The Future of the x86 Processor
ArsTechnica has produced a technical, but highly informed and unique take on the question of x86 processor redundancy. How long will the world’s most popular processor last, and when will it reach performance limits? Hannibal argues that the question itself is misguided, as modern hardware paradigms revolve around low level programs called Instruction Set Architectures (ISAs).
…the launch of the microcoded IBM System/360 ushered in the era of modern computer architecture, where the information that the programmer needed to know to program the machine was abstracted from the actual implementation of that machine. Once the design and specification of the instruction set, or the set of instructions available to a programmer for writing programs, was separated from the nitty gritty details of a particular machine’s design it meant that that programs written for a particular ISA could now run on any machine that implemented that ISA.
I told you it was technical. You will have to think a bit more than usual with this one, but if you have an interest in where computers are headed it is a very helpful article.
ArsTechnica
posted by monty · at 4:35 am · filed under News