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A comment on The x86 architecture is the weirdo (2004). Parent comment

Re:The x86 architecture is the weirdo (2004) by FullyFunctional on Tuesday April 19, 2022 @04:50PM (#31088915)
Not defending the weirdo, but IBM Z is a thing that is shipping, heavily used, and still evolving. It's more CISC than even x86.

I do find it sad that we are stuck in an 80 year old paradigm that is a horrible fit for how CPUs are actually implemented in 2022, but the inertia is a strong in this one.

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Re:The x86 architecture is the weirdo (2004) by kosherhurricane on Tuesday April 19, 2022 @06:26PM (#31090162)
Inertia is the same as backward compatibility.

Kinda like gas engines and fuel pumps. Or wall socket formats. Inertia.

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Re:The x86 architecture is the weirdo (2004) by FullyFunctional on Wednesday April 20, 2022 @01:21AM (#31093119)
I think you are illustrating my point, thanks. Gas engines are surely but slowly being replaced with much better, cleaner, and more efficient alternatives. Wall socket formats are there to stay but increasingly low DC loads are coalescing around USB, with USB-C really accelerating the change.

So yes, we can overcome inertia, it just take a lot of energy.

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