Keith, Thanks for the heads up on this article. It's a very interesting read, and I'm looking forward to getting to read Watson's article now when that comes out. -Mike
On Fri, Jan 4, 2013 at 1:15 PM, Keith Lofstrom <kei...@gate.kl-ic.com>wrote: > > http://spectrum.ieee.org/podcast/computing/software/computers-its-time-to-start-over > > Interesting interview of Dr. Robert Watson of Cambridge ( and on > the board of the FreeBSD Foundation) about the rearchitecting of > computer hardware. To a chip designer, Dr. Watson's > prognostications seem like small steps in the right direction. > > The way things are headed, vast swaths of software is being > replaced with special purpose hardware. As the relative cost of > a logic gate plummets compared to the time and energy cost of an > instruction fetch, it is far more cost effective to add graphics > and radio and network-layer hardware to chips, even if most of > that hardware isn't ever used in a particular user device. > > For example, Intel's latest "single chip processor" for mobile > devices has 6 radios on it, even though a particular device may > use only one or two. On-chip radios are far cheaper than the > wires and board-space and power needed to connect to optimized > separate-chip radios. Will they become obsolete? You betcha. > But you will buy a new device for its new features sooner. > The main thing you should demand is the ability to securely > and freely transfer your data and capabilities to each new > device without hassle. Open platforms, open standards! > > In time, I expect software will balkanize into a lot of little > modules, running in separate hardware sandboxes, with interprocess > communication completely managed by hardware. Software kernels > as we know them may vanish. Bugs will remain in the design > process, corrected over time, and exploits will only endure > until next year's hardware release. > > Keith > > -- > Keith Lofstrom kei...@keithl.com Voice (503)-520-1993 > _______________________________________________ > PLUG mailing list > PLUG@lists.pdxlinux.org > http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug > -- *"...No ethically-trained software engineer would ever consent to write a DestroyBaghdad procedure. Basic professional ethics would instead require him to write a DestroyCity procedure, to which Baghdad could be given as a parameter."* -- Nathaniel Borenstein _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list PLUG@lists.pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug