By: Doug S (foo.delete@this.bar.bar), June 1, 2022 12:45 am
Room: Moderated Discussions
Peter Lewis (peter.delete@this.notyahoo.com) on May 31, 2022 4:34 pm wrote:
> > technically, RISC-V is clearly inferior to ARMv9
>
> Please explain why.
>
> >> The technical merits of a processor instruction set have little effect on its market success,
> >> as the original x86 vs 68000 battle showed. The real determining factors are processor implementations,
> >> deals with strategic customers, pricing and other business-related things.
> >
> > Wrong. Instruction set does still matter.
>
> If the technical merits of an instruction set matter, how do you explain the market success of the
> numerous x86 vector instruction set extensions that have no backwards compatibility or variable length
> x86 instructions that make it very expensive to decode multiple instructions in parallel?
>
> I think x86 will eventually be killed by variable length instruction decode, Moore’s law slowing
> down, availability of software binary translation from x86 to something else and most low-performance
> software running on top of JavaScript. The x86 instruction sets will eventually have the same market
> significance as the IBM 360 instruction set. I own Intel stock and I’m not selling because I think
> it will take more than 20 years for x86 to be displaced from the dominant position it has today.
Why? What are the market forces that you believe will displace x86? What do you think will replace it, RISC-V? Don't make me laugh.
> > technically, RISC-V is clearly inferior to ARMv9
>
> Please explain why.
>
> >> The technical merits of a processor instruction set have little effect on its market success,
> >> as the original x86 vs 68000 battle showed. The real determining factors are processor implementations,
> >> deals with strategic customers, pricing and other business-related things.
> >
> > Wrong. Instruction set does still matter.
>
> If the technical merits of an instruction set matter, how do you explain the market success of the
> numerous x86 vector instruction set extensions that have no backwards compatibility or variable length
> x86 instructions that make it very expensive to decode multiple instructions in parallel?
>
> I think x86 will eventually be killed by variable length instruction decode, Moore’s law slowing
> down, availability of software binary translation from x86 to something else and most low-performance
> software running on top of JavaScript. The x86 instruction sets will eventually have the same market
> significance as the IBM 360 instruction set. I own Intel stock and I’m not selling because I think
> it will take more than 20 years for x86 to be displaced from the dominant position it has today.
Why? What are the market forces that you believe will displace x86? What do you think will replace it, RISC-V? Don't make me laugh.