Nativeclient: run x86 native code in Web Applications.

Re:Nativeclient: run x86 native code in Web Applications. by DarkShikari on Tuesday December 09, 2008 @12:40AM (#390996)

Every few years, they tell us that performance won't matter anymore in a few years, because CPUs keep getting faster.

"In a few years any CPU will be able to decode DVDs easily. SIMD will be obsolete!"

And every single time, a few years pass, and it never, ever happens, because CPUs don't get faster in a vacuum. Just as much, our demand for performance increases.

In fact, right now, I'd say that the demand for performance is outpacing CPU development. The CPU requirement for 1080p H.264 from a Blu-ray disc is easily 20-40 times greater than the video from a DVD. CPU's haven't gotten that much faster in the meantime, forcing graphics card makers to add hardware acceleration, just as in the earliest days of DVD playback.

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Re:Nativeclient: run x86 native code in Web Applications. by tptacek on Tuesday December 09, 2008 @12:59AM (#391012)

If you (generously) count MMX, x86 SIMD is still younger than the JVM, or even JIT JVM. But I agree that "hardware acceleration" is going to take up a lot of the slack here; all the more reason not to chase unproven performance tricks like verified x86.

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