Matt G. Ellis @ellism
Here's my HOT TAKE on the recent CPU Bugs. Sorry it's more than 280 characters...
https://twitter.com/ellism/status/949738785159364608?s=21
Jon von Neumann: I want in order excution!
Brian Krzanich: You want in order execution? YOU CAN'T HANDLE IN ORDER EXECUTION!
[pause]
Brian Krzanich: Son, we live in a world with execution units, and those units need to be kept busy. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Mr. von Neumann? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep over the side channel attacks and you curse Intel. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know; that speculative execution, while dangerous, probably saves cores. And my optimizations, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, save cores. You don't want in order execution because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want the most instructions per cycle. You need the most instructions per cycle. We use words like branch prediction, register renaming, instruction reordering. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent building micro-architectures. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who runs VIM and GDB using the very processors that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide them! I would rather you just said "thank you" and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a copy of Hennessy and Paterson and start a foundry. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to.