don't lose money. Now if these new hardware manufacturers get their customers hooked up to seganet, Sega makes money off of this and the hardware manufacturer saves money on their new product because it had almost zero development and deployment cost. They're merely putting different styled cases on Dreamcast. Saying that seganet takes off and gets some broadband support added to it, I can see seganet getting to be like a WebTV type setup. The Dreamcast has powerful enough hardware that it could turn into (through licensing and broadband support) a convergance device. Sony has leverage in the area already since they manufacture PCs, entertainment appliances and gaming consoles. Check through a magazine from about a year ago and you'll probably see an ad for the Sony home theater setup. If you combined a set-up like that with broadband internet and a gaming console you'd have an impressive line-up. This is exactly what Sony is doing in-house. Sega is trying to come up from behind and pull off the same thing but out of house. It's all about the games and the bottom line, I don't give a shit who's logo it is as long as I get to play some Crazy Tazi and Final Fantasy.
There is no company that makes a series of computers called PCs, the PC is a class of computers. Macs are as much PCs as Gateways or IBMs.
The DC and PS2 sell at a loss only in the very early stages of production while the companies are still paying off development and implimentation overhead (which ususally if the company is efficient with their outsourcing lasts about a year) with the rest of the life of the console being cake. Since the DC has been out long enough that they are going back into the black on it and moving towards higher profit margins due to licensing (as you pointed out) it makes sense for them to license. Every DC sold now is paying for itself with a little bit of profit but it hasn't saturated the market (I don't own one yet). Now if Phillips and Panasonic start churning out DC compatible DVD players or set-top web boxes they are selling a product with an entrenched production base so they have extremely low development costs and they have a new product to put in many people's living rooms. It's like back in the day when people bought PCs that said "IBM compatible". It's good for the makers of the chip and license owners because they get fees from the licensees but then the licensees push units out the department store's door because it has the licensed logo and software compatibility.
And a backpack full of potatos to power it!
When I first heard about the Nuon I was impressed and hoped for the best for the dudes. Now you can hardly find any info on them. From's what I understood the Nuon was sort of like a graphical DSP which could perform a set number of functions and calculations and was ONLY a rendering chip. I just don't think the people behind Nuon got enough people interested in the thing.
A better question to ask is do we really need more than one Linux distrobution.
Beowulf and NonStop Clusters are two VERY different clustering schemes. Beowulf is sort of like d.net where a controlling terminal sends problems to the nodes for them to figure out and return their result. A real cluster like the sort SCO has been building for a while lets you run programs on it like the cluster were just one large system. Google has a Beowulf-like architecture where a query is sent out to the cluster and they all sift through the various archives looking for your data like 4000 librarians.