This feels like a baby step towards Arm being able to emulate z/Arch workloads, maybe with a bit of secret sauce for certain specific operations, which doesn't seem very much like IBM.
IBM Unveils Next Generation Dual-Architecture Processor for IBM Z and LinuxONE
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Re: IBM Unveils Next Generation Dual-Architecture Processor for IBM Z and LinuxONE
#12Is this like the Transmeta processors doing code translation in hardware?
They were pretty clear at Hot Chips that it's native
Re: IBM Unveils Next Generation Dual-Architecture Processor for IBM Z and LinuxONE
#13I was curious, is it conceptually similar to Data General Fountainhead project?
If by that you are asking whether it has a dynamic ISA controllable at runtime, it appears not. This looks to be a Z processor with arm instructions implemented.
Re: IBM Unveils Next Generation Dual-Architecture Processor for IBM Z and LinuxONE
#14I was reading HN comments yesterday shitting on modern IBM for being a non tech consulting company that has not innovated since the mid nineties.
well that's nonsense. IBM does incredibly cool stuff. https://research.ibm.com/blog
Yah it’s a bit wild. I had an internship there 10 years ago. The tech was fine (same shit you see at any tech company). The vibe however was just like — wow this place was probably cool 50 years ago
Re: IBM Unveils Next Generation Dual-Architecture Processor for IBM Z and LinuxONE
#15Re: IBM Unveils Next Generation Dual-Architecture Processor for IBM Z and LinuxONE
#16This feels like a baby step towards Arm being able to emulate z/Arch workloads, maybe with a bit of secret sauce for certain specific operations, which doesn't seem very much like IBM.
I thought about that, too. I think they’re doing this for the same reason IBM has supported Linux LPARs:
since a lot of customers who lease System/z currently probably get overprovisioned hardware that they’ll never fully use, why not try a last-ditch attempt to sell the excess capacity as ARM LPARs?
Now you’re thinking like a Big Blue sales rep.
Re: IBM Unveils Next Generation Dual-Architecture Processor for IBM Z and LinuxONE
#17Huh. ARM instead of ppc64le?
Re: IBM Unveils Next Generation Dual-Architecture Processor for IBM Z and LinuxONE
#18I was reading HN comments yesterday shitting on modern IBM for being a non tech consulting company that has not innovated since the mid nineties.
To be fair, IBM did this in the 90s with the PowerPC 615, which had PowerPC and x86 decoders on the same core.
Re: IBM Unveils Next Generation Dual-Architecture Processor for IBM Z and LinuxONE
#19Is this like the Transmeta processors doing code translation in hardware?
No, this is more like any modern processor, which translates instruction codes into micro-ops. To over-simplify IBM just has two of these units per thread rather than one.
Re: IBM Unveils Next Generation Dual-Architecture Processor for IBM Z and LinuxONE
#20I was reading HN comments yesterday shitting on modern IBM for being a non tech consulting company that has not innovated since the mid nineties.
To be fair, IBM did this in the 90s with the PowerPC 615, which had PowerPC and x86 decoders on the same core.
But those ARM and s390x decoders have a “Telum III” architecture behind them with a cache that’s pretty innovative.
IBM has never stopped innovating. It’s just that most people can’t afford their machines.