Petr ViktorinJan 22
Aled;cd

Its a well known fact that the 4 CPU architectures are x86-64, aarch64, riscv64, and s390x

Nobody has ever actually directly observed s390x but, like dark matter, we can infer its existence through compiler support

Jan 17 at 8:05pmWeb
Show threadChris PetrilliJan 17
@ldcd it is spoken of in hushed whispers by people with pocket protectors.
Show thread1.3.6.1.4.1.61513Jan 17
@ldcd itanium in anti-s390x as we know it exists, but there's no compiler support
Show threadWilliam D. JonesJan 18

@xssfox @ldcd Itanium compiler support violates The Third Law Of Compilerdynamics:

It Is Impossible To Globally* Develop A VLIW-Optimized Workload In A Finite Number Of Steps

* Local violations are allowed, see DSPs.

Show threadAled;cdJan 18

@cr1901 @xssfox while examples of itanium machines can be cheaply acquired, there are only rumors of them actually executing code.

This leads to most taxonomies categorizing them as Mimic CPUs or "Rocks"

Show threadOzzelot Jan 18
@ldcd
paging @morc
@cr1901 @xssfox
Show threadRichard Gráčik - MorcJan 18

@ozzelot @ldcd @cr1901 @xssfox while owning an Itanium 2 is cool and we can do absolutely nothing interesting on it, getting hands on Merced hardware is outright impossible

but Alpha AXP still wins imo, it's cute, I like it.

Show threadOzzelot Jan 18
@morc @ldcd @cr1901 @xssfox cute as a button...cell battery used to improvisedly fix the dallas
Show threadRichard Gráčik - MorcJan 18
@ozzelot @ldcd @cr1901 @xssfox on that note, we realized that the whole modding stuff spree might've been unnecessary. Atleast one out of the three remaining Alphas that I still have at home has a working Dallas
Show threadOzzelot Jan 18
@morc @ldcd @cr1901 @xssfox i thought the modding spree was necessary at the time as it was the only alpha in sight and it needed to be done *now* :D
Show threadOzzelot Jan 18
@morc good news is that if such craziness occurs at bytefest 2026, i'll be there the next day to see the conclusion, as linuxdays surely won't conflict this year! (and even if it does, i have a crisis of faith in linux and its community, so... that) @ldcd @cr1901 @xssfox
Show threadRichard Gráčik - MorcJan 18

@ozzelot @ldcd @cr1901 @xssfox Yes, our knowledge around the hardware was severely lacking compared to now.

It's lacking just ever so slightly less because... I've been touching it.

Show threadOzzelot Jan 18
@morc @ldcd @cr1901 @xssfox i have not touched, or been touched by, an alpha
Show threadRichard Gráčik - MorcJan 18
@ozzelot @ldcd @cr1901 @xssfox not even an alpha male?
Show threadOzzelot Jan 18

@morc @ldcd @cr1901 @xssfox (you had to write out the double entendre explicitly)
no, especially not that

(disclaimer: that wolf study has been debunked and i base my human interactions accordingly)

Show threadtaylor Jan 17
@ldcd i've also seen some devices that claim to be a 'mips' but idk what's up with that
Show threadAled;cdJan 17
@tay MIPS is just the fever dream that was used to justify RISC-V
Show threadSinnamon (despicable arc 😈)Jan 18
@ldcd @tay Silicon Graphics seemed happy with MIPS back in the day, as well as the PlayStation 1 and even set-top-box manufacturers ​​
Show threadzerou!Jan 18
@ldcd @tay @cinnamon we shouldn't forget the Nintendo 64 with it's MIPS III processor
Show threadOzzelot Jan 18
@im_zerou
and all those home routers stealthily mipsing away
@tay @cinnamon @ldcd
Show threadOzzelot Jan 18
@im_zerou
weather update: i have win ce on mips now https://mstdn.social/@ozzelot/115916479171644372
@tay @cinnamon @ldcd
Ozzelot :runbsd: (@[email protected])

Attached: 2 images Both work! Batteries are long dead though. We got CE Handheld PC Edition Version 3.01 (core system 2.11) on MIPS.

Mastodon 🐘
Show threadAled;cdJan 18
@ozzelot @im_zerou @tay @cinnamon MIPS was engineered by the NSA to convince people that home routers had to be *like that* and could therefore never do real crypto, in reality they were just something else running a little emulator
Show threadSinnamon (despicable arc 😈)Jan 18
@ldcd @ozzelot @im_zerou @tay That's not what I read in the Computer Organization and Design: The Hardware/Software Interface. Third Edition book. It looked like a honest RISC architecture there ​​
Show threadAled;cdJan 18
@cinnamon @tay @ozzelot @im_zerou that's the fever dream I speak of, Patterson and Hennessy took a load of drugs to design a purely theoretical academic architecture. That's why the only copy of the book today is Computer Architecture and Design: RISC-V edition, they managed to manifest a real ISA by rambling about MIPS
Show threadSinnamon (despicable arc 😈)Jan 18
@ldcd @tay @ozzelot @im_zerou I thought the fever dream was DLX ​​
Show threadRairii   Jan 18
@ldcd i remember when the 4 cpu architectures were x86, alpha, mips and powerpc
Show threadendrift 🏳️‍⚧️Jan 18
@Rairii @ldcd I remember when the 4 cpu architectures were x86, z80, 6502, and m68k
Show threadit/its kitten  Jan 18
@endrift @Rairii @ldcd x86 reigns eternal
when the sun is a white dwarf and the planet is basking in its last feeble gasps of energy, x86 will be the last thing standing
Show threadendrift 🏳️‍⚧️Jan 19
@nyanpasu64 @Rairii @ldcd some day the sands will boil and all the dies will be free
Show threadBitslingers-R-UsJan 19
@endrift @Rairii @ldcd …and 6800, which we all thought was slightly related to the 6502 in some way or another, but none of us ever had the money for one.
Show threadVal Packett 🧉Jan 18
@ldcd POWER fans feeling absolutely devastated rn
Show threadAndrewJan 18
@ldcd some researchers speculate about the elusive "LoongArch"
Show threadOzzelot Jan 18
@cinebox
I won't believe it until I see ShoortArch
@ldcd
Show threadDavid Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)Jan 18

