Despite Aging Design, x86 Still in Charge

An anonymous reader writes "The x86 chip architecture is still kicking, almost 30 years after it was first introduced. A News.com article looks into the reasons why we're not likely to see it phased out any time soon, and the history of a well-known instruction set architecture. 'Every time [there is a dramatic new requirement or change in the marketplace], whether it's the invention of the browser or low-cost network computers that were supposed to make PCs go away, the engineers behind x86 find a way to make it adapt to the situation. Is that a problem? Critics say x86 is saddled with the burden of supporting outdated features and software, and that improvements in energy efficiency and software development have been sacrificed to its legacy. And a comedian would say it all depends on what you think about disco.'"

English is 700 years old

[athloi]

It should be replaced with Esperanto when we all upgrade to Vista.

Re:Let me guess...

[Half a dent]

4. ???
5. Profit

Re:Let me guess...

[morgan_greywolf]

Did I miss anything?

I think you forgot to mention installed base.

Re:Let me guess...

[precize]

The one time "All your base are belong to us" is actually an on-topic comment

Re:English is 700 years old

[SighKoPath]

when we all upgrade to Vista

So you mean... never?

Re:Does it matter?

[Anonymous Coward]

Funny, my old Alpha from 1998 had all that.

I wonder why it took you Intel lovers nearly 10 years to catch up to what I was using 10 years ago?

Re:60% of transistors used for legacy modes?

[TodMinuit]

He only used 60% of his brain when writing the article. Sadly, he collected 100% of his pay check.

(Obl: 43% of people know that all statistics are made up.)

Re:If it ain't broke, don't fix it

[richdun]

You don't buy a new car just becuase the tires need replaceing (well some people do, but that is rarely the fiscally responsible thing).

I hate to use a car analogy, but yeah. Cars have changed tremendously over the past 50+ years, but all in all, they're still four tires attached to two axles, with a transmission converting power from the engine to rotational energy in the axles, with a cabin on top of these axles with seats and a single driver's wheel, pedals, and control area. All of those components have seen upgrades, but the "basic architecture" has remained the same. Sure, there might be a better way to do a car, and concept vehicles look nice and all, but if you radically change the car, no matter how great and "better" it is, what kind of market share would Apple and the PowerPC^H^H^H^H those new "better" cars get? People will resist, not because what they have is best or even better, but because it is different, and economically, marginal upgrades in each generation is far cheaper than one giant upgrade during one generation.

Disco Stu on x86

[andy314159pi]

And a comedian would say it all depends on what you think about disco.

Disco Stu does the x86 boogaloo

Re:Simple!

[Quasicorps]

I think he means one of those newfangled three-stroke engines that are all the rage.

Re:English is 700 years old

[bWareiWare.co.uk]

If 8086 was a horse, then x86_64 would have sixteen legs and be capable of mach 3.

I think I know...

[TheVelvetFlamebait]

Where does he get the 60% from?

His ass looks suspiciously spacious...

Re:English is 700 years old

[Unicorn Giggles]

Modded down for vista bashing??? You haven't been here long have you, all we have around here are apple and linux fanboys.

Oh, the irony..

[Mister Whirly]

The irony of being a grammar Nazi by pointing out that the statement "People like you make Nazi's look good." is incorrect. It should be "People like you make Nazis look good." - unless there is some unseen object that the Nazis posses, the apostrophe before the "s" is unnecessary and incorrect. Simply adding a "s" to the end is sufficient to make it plural.

In short:x86 is the result of natural selection...

[dpbsmith]

...rather than intelligent design.

The killer app is porn

[athloi]

Open Source pornography? Some of you nerds must have girlfriends who aren't camera shy.

I tried..

[Vr6dub]

I tried looking into my heart but it asked me to "allow" or "deny". When I hit "allow" I got a BSOD. I'll have to get back to you on that one.

Jeeze ...

[smcdow]

Why did it have to be a little endian [wikipedia.org] processor?

Re:Simple!

[Nimey]

Slashdot needs a mod tag (-1, Car analogy).

Re:English is 700 years old

[Unicorn Giggles]

you want to see downmods, watch this: Steve Jobs has sex with donkeys! Bill Gates is AWESOME! Linux wouldn't be so bad if it actually worked, and when it did, could run anything. prepare to see downmods.

Re:Oh, the irony..

[Surt]

I'm sure he must have meant that it's the Nazi's look that you make good. You know: the brown shirts, red armbands, effeminate breeches. The real mistake is that he should have used well instead of good unless he really believes that looks themselves are good or evil. :-)

Re:English is 700 years old

[ady1]

And Core Duos must have two bodies interconnected by thin fiber. The legs should be connected randomly regardless of which part gets the more legs.

Reminds me of Spore for some reason.

Mac Fanboys got Nuthin' on Politics

[bill_mcgonigle]

Macs? Ha, try posting something about either Republican or Democratic parties here. The mod-war will fill your inbox if you're addicted enough to have mod points e-mailed to you (turn them off, Bobby, slowly, now....). If Slashdot existed in a Douglas Adams Universe, the following post:

Republicans Suck. Democrats Rule.

Democrats Suck. Republicans Rule

would make a perfectly suitable anti-gravity device, from the opposing pressure of mod points and Fan/Foe adds.

Re:The X86 is a pig.

[zolaar]

I'm told LucasFilm somehow lost the original source to CashBucket 4.0, 5.0, and 6.0.

Shame, too, since the more recent versions are chock-a-block of unnecessary "features and fixes" (in particular, a very controversial race condition between the instantiation of blaster objects during app startup).

Great features?

[Anonymous Coward]

[ You have clicked to open a program, do you want to open it? ( Allow ) ( Cancel )]
*allow*
[ You are connecting to a web site. They may have malicious content which could harm your PC. Are you sure? ( Allow ) ( Cancel )]
*allow*

You're so right! I mean, it contains all kinds of shiny new graphics that cost me maybe 10% of the system's performance on the brand new built-for-Vista machine. But it's worth it to have totally innovative new features like this dock, something no other OS has seen before! Also, it has state-of-the-art security!

[ Windows Update has just downloaded Windows DRM v8 and the patch for the ANI vulnerability, whereby crappy-looking cursors can 0wn your machine. While this vulnerability is rated as non-critical on Vista, it can still be used to hijack IE. These patches may disable some parts of your computer at Microsoft's sole discretion. We keep logs of anyone refusing to install them. You can refuse, but bad things might happen. Just click the damn okay button. ( OK ) ( Report me to the BSA )]
*ok*

Anyone who'd go back to XP or to a free software platform for trivial things like, say, their TV tuner cards working properly with non-degraded video and sound is just crazy! Who cares if it's a brand new machine, we don't mind spending hours talking to Bangalore, reinstalling drivers that still don't work, or waiting until never for a call-back! We'll never downgrade!

Not that they'll let you downgrade, anyhow. Besides, the EULA probably forbids doing so. Microsoft EULAs like to forbid all kinds of crazy things, I mean, just ask Clippy...

[ Warning! Using MS Agent to publish content disparaging to Microsoft is forbidden by the MS Agent EULA! We reserve the right to have the BSA audit you for license compliance. ( Bend over )]
*oops*

Re:English is 700 years old

[bigtangringo]

Correction: Modern English [wikipedia.org] is only 25 years old.