Nitpick: while a void function returns nothing, 'void' actually means something closer to 'the absence of type.' You're correct about NULL.. but in C at least, NULL and void mean very different things. Sometimes you want to determine the type of structure you're dealing with at run time. Very often when this is the case your only choice is to cast a void* pointer--meaning a pointer to some object to which I make no claims about its type. A function returning void will not push any data onto the stack before it jumps back.
Having done a fair mount of assembler, you are technically correct.. but to say that writing software is 100% math seems analogous to saying that the complete works of Shakespeare is 100% words. It's technically true, but it leaves out the intangible creative element.
I disagree with this; I like to see the whole function in one screen. Code that adds two extra lines for every if/else block tends to take up too much screen space, and I have to start scrolling up and down while I'm reading/comprehending the function. I'm a proponent of 'if() {' and '} else {' for precisely that reason.. I indent properly, so the indentation lets me know when I enter a block (just like python). I have never had a problem reading code this way and I don't know of anyone personally who has had a problem with this.
I always thought the Web was lots of computers all networked together:HTML clients and HTML servers.
Fixed that for you. Kinda breaks your idea about what 'web' meant when you add accuracy, eh?
Fixed that for you. Here's a hint: not every comment someone posts is an 'argument,' and certainly not fodder for you feel better about yourself. Get out much?
A 64 bit processor with n registers can move twice as much data per clock cycle through the registers as a 32 bit processor with n registers. This is effectively a 2x speedup for many tasks.
Now you can of course add 2x registers to a 32 bit chip (thereby modifying the ISA), but since instructions generally can't load/store data on more than one register in one instruction, you wouldn't see the same benefit by doing that.
"Right, but many Southern Baptists (the "core" of the religious social-conservative bloc in the US) think that the King James Version of the bible is divinely inspired, and that the English in it is actually more correct than the original Hebrew/Greek/Aramaic."
To support a CPU is not enough. ARM cpu cores will typically connect to an AMBA bus (like hypertransport), but these SoCs will usually have the entire bus internal. You'll have a whole set of peripherals which need to be programmed all over again with little or no code reuse from existing projects. You need to understand how these peripherals interact with the boot rom and CPU in order just to load a bootloader onto it. If you have perfect documentation, you'll still probably need at least a decent oscilloscope or logic analyzer to get a heartbeat out of it. Talk to any firmware or digital design engineer about 'board bring up' on an unproven cpu platform, and you'll likely hear quite a few nasty anecdotes.
All this can be done, but it would save everyone a lot of time if nvidia supports Linux with a real board support package.
Exactly why is GPS better than triangulation with cell towers? In practice, I've been able to pinpoint my location on the map everywhere except back country roads where cell phone service sucks. Is that what you're looking for?
GPS is not without its flaws as well; the rest of the world outside of the US is trying to get away from it because it's managed and controlled by the US military and they can screw with any device they want to at any time. So the EU is trying to build up its own standard. A lot of GPS implementations end up requiring motion in order to function properly.
What you said doesn't contradict what I said at all. You can definitely achieve much better performance by not scattering your writes; sequential access is very fast. For random writes, you're going to have to seriously buffer to avoid wasting erase cycles.
Fortunately, the same algorithm that avoids erase cycles for performance is also the same algorithm that does wear leveling.
I don't know too much about ZFS or how copy-on-write would help except on a purely abstract level.
No, SSD's have always shined at random *reads*. Small random writes have traditionally been where they're very weak; you might manage 160MB/s writing large chunks, but if you're droping 16k blocks all over the place (as, e.g, databases are apt to do) you'll be lucky to manage 1MB/s because of the overhead each write incurrs, certainly on cheaper drives aimed at portable use.
