This brilliant article argues that current computing problems (such as Spectre and Meltdown) are caused by modern CPUs exposing a fundamentally different abstract machine than the actual computing architecture, mostly to satisfy the complacency desires of C traditionalists.https://twitter.com/CompSciFact/status/991687650389233664 …
-
Show this thread
-
We cannot go back to deterministic sequential CPUs. The implication is that the only sustainable response to such problems is going to fundamentally change the kinds of systems programming languages we use. Pipelining, speculative execution etc. will become language features.
2 replies 2 retweets 18 likesShow this thread -
Replying to @Plinz
I’m going to have to read the article and think about this a bit more, but I can’t imagine that the correct response to hardware bugs is to change programming language definitions.
3 replies 0 retweets 0 likes -
I have read almost exactly this paper before. I don’t disagree with the main point being made, but I think it’s off-base trying to tie it to Spectre and Meltdown. If “C is not a low-level language” on those processors, then neither is machine language. For the same reasons.
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
The idea is: when your CPU is systematically in states it can abstract away for your programmers but not hide from your attackers, and there is no remedy beyond making the CPU slow again, you will have no choice but to expose more or all of the state of the CPU to the programmers
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.