below..

On Wed, Jan 3, 2018 at 8:43 AM, Noel Chiappa <jnc@mercury.lcs.mit.edu> wrote:
    
I'm highly amused by the irony. Intel throws bazillions of transistors at
these hyper-complex CPUs in an attempt to make them as fast as possible - and
(probably because of the complexity) missed a bug, the fix for which
involves... slowing things way down!

​+1 however... I think there is a corollary ​

I wonder how many other bugs are lurking in these hyper-complex designs?
Didn't anyone at Intel stop to think that complexity is bad, in and of itself?
​Exactly....​
​ and a loud "Amen Brother Chiappa​
."
​

IIRC this is part of the argument Dykstra made with the THE paper years ago, Parnas in his information hiding paper -- i.e. why microkernels and proper layering are a good idea.   Keep is simple and do one thing well/protect yourself against other subsystems not being 100%.  Linux and Winders are are bad a the processor.

​Yup microkernels are a tad slower and have more overhead, and might (probably will) cost a little more.   But I really do think simplicity beats complexity and I'll pay a bit in over head to keep it simple.

The problem of course for my employers over the years, is that many  people 
(most
​people ​
probably)
​ ​
do not think me
​ and follow their wallet on the fastest for the cheapest​
;-)

Clem​

ᐧ