Hence, it's a perfectly reasonable question; depending on how they've implemented it, they could be anywhere from 20-20,000 random writes/sec. To expound, NAND flash chips are broken up into 128KB 'blocks' which in turn comprise 64 2KB 'pages.' You can read any page you want on the entire chip in the same amount of time (no moving parts), but to *write* any particular page, you need to perform an erase on the *entire* block. Let me repeat, to write one page to NAND flash (2 KB), you have to erase a 128 KB block. The reset operation will transition all bits on that block to a 1, and you have to go back and tell it which bits to set to zero.
Well, your operating system can either schedule all those other background tasks that run when the time slice granted to the game's threads are up, or it can stop them mid flight. It doesn't matter too much. Plus, the game may have other threads running which are not blocked on the synchronization.
Run time dynamic "type checking" versus a user mode to kernel mode context switch...I think there are probably ways to speed graphics up without ripping out the MMU and designing a new language to write the operating system in. You could, for example, use a soft real time scheduler, and guarantee that the process writing to mmio()'ed video memory be executed before refresh with enough time to actually write out. If your scheduling is good enough you can do away with the context switch altogether and just rely on a futex that the graphics driver in user space shares with the kernel code. Triple or more buffering can ensure that occasional hiccups in scheduling don't cause tears.
The laws aren't works of fiction. Many Jews have lived under them for many, many years. Christians got a Get Out of Jail Free card, and Muslims got a whole new set of them, because some idiot fat fingered the transcription and now the original ones are lost.
Now ten commandments being inscribed miraculously on the mountain top? Ok, that takes faith. But I'd still say that the laws are pretty relevant.
Two sides of a coin. I've seen religion "convert" ordinary, self centered people into doing things that are wonderful, helpful to society. Religion has driven some people to go to war, persecute people with AIDS, etc., and others to build hospitals, raise money to fight AIDS, etc. For you to be so blind to the good side shows such a strong bias that I would go so far as to call it dogmatic.
Because if you get over your dogmatic way of analyzing events by forcing them into your own belief structure, you begin to realize that often times people with "opposing" viewpoints can bring up an idea or concept that you really hadn't thought of before.
Religion isn't doing squat to harm anyone. People use religion to justify all sorts of wrongdoing, but one can hardly blame Marxism or atheism for China's actions in Tibet.
Slashdot Mirror
Nitpick: while a void function returns nothing, 'void' actually means something closer to 'the absence of type.' You're correct about NULL.. but in C at least, NULL and void mean very different things. Sometimes you want to determine the type of structure you're dealing with at run time. Very often when this is the case your only choice is to cast a void* pointer--meaning a pointer to some object to which I make no claims about its type. A function returning void will not push any data onto the stack before it jumps back.
Having done a fair mount of assembler, you are technically correct.. but to say that writing software is 100% math seems analogous to saying that the complete works of Shakespeare is 100% words. It's technically true, but it leaves out the intangible creative element.
I disagree with this; I like to see the whole function in one screen. Code that adds two extra lines for every if/else block tends to take up too much screen space, and I have to start scrolling up and down while I'm reading/comprehending the function. I'm a proponent of 'if() {' and '} else {' for precisely that reason.. I indent properly, so the indentation lets me know when I enter a block (just like python). I have never had a problem reading code this way and I don't know of anyone personally who has had a problem with this.
Tell me *you're* not a twitter clone...
I always thought the Web was lots of computers all networked together: HTML clients and HTML servers.
Fixed that for you. Kinda breaks your idea about what 'web' meant when you add accuracy, eh?
Fixed that for you. Here's a hint: not every comment someone posts is an 'argument,' and certainly not fodder for you feel better about yourself. Get out much?
A 64 bit processor with n registers can move twice as much data per clock cycle through the registers as a 32 bit processor with n registers. This is effectively a 2x speedup for many tasks.
Now you can of course add 2x registers to a 32 bit chip (thereby modifying the ISA), but since instructions generally can't load/store data on more than one register in one instruction, you wouldn't see the same benefit by doing that.
I want the Operating System I married 5-7 years ago!
This is great news, but I'm really surprised given how the Dems have been crying foul for the last 8 years on packing the Supreme Court.
