> On May 18, 2026, at 16:49, Aleksandar Kuktin <[email protected]> wrote: > >> On Mon, 18 May 2026 21:29:16 +0900 >> [email protected] wrote: >> If we reach that point, what meaningful agency would remain for the >> user in operating a computer, and would that level of constrained >> control still justify calling it a general-purpose system? > > Formally speaking, that point has been crossed in an absolute sense > sometime around 1990, with the introduction of SMM in 386 and 486 CPUs. > Since the rise of ARM as a major computing platform (ARM always > includes some sort of a "trusted" execution environment), coupled with > IME and it's twin on AMD chips, the point has basically been crossed in > all meaningful ways.
Maybe some risc-v chips will turn out to be simpler. At least some of the IP is free, and there could be a proliferation of very different implementations over time. The definition of a “microcontroller” keeps expanding, there are always plenty of those to choose from, and they are more likely to be without hidden processors. > What's to be done? Well, excepting use of ancient 386 CPUs or building > general-purpose computers with overgrown Z80's, we do have these things > called FPGA chips. Some of them are monsters that have as many logic > gates as the early SoC's from 2010's and can push those gates at or > over 1GHz. There are also more modest FPGAs, and among these you can > find quite a few models that can be used to build a FOSH computer. Yeah I wanted to get started with those, but mostly to try making an open-architecture 2D-optimized GPU. I didn’t get around to it so far. > Until foundry access becomes democratized, It seems likely, eventually. At least there is https://tinytapeout.com/ but that’s only for “tiny” designs so far. ------------------------------------------ 9fans: 9fans Permalink: https://9fans.topicbox.com/groups/9fans/T073a994fa2fd80d1-Mf0e539ce5832699bfdf0ea52 Delivery options: https://9fans.topicbox.com/groups/9fans/subscription
