Mill CPU
-
- Why did you create account here, of all forums?
- Rust is a revolution in how we think about memory ownership and low-level languages. Mill is a revolution in how we think about general purpose CPU architecture. Do you think it's a valid comparison?
- Do you believe Mill or Mill-based architectures become mainstream in your lifetime?
- When did you last shave?
-
@ixvedeusi Ivan Godard, the man in the Mill videos, here.
AMA
Uh-huh, right. OK, I'm game for this, I have no reason to think someone would spoof this.
A few months back, I asked a question in the Mill forum about some possible applications of the Mill regarding aerospace applications. In the post, I also asked if anyone could tell me if certain new IC packaging ideas were feasible, either technically or economically. I heard back from a different developer on the project, but I was wondering if you read the post, and what your take on it was.
The main thing I was interested in was idea of incorporating thermoelectric junctions (with a pin connector out to the sink end) directly into the IC packaging, as it would seem a straightforward way to solve waste heat problems. I was wondering mainly because it seemed an obvious solution, and I was curious as to whether anyone had attempted it before. I am assuming it isn't feasible, but I would like to hear what you have to say on it.
I also asked about the possibility of incorporating surge cut-offs into the chip housing, to protect from any surges coming from the external pins. I was figuring that this, combined with some sort of radiation hardening such as silicon-on-sapphire, would be of value in space systems and high-altitude avionics, where both ionizing radiation and induced electrical surges are significant problems.
I am also curious as to whether putting some type of NVRAM either on the same IC or in the same housing as the CPU would be feasible. I am guessing that the former isn't technically feasible, while the latter would be possible but impractical from a cost perspective. It is relevant to avionics, again, both as a way of recovering from power drops and as a way of preserving additional forensic information for crash investigations.
The last question was regarding whether you think the work on solid-state lithium electrical storage, should it prove workable, would eventually allow for backup power incorporated directly into chip housings.
I know IC packaging methods is a bit outside of your specific expertise, but I expect you know quite a bit about it, so I thought I would ask anyway.
-
@scholrlea said in Mill CPU:
I have no reason to think someone would spoof this
That's easily fixable: @igodard, can you post on https://millcomputing.com/forums/ that you're doing this AMA?
-
@anonymous234 said in Mill CPU:
@twelvebaud That's what I'm hoping for.
Steamboat Willie is due to enter public domain in 2023, that's 5 years from now. The two previous copyright law extensions happened 8 and 5 years before it was due, so if it was going to happen this time it's starting to run out of time. Plus it would cross the 100 year barrier now which would probably get too much bad publicity to be worth it. And Disney just bought Fox so their assets are more diversified.
It's would be hard for me to imagine if Disney will allow their valued property like Mickey Mouse to enter public domain if they have a way to stop it.
Try imagine if there are fake "Disney world" opened around the world themed around those "would-be-public domain" characters. I don't think Disney will remain silence.
-
@cheong Mickey Mouse isn't entering the public domain; one specific movie featuring him is. All the more recent movies are still under copyright, and Mickey Mouse itself is protected by trademark. It's not as if anybody can then start making copycat, rip-off movies. The only thing that happens if the law isn't changed again is that people can watch, display or make copies of that one movie without having to pay Disney royalties.
And Disney is (or has been in the past) willing to screw the entire copyright system to prevent that minute loss of potential revenue.
-
@hardwaregeek public domain means that rip-offs are allowed. It would be interesting to see what happens when expired copyright and active trademark collide - I'd imagine you wouldn't be able to put Mickey Mouse in movie title, but would be allowed to put him in the movie itself.
-
@hardwaregeek public domain means that rip-offs are allowed. It would be interesting to see what happens when expired copyright and active trademark collide - I'd imagine you wouldn't be able to put Mickey Mouse in movie title, but would be allowed to put him in the movie itself.
Nope, you have it almost backwards. New content featuring trademarked characters would still be off-limits, at least if it involves new renditions that aren't obvious parody or existing art from works still under copyright.
All it means is that all or part of the specific work (Steamboat Willie, in this case) could be broadcast, posted to YouTube, re-packaged and sold, edited to form a different story, used as the basis of clip art, or redistributed in some other way, by someone other than WED Co. without needing to get permission or pay royalties.
