I had a ZX81 with a 16k RAM pack and a "proper" keyboard. I also had a multi-tasking FORTH ROM (8k) which was mounted on a daughter board with the BASIC ROM so you could switch between them (with a power off). The FORTH was a native Z80 compiler (not interpreter) and it had user-definable "screens", sort of primitive windows, that programs could output to and update independently. It had a screen editor. It was made by a company called Skywave Software, based in Bournemouthm England IIRC. The multi-tasking was real-time, down to a resolution of 0.02 seconds (the timer ticked at 50Hz). Jobs could be scheduled to start at any time etc. It was such cool fun.
Well, I used to own one, and I've Wankeled all over Great Britain, from the South of England to the North of Scotland. You wouldn't believe some of the obscure highland roads I've wankeled on!
That makes me wonder what they could do with a 4-way server and lots of graphics hardware these days. Anyway, it's like everything else I suppose, commoditisation at the expense of research and development at the cutting edge.
A Pee Cee with NVidia graphics hardware. What's so special about that? How does it compare with current arcade machines? I haven't set foot in an arcade in nearly 10 years.
Anyhow, once the world moves to.net clr, it won't matter if it's Windows.NET on a P4, rotor with OpenBSD on a Sparc III Ultra, mono/linux on a 486, or OSX/.NET on a PPC. right?:) *sigh* You're young aren't you?
Yes, they said that ages ago, but that's the point: they still haven't done anything about it. They're still piddling about going back and forth into Low Earth Orbit and otherwise resting on their laurels. While the American's sit back and bask in their former glory, the Chinese might just quietly work away and one day surprise us all with an manned moon mission closely followed by one to Mars. I'm glad someone has the guts to explore.
Not to flame, but "Unix" is an API, ABI and set of conformant utilities and libraries. To ask "what high-end UNIX features are missing from Linux" is missing the point somewhat, since these features are necessarily non-standard, and therefore "not Unix".
Of course, the immediate obvious answer is support for all the NUMA, ccNUMA and COMA hardware out there (which is specific to each machine let alone vendor), things like domaining, partitioning, hot-swappabe CPUs (again specific to each individual machine). Pehaps a better question might be, "How could the Unix standards be extended to encompass these developments, and how could the Linux kernel implement them (or provide an infrastructure)" Just my £0.02 worth.
I meant "number-crunching" in its most basic sense, i.e. just going through possible solutions testing them one at a time. Your idea sounds good. I wish I was as clever as you. I figured (naievely many years ago) that I could "solve" chess in a similar way. The doctor gave me pills.
Compared to the Riemann Hypothesis, it looks like your 4 Colour Conjecture is mathematically very trivial in that it could be proved by number-crunching. I reiterate when I say that where there are possibly an infinite number of soultions, merely numbercrunching will not give you a positive proof.
You can't find a proof simply by number-crunching. Looking for SETI is a better use of processor cycles, until someone writes a program that can do abstract mathematics with the insight and ingenuity of a human being or better.
What rocket it this that the UK is developing? They must be keeping it pretty quiet! Who's building it? I thought we were involved with ESA. I didn't realise we had our own programme too.
Well, you could look here to find out about Fresco.
In short, in Fresco, everything is a vector, compared with X in whihc everything is a bitmap. Instantly everything becomes scalable i.e. resolution independent. It uses CORBA for communication, so it's network transparent, like X, from the word go. It is modular and Object Oriented, similar to X. It is designed to use OpenGL for rendering. X uses 2D acceleration. Yes, X allows you to do 3D, but X itself is 2D. Fresco is a much cleaner and more modern design than X. That's not to say X is a poor design, but it is nearly 20 years old and it is testament to its designers that it's lasted this long and has been extended this much.
Maybe you should read this for some hints as to what might be in store for UltraSPARC in the future. Suddenly it doesn't look as bleak as the nay-sayers would have us believe.
There already is 64-bit hardware out there like MIPS, UltraSPARC, PA-RISC, Alpha etc. and a lot of Open Source and Free Software has been written to compile cleanly on these architectures and in some cases to take advantage of the larger pointers, and hence memory addressable. It's been happening for over 10 years now. There is a lot of Free 64-bit capable software out there already.
From what a little bird has told me, rumours of Yamhill's demise have been greatly exagerated to keep HP happy since its strategy is itanium. But that's just what a little bird told me, not gospel.
Slashdot Mirror
I had a ZX81 with a 16k RAM pack and a "proper" keyboard. I also had a multi-tasking FORTH ROM (8k) which was mounted on a daughter board with the BASIC ROM so you could switch between them (with a power off). The FORTH was a native Z80 compiler (not interpreter) and it had user-definable "screens", sort of primitive windows, that programs could output to and update independently. It had a screen editor. It was made by a company called Skywave Software, based in Bournemouthm England IIRC. The multi-tasking was real-time, down to a resolution of 0.02 seconds (the timer ticked at 50Hz). Jobs could be scheduled to start at any time etc. It was such cool fun.