Clueless that they rushed to fork it...not ready were they, for the burden.
"Right, but many Southern Baptists (the "core" of the religious social-conservative bloc in the US) think that the King James Version of the bible is divinely inspired, and that the English in it is actually more correct than the original Hebrew/Greek/Aramaic."
Do they really? Source, please.
To support a CPU is not enough. ARM cpu cores will typically connect to an AMBA bus (like hypertransport), but these SoCs will usually have the entire bus internal. You'll have a whole set of peripherals which need to be programmed all over again with little or no code reuse from existing projects. You need to understand how these peripherals interact with the boot rom and CPU in order just to load a bootloader onto it. If you have perfect documentation, you'll still probably need at least a decent oscilloscope or logic analyzer to get a heartbeat out of it. Talk to any firmware or digital design engineer about 'board bring up' on an unproven cpu platform, and you'll likely hear quite a few nasty anecdotes.
All this can be done, but it would save everyone a lot of time if nvidia supports Linux with a real board support package.
Exactly why is GPS better than triangulation with cell towers? In practice, I've been able to pinpoint my location on the map everywhere except back country roads where cell phone service sucks. Is that what you're looking for?
GPS is not without its flaws as well; the rest of the world outside of the US is trying to get away from it because it's managed and controlled by the US military and they can screw with any device they want to at any time. So the EU is trying to build up its own standard. A lot of GPS implementations end up requiring motion in order to function properly.
What you said doesn't contradict what I said at all. You can definitely achieve much better performance by not scattering your writes; sequential access is very fast. For random writes, you're going to have to seriously buffer to avoid wasting erase cycles. Fortunately, the same algorithm that avoids erase cycles for performance is also the same algorithm that does wear leveling. I don't know too much about ZFS or how copy-on-write would help except on a purely abstract level.
Well, your operating system can either schedule all those other background tasks that run when the time slice granted to the game's threads are up, or it can stop them mid flight. It doesn't matter too much. Plus, the game may have other threads running which are not blocked on the synchronization.
Not really...normally, your process goes to sleep during this time. Your CPU spends its cycles doing other things.
Run time dynamic "type checking" versus a user mode to kernel mode context switch...I think there are probably ways to speed graphics up without ripping out the MMU and designing a new language to write the operating system in. You could, for example, use a soft real time scheduler, and guarantee that the process writing to mmio()'ed video memory be executed before refresh with enough time to actually write out. If your scheduling is good enough you can do away with the context switch altogether and just rely on a futex that the graphics driver in user space shares with the kernel code. Triple or more buffering can ensure that occasional hiccups in scheduling don't cause tears.
You reject our generous offer? Very well, we will mobilize our armies for WAR. You will pay for your foolish pride!
He did. It's just that the link got slashdotted.
The laws aren't works of fiction. Many Jews have lived under them for many, many years. Christians got a Get Out of Jail Free card, and Muslims got a whole new set of them, because some idiot fat fingered the transcription and now the original ones are lost.
Now ten commandments being inscribed miraculously on the mountain top? Ok, that takes faith. But I'd still say that the laws are pretty relevant.
Two sides of a coin. I've seen religion "convert" ordinary, self centered people into doing things that are wonderful, helpful to society. Religion has driven some people to go to war, persecute people with AIDS, etc., and others to build hospitals, raise money to fight AIDS, etc. For you to be so blind to the good side shows such a strong bias that I would go so far as to call it dogmatic.
Because if you get over your dogmatic way of analyzing events by forcing them into your own belief structure, you begin to realize that often times people with "opposing" viewpoints can bring up an idea or concept that you really hadn't thought of before.
Religion isn't doing squat to harm anyone. People use religion to justify all sorts of wrongdoing, but one can hardly blame Marxism or atheism for China's actions in Tibet.
The AC had copied and pasted a cookie cutter troll. FYI.
That was the best political post I've read in Slashdot in a long time.