It's the 'in part' aspect that probably worries Disney most, though they wouldn't exactly be thrilled if, say, the KKK started selling copies of Disney film or the Taliban used them as anti-Western propaganda (I expect they do anyway, since terrorists and revolutionaries aren't known for observing IP rights). Disney's real nightmare is someone making a feature length equivalent of the 'Disney Memorial Orgy'cartoon drawn by Wally Wood for the satirical magazine The Realist.
OMGWTFBBQ11!1!11! NSFW Disney Smut!
That cartoon was ruled in court to be protected speech, as parody (as it appeared in The Realist, and the officially-licensed poster; some later reprints of the poster were a different matter, as they weren't authorized by its IP holder, Paul Krassner) ; a full length film like it probably wouldn't be, but one based on existing Disney art that is in the public domain might get a green light.
-
@scholrlea said in Mill CPU:
All it means is that all or part of the specific work (Steamboat Willie, in this case) could be broadcast, posted to YouTube, re-packaged and sold, edited to form a different story, used as the basis of clip art, or redistributed in some other way, by someone other than WED Co. without needing to get permission or pay royalties.
"Editing to form a different story" + "repackaging" + "broadcasting" = making a brand new feature movie using characters in the original work. At least in theory, and in isolation from trademark law. The truth is, neither me nor you, nor anyone else knows how exactly it'll turn out until the lawyers get some lawsuits rolling and courts carry out verdicts.
-
I ain't that guy but I know some of the answers.
@scholrlea said in Mill CPU:
I am also curious as to whether putting some type of NVRAM either on the same IC or in the same housing as the CPU would be feasible.
While putting it on the same IC probably isn't practical for various reasons due to differences in how the manufacturing is done, co-packaging (your second option) is entirely practical and is used quite a bit in the embedded systems market. It's got a lot of advantages to putting the memory on the motherboard, particularly in relation to energy and electromagnetic compatibility; the big down side is that you're stuck with whatever you put there and can't replace or upgrade without doing the entire CPU core as well. So yes, it makes a lot of sense for embedded (and in allied environments, such as avionics). I guess the main issue would be keeping things cool, but for a smaller NVRAM that wasn't written to very much it'd be fine.
We do something similar, except with more conventional SDRAM.
The last question was regarding whether you think the work on solid-state lithium electrical storage, should it prove workable, would eventually allow for backup power incorporated directly into chip housings.
That'd only work for super low power chips, and even then it probably isn't a great idea. Lithium batteries still need quite a bit of volume to store charge and their service lifetime isn't as high as for a CPU. Expect those to stay separate, though I guess you could glue the chip to the battery? Doesn't seem to have any real advantages; the win would come from NVRAM.
You won't be doing meaningful amounts of transmitting with that small amount of power, BTW. The good old inverse square law really means that you need lots of energy available to keep that up at any range. Sub-Watt CPU cores are easily done, but sub-Watt transmitters have tiny ranges unless the other side has a phenomenal antenna (e.g., the DSN).
-
@ixvedeusi Ivan Godard, the man in the Mill videos, here.
Hi there!
AMA
I guess you may have realized by now that this kind of offer can be taken very literally around here.
Anyway, I guess my main question is: When can I get one of these things to play around with? How is that FPGA implementation coming along? How long do you figure will it still take you to start producing actual silicon? 10 years? 5 years? Less?
Filed under: Do I get a
?
-
@hardwaregeek public domain means that rip-offs are allowed. It would be interesting to see what happens when expired copyright and active trademark collide - I'd imagine you wouldn't be able to put Mickey Mouse in movie title, but would be allowed to put him in the movie itself.
Reminds me of how the court ruled third party creation of Transformers toys are legal, as long as they don't put those logos owned by Hasbro on them. :P
This leads to a lot of third party recreation of their characters, as well as the China made Deformation robot. XD
-
-
@boomzilla said in Mill CPU:
@ixvedeusi said in Mill CPU:
Filed under: Do I get a
?Yes.
But is it a hacking oligarchical
?
Filed under cross-forum in-jokes.
