By: --- (---.delete@this.redheron.com), June 30, 2022 8:28 am
Room: Moderated Discussions
Adrian (a.delete@this.acm.org) on June 30, 2022 5:36 am wrote:
> Kester L (nobody.delete@this.nothing.com) on June 29, 2022 1:49 pm wrote:
> > https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=3534854
> >
> >
> >
> > Your thoughts on this article? I was under the impression that a lot of the 80s attempts
> > at capability machines (or really, anything that wasn't trying to be a glorified PDP-11)
> > floundered because of performance and cost issues (i.e. the Intel i432).
> >
> >
>
>
> There are some valid points in the article (and I also have a very good opinion of much
> of the past work of PHK), but as others have also noted, some of the article is confusing,
> especially the phrase "The linear address space as a concept is unsafe at any speed",
> where it is not at all clear what is meant, before reading all the article.
People are taking the "unsafe at any speed" way too literally.
Probably most of the people on this forum are way too young to appreciate that this is a reference to:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsafe_at_Any_Speed
"Politically" it's probably a poor choice of phrase in that, while Nader's book had substantial political impact, as is usual with such books, opponents found enough technical complaints with the content that the argument frequently devolved into screaming matches about those technical details rather than about whether the larger picture was or was not valid; and any reference to the book is now immediately considered a political act (ie you are for or against big business).
> Kester L (nobody.delete@this.nothing.com) on June 29, 2022 1:49 pm wrote:
> > https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=3534854
> >
> >
> > The linear address space as a concept is unsafe at any speed, and it badly needs mandatory CHERI
> > seat belts. But even better would be to get rid of linear address spaces entirely and go back to
> > the future, as successfully implemented in the Rational R1000 computer 30-plus years ago.
> >
> >
> > Your thoughts on this article? I was under the impression that a lot of the 80s attempts
> > at capability machines (or really, anything that wasn't trying to be a glorified PDP-11)
> > floundered because of performance and cost issues (i.e. the Intel i432).
> >
> >
>
>
> There are some valid points in the article (and I also have a very good opinion of much
> of the past work of PHK), but as others have also noted, some of the article is confusing,
> especially the phrase "The linear address space as a concept is unsafe at any speed",
> where it is not at all clear what is meant, before reading all the article.
People are taking the "unsafe at any speed" way too literally.
Probably most of the people on this forum are way too young to appreciate that this is a reference to:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsafe_at_Any_Speed
"Politically" it's probably a poor choice of phrase in that, while Nader's book had substantial political impact, as is usual with such books, opponents found enough technical complaints with the content that the argument frequently devolved into screaming matches about those technical details rather than about whether the larger picture was or was not valid; and any reference to the book is now immediately considered a political act (ie you are for or against big business).