@ldcd

There is archeological evidence that giant MIPS once roamed the earth.

Show threadNymnympseudonymJan 18

@david_chisnall @ldcd

Ancient ~/.signature :

"Read my MIPS! No new VAXes!"

Show thread17lifersJan 18
@ldcd the 5th is ppc
Show threadJonathan ‘theJPster’ PallantJan 18
@ldcd @mimir *cries in AArch32*
Show threadAled;cdJan 18
@thejpster @mimir AARCH32 is just AARCH64 with the AA64NAA32 bit cleared, there's no such thing as AARCH32 as an independent entity
Show threadJonathan ‘theJPster’ PallantJan 19
@ldcd @mimir I don’t know that that’s true on R-profile or M-profile architectures.
Show threadAled;cdJan 19

@thejpster @mimir Similar to Chordates, aarch64 CPUs have two lobes in the ALU. Cortex-M and R CPUs simply switch between the two lobes during normal operation to stay inside their power envelopes. It's theorized that if we find the right chicken bit we will be able to switch them into aarch64 mode. It may take a while though as it took a few decades to learn how to switch Cortex-A into AARCH64 mode.

It's unclear why Cortex-As tend to start in 32 bit mode, but the theory I subscribe to is that they do it to better mimic x86_64 which they have a predator/prey relationship with.

Show threadArcane RoopsJan 18

@ldcd I run my personal accounts on a predecessor to System/390.

It has the stability of Mount Everest :-)

Show threadArcane RoopsJan 18

@ldcd OK I confess. I'm slightly disappointed nobody asked how many versions before System/390. Or is it obvious?

It's MVS 3.8J, System/360. A 1970s OS version given away free around 1980 from memory. Effectively it's free open source in my book, because as far as I can see nobody had invented closed source yet :-)

And for all it is dated, the instruction set and the assembler (IFOX00) are things of beauty if you ask me :-)

Show threadAled;cdJan 19
@arcaneoverflow like emulated or physical hardware?
Show threadArcane RoopsJan 20

@ldcd I could never have justified the energy and aircon required to keep the real hardware happy :-)

Hercules does the same job on my laptop and total consumption seldom goes over 20W :-)

Show thread(LTE_)Max 🏳️‍🌈 #eh23 📞5836Jan 18
@ldcd What about PowerPC? Especially on old Cumulus Linux switches?
Show threadҐрeйсі Джейн 🏳️‍⚧️ (Quuxum)Jan 18
@ldcd This is ppc64el erasure 😾
Show threadSiliwanJan 18
@ldcd funny, I just looked at two such system s:33
Show threadTobias FiebigJan 18
@ldcd And those who did can't tell... *omnious fade to dark... *
Show threadStefan Baur 8 * 💉Jan 18
@ldcd I've seen it, Gandalf, I've seen it 30 years ago …
Show threadFrang Jan 18
@ldcd you can try to claw my 6502 from my cold dead hands!
Show threadCharlie BaloghJan 18

@ldcd We made sand think like ancient alien wizards from the other side of the universe, and then literally started to argue which thinking sand we invented is best, like half-monkey cavemen.

Which is so silly, because everybody knows it's the Motorola 68k, of course.

Show threadFloating OnionJan 18
@ldcd Sadly I was recently looking up how many container images support s390x for reasons.
Show threadNic Roland Jan 18
@ldcd powerpc be like
Show threadPandaNinjasJan 19
@ldcd Similar to arm32, whose non-existence can be shown through its lack of support.
Show threadHar-Har LinksJan 19
@ldcd Long ago, the four architectures lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when IBM s390x attacked...
Show threadDazzaJan 19
@ldcd there are surely glimmers of some other architectures lurking in the shadows. I think I saw a SPARC.
Show threadjn (big endian energy)Jan 19
@ldcd if you tell IBM "hey can i get an s390x VM?", you get SSH, but it has like 300ms ping, must be behind seven proxies or somehting
Show threadHaelwenn /элвэн/ Jan 19
@jn @ldcd Maybe they are machines from a parallel universe
Show threadAled;cdJan 19
@lanodan @jn another likely option
Show threadAled;cdJan 19
@lanodan @jn you have to wait for the robot to hand carry your packet through the portal
Show threadAled;cdJan 19
@jn betting it's an s390x emulating AARCH64 emulating s390x, having direct access to an s390x would be too much for most souls