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Lanai, the mystery CPU architecture in LLVM

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Re: Lanai, the mystery CPU architecture in LLVM

#31
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google isn't really forcing anyone to do anything in this case. Another RISC backend that was made clear would be ripped out of upstream the instant the Google maintainers stopped responding isn't really an imposition.

Would something like this be accepted in open source projects that are not significantly driven by Google? E.g. would Linux accept code for drivers / architectures that are not available to the public? I'm genuinely curious.

Given how ridiculously strict the Linux folks are being with the DXGKRNL stuff that MS is working on (which is public as part of WSLg), I would say definitely not.

Re: Lanai, the mystery CPU architecture in LLVM

#32
post #28

For the link, Norton reports: "This is a known dangerous webpage. It is highly recommended that you do NOT visit this page." The "page full report" doesn't reveal any particulars. I rarely get this warning elsewhere.

This is an old domain, and once upon a time some private malware sample links hosted on it got indexed. Years later and some software still think I'm evil :).

Re: Lanai, the mystery CPU architecture in LLVM

#33
post #12
post #4

I worked for Myricom 2001->2013, and Google 2013->2015. And, wow, I wish I could comment on this thread.. :) EDIT: Scott's Medium blog post linked from this article is fascinating: https://medium.com/swlh/myricom-an-hpc-story-and-lessons-lea...

Why can you not comment? Certainly any NDA you signed must be expired by now. PSA: If you are not getting continuing payments, any contracts you signed are void. Technically, I gather you are supposed to notify the other party that you are terminating your participation in the contract. Even if you are getting ongoing payments, you can opt out of that, too. (This is not legal advice. Consult an actual lawyer for anyt…

Hard to make a more wrong post (everything apart from the advice to consult a lawyer is incorrect).

Re: Lanai, the mystery CPU architecture in LLVM

#34
post #4

I worked for Myricom 2001->2013, and Google 2013->2015. And, wow, I wish I could comment on this thread.. :) EDIT: Scott's Medium blog post linked from this article is fascinating: https://medium.com/swlh/myricom-an-hpc-story-and-lessons-lea...

This line in that post is mystifying: they peddled Infiniband, an inferior design based on bus technology, but repositioned as a point to point network

Re: Lanai, the mystery CPU architecture in LLVM

#35
post #4

I worked for Myricom 2001->2013, and Google 2013->2015. And, wow, I wish I could comment on this thread.. :) EDIT: Scott's Medium blog post linked from this article is fascinating: https://medium.com/swlh/myricom-an-hpc-story-and-lessons-lea...

> The CEO capped the full time headcount at 49 people so he wouldn’t be subject to California law requiring him to provide his employees with a health plan.

Can you imagine being this stingy and short sighted? The employees are largely PhDs and he is willing to cripple his company to avoid paying benefits.

Re: Lanai, the mystery CPU architecture in LLVM

#36
post #4

I worked for Myricom 2001->2013, and Google 2013->2015. And, wow, I wish I could comment on this thread.. :) EDIT: Scott's Medium blog post linked from this article is fascinating: https://medium.com/swlh/myricom-an-hpc-story-and-lessons-lea...

> The CEO capped the full time headcount at 49 people so he wouldn’t be subject to California law requiring him to provide his employees with a health plan. Can you imagine being this stingy and short sighted? The employees are largely PhDs and he is willing to cripple his company to avoid paying benefits.

I'm not sure that part of Scott's article was accurate.

I worked remotely, and I'm pretty sure that I was offered benefits. I declined them, and used my wife's benefits because they were less expensive, and meshed better with local health care providers.

EDIT: And I know we had a 401K

Re: Lanai, the mystery CPU architecture in LLVM

#37
Random, tangentially related thing I just remembered: FreeBSD used to provide its own firmware for (iirc MIPS-like) core used in very early Broadcom NICs. There also used to be a custom firmware for some Adaptec controllers, along with an assembler tool to compile it during kernel build.

Re: Lanai, the mystery CPU architecture in LLVM

#38
post #4

I worked for Myricom 2001->2013, and Google 2013->2015. And, wow, I wish I could comment on this thread.. :) EDIT: Scott's Medium blog post linked from this article is fascinating: https://medium.com/swlh/myricom-an-hpc-story-and-lessons-lea...

> The CEO capped the full time headcount at 49 people so he wouldn’t be subject to California law requiring him to provide his employees with a health plan. Can you imagine being this stingy and short sighted? The employees are largely PhDs and he is willing to cripple his company to avoid paying benefits.

It’s not even that hard or expensive to offer 401k, health, life insurance in a startup. Been there, done that.

Re: Lanai, the mystery CPU architecture in LLVM

#39
post #24

I gotta say, if I was the BDFL of llvm, I would kick this out of tree without a second thought. Why on earth should a foss project support a private architecture? How many man-hours have been wasted waiting for the Lanai backend to compile? Not to mention applying project-wide refactoring to the Lanai code.

A significant part of work on LLVM comes from Apple, which includes support for quirks of _their_ proprietary chips and platform; and the world is much better for those changes being upstreamed rather than living in a fork somewhere.

There's a big difference between "we are the only people who sell hardware using these chips" and "we are the only people who have access to hardware using these chips".
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