Sounds like someone needs a relaxing break at the pyjama farm. Quick, call the doctor!
Well, I used to own one, and I've Wankeled all over Great Britain, from the South of England to the North of Scotland. You wouldn't believe some of the obscure highland roads I've wankeled on!
Unless you're cold, or a gangsta! Booyakasha! :-)
That makes me wonder what they could do with a 4-way server and lots of graphics hardware these days. Anyway, it's like everything else I suppose, commoditisation at the expense of research and development at the cutting edge.
A Pee Cee with NVidia graphics hardware. What's so special about that? How does it compare with current arcade machines? I haven't set foot in an arcade in nearly 10 years.
Anyhow, once the world moves to .net clr, it won't matter if it's Windows.NET on a P4, rotor with OpenBSD on a Sparc III Ultra, mono/linux on a 486, or OSX/.NET on a PPC. right? :)
*sigh* You're young aren't you?
Yes, they said that ages ago, but that's the point: they still haven't done anything about it. They're still piddling about going back and forth into Low Earth Orbit and otherwise resting on their laurels. While the American's sit back and bask in their former glory, the Chinese might just quietly work away and one day surprise us all with an manned moon mission closely followed by one to Mars. I'm glad someone has the guts to explore.
When may I leave the temple?
Sorry, I was drunk when I typed ABI. I didn't mean to. It just slipped out.
Not to flame, but "Unix" is an API, ABI and set of conformant utilities and libraries. To ask "what high-end UNIX features are missing from Linux" is missing the point somewhat, since these features are necessarily non-standard, and therefore "not Unix". Of course, the immediate obvious answer is support for all the NUMA, ccNUMA and COMA hardware out there (which is specific to each machine let alone vendor), things like domaining, partitioning, hot-swappabe CPUs (again specific to each individual machine). Pehaps a better question might be, "How could the Unix standards be extended to encompass these developments, and how could the Linux kernel implement them (or provide an infrastructure)"
Just my £0.02 worth.
I meant "number-crunching" in its most basic sense, i.e. just going through possible solutions testing them one at a time. Your idea sounds good. I wish I was as clever as you. I figured (naievely many years ago) that I could "solve" chess in a similar way. The doctor gave me pills.
Compared to the Riemann Hypothesis, it looks like your 4 Colour Conjecture is mathematically very trivial in that it could be proved by number-crunching. I reiterate when I say that where there are possibly an infinite number of soultions, merely numbercrunching will not give you a positive proof.
You can't find a proof simply by number-crunching. Looking for SETI is a better use of processor cycles, until someone writes a program that can do abstract mathematics with the insight and ingenuity of a human being or better.
What rocket it this that the UK is developing? They must be keeping it pretty quiet! Who's building it? I thought we were involved with ESA. I didn't realise we had our own programme too.
Well, you could look here to find out about Fresco.
In short, in Fresco, everything is a vector, compared with X in whihc everything is a bitmap. Instantly everything becomes scalable i.e. resolution independent. It uses CORBA for communication, so it's network transparent, like X, from the word go. It is modular and Object Oriented, similar to X. It is designed to use OpenGL for rendering. X uses 2D acceleration. Yes, X allows you to do 3D, but X itself is 2D. Fresco is a much cleaner and more modern design than X. That's not to say X is a poor design, but it is nearly 20 years old and it is testament to its designers that it's lasted this long and has been extended this much.
Can you explain what it means? It looks like "The French are of the monkies of something who eat cheese".
Ah, so I'm overrated, and not flamebait? The book-burners have moderator points!
But in the limiting case, Einstein's theory reduces to Newton's, thus validating Newton's Classical approach.
Too true.
Maybe you should read this for some hints as to what might be in store for UltraSPARC in the future. Suddenly it doesn't look as bleak as the nay-sayers would have us believe.
Waaaa! Stop it! You're disappearing up your own rear! I can't handle it!
How is this Flamebait? Simply because it is contrary to your personal religious beliefs? Get a grip.
There already is 64-bit hardware out there like MIPS, UltraSPARC, PA-RISC, Alpha etc. and a lot of Open Source and Free Software has been written to compile cleanly on these architectures and in some cases to take advantage of the larger pointers, and hence memory addressable. It's been happening for over 10 years now. There is a lot of Free 64-bit capable software out there already.
From what a little bird has told me, rumours of Yamhill's demise have been greatly exagerated to keep HP happy since its strategy is itanium. But that's just what a little bird told me, not gospel.