asciilifeform: ( if mircea_popescu meant a chip-that-checks-bounds. which existed at various points, e.g. symbolics lineup supported ada natively just as well as lisps . )
asciilifeform: ( other than by baking into fpga. which 1) introduces the 'which fpga, again' problem 2) if you have fpga, big enough for sparc, you can make up a SANE arch to go in it
asciilifeform: i mention sparc as a historic item, it is afaik no longer possible to source it.
asciilifeform: and yes it's ridiculous . but they forced themselves into it by having the window thing at all, is the idea.
asciilifeform: the thing being indexed, gets populated ( or not ) exactly like, e.g., ipv4, or the holes in your pci bus, etc
asciilifeform: the index into these is a register. having some immutable width.
asciilifeform: physical objects all contain immutable 'magic numbers'.
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: you can't have infinitely elastic registers. there's N bits , physically.
asciilifeform not aficionado of sparc specifically. it's a complexityhog.
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: it was a pretty ordinary thing in '80s
asciilifeform: ( largely because they historically were able to externalize the cost. )
asciilifeform: it apparently is a surprise to some people.
asciilifeform: one other gotcha: complexity has a cost.
asciilifeform: ( it can lower thermal output, so still makes sense sometimes to have empty. )
asciilifeform: ditto for a die made with particular process -- empty space doesn't get your money back
asciilifeform: correct. but the answers to these depend SEVERELY on the substrate. for instance, if your thing lives in a fpga, not filling it up doesn't make it cycle any faster. so you want to actually use the available gates, if they can be used productively
asciilifeform: ( or, on the extreme end of things, not having arithmetic other than add-one. as scheme chip did. )
asciilifeform: summary : asciilifeform is looking for a 1) 32 ( or greater ) bitness cpu 2) that is able to execute code WHOLLY from external bus ( a la 1980s ), incl from rom 3) not ARM 4) in production
asciilifeform: asciilifeform however habitually collects and referments the aborted foeti of items which nearly existed, to try an' grow item that exists. because no other materials available.
asciilifeform: reporting today that result of this is still empty.
asciilifeform: for clarity : asciilifeform ain't inluvv with superH. but he ~does~ search for a cpu where 1) respectable (say, even trb-capable) horse 2) no internal flash rom 3) not ARM
asciilifeform: ( other than a pdf where 'flip the dip switches like-so, click in winblowz like-so' )
asciilifeform: anyway this isn't half the grief : if it were just a matter of flashing, i could flash via crocodiles, applied externally. but you need the debugger to singlestep.
asciilifeform: this doesn't change the fact that the only other non-internalflashed serious-horsepower chips are ARMs.
asciilifeform: i can easily see why renesas is ~dead ( chip in production, but largely for existing designs )
asciilifeform: in very very other lulz, asciilifeform actually got hold of a superH ( http://btcbase.org/log/2017-07-31#1691143 see also ) dev board, sh7216. mega-disappoint : ZERO linux support for the on-board debugger. which one actually NEEDS to do anything whatsoever with the thing.☝︎
asciilifeform: '...Lackman's belongings still haven't been returned. Nor can he access the TVAddons website or its social media accounts, which were also seized as part of the original order. That's because Bell, Rogers and Videotron have appealed the court decision and a Federal Court of Appeal judge has ruled that until the appeal can be heard, Lackman will get nothing back.'
asciilifeform: wo computer technicians, an independent counsel and a lawyer representing Bell, Rogers and Videotron.'
