RISC Architecture Really Did Change Everything

Yes. We’ve been here before. A second war of the architectures. In Hackers, a group of RISC- obsessed teens must stop a goateed villain from capsizing a fleet of oil tankers with a computer virus. Pictured here, from left: Lord Nikon, Dade, Kate, and Cereal Killer. Photograph: Everett Collection It’s hard to overstate just how topsy-freaking-turvy this gets. To review: Patterson invented RISC in 1980 and went to battle with the established ISAs. He won. Thirty years later, his disciples reinvent RISC for a new age, and he and they go to battle with the very company whose success secured RISC’s legacy in the first place: Arm. In response to Patterson’s paper, Arm fires back with a rebuttal, “The Case for Licensed Instruction Sets.” Nobody wants some random, untested, unsupported ISA, they say. Customers want success, standards, a proven “ecosystem.” The resources it would take to retool and reprogram everything for a new ISA? There’s not enough cash in the world, Arm scoffs. The RIS ... Read full article.