Microkernels are better [LWN.net]

Microkernels are better

Posted Feb 27, 2013 21:51 UTC (Wed) by dlang (✭ supporter ✭, #313)
In reply to: Microkernels are better by khim
Parent article: MINIX 3.2.1 released

the fact that the x86 was used on the most common platform meant that there was more money for speeding up the x86 chips, which made them more popular, which provided more money for speeding them up......

This is why small companies like Transmeta folded, they were compatible, but they didn't have the R&D budgets and manufacturing capability to compete with Intel. AMD is barely hanging on, and if Intel hadn't made the Itanioum blunder (leaving the gap open for the AMD-64 chips), I doubt if AMD would have survived.

network effects matter, when everyone is running binary software, being binary compatible matters. Since the IMB PC became the standard, any chips that weren't PC compatible became marginal and the popularity -> money -> R&C -> speed -> popularity cycle started.

With mobile devices NOT being x86 compatible, we are seeing a resurgence in competition at the architecture level again for consumer devices (enabled by Linux's cross platform support), and Microsoft and Intel have been trying for years to ignore and block this, but now they are having to really recognize the competition.

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Microkernels are better

Posted Feb 27, 2013 22:07 UTC (Wed) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link]

Since the IMB PC became the standard, any chips that weren't PC compatible became marginal and the popularity -> money -> R&C -> speed -> popularity cycle started.

Sure, but even if you have enough money you are still constrained by law of physics.

With mobile devices NOT being x86 compatible, we are seeing a resurgence in competition at the architecture level again for consumer devices

Sure, but will fast ring switching survive this push? I very much doubt it. Note that POWER (which actully slightly faster then x86 although more expensive) is also not all that fast with the context switches AFAICS.

Microkernels are better

Posted Feb 27, 2013 22:41 UTC (Wed) by dlang (✭ supporter ✭, #313) [Link]

I am not trying to say that context switches will be fast, I was merely responding to the logic of why x86 architecture won. It isn't because it's the best, it's because it's had the most R&D effort pumped into it to work around it's problems

This includes to a large extent, being produced on the most advanced fab processes, if you took the competing designs and produced them at the same resolution that Intel uses for their x86 chips, they would be much smaller, cheaper, faster, and use significantly less power than they currently do. The fact that with all these handicaps they are competitive to Intel chips in many uses is a good indication of how bad the x86 architecture is.

Microkernels are better

Posted Mar 1, 2013 1:22 UTC (Fri) by ARealLWN (guest, #88901) [Link]

I would like to argue that the Itanium chip wasn't really a blunder on the part of Intel. The technical merits of it can certainly be called into question but it killed off the DEC Alpha, SGI's interest in MIPS technology, and the PA-RISC architecture of HP simply with marketing because everyone bought into the idea of EPIC being the future of high performance computing. They eliminated a large class of potential threats to their interests in the server and workstation market before shipping any silicon. That hardly seems like a blunder to me. The easiest way to make sure you win a race is to make sure anyone faster then you doesn't show up. Intel simply diverted attention away from other competition to make certain players who might pose a more immediate risk were out of the equation first. IMHO.