Multicore Requires OS Rework, Windows Expert Says 631
alphadogg writes "With chip makers continuing to increase the number of cores they include on each new generation of their processors, perhaps it's time to rethink the basic architecture of today's operating systems, suggested Dave Probert, a kernel architect within the Windows core operating systems division at Microsoft. The current approach to harnessing the power of multicore processors is complicated and not entirely successful, he argued. The key may not be in throwing more energy into refining techniques such as parallel programming, but rather rethinking the basic abstractions that make up the operating systems model. Today's computers don't get enough performance out of their multicore chips, Probert said. 'Why should you ever, with all this parallel hardware, ever be waiting for your computer?' he asked. Probert made his presentation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Universal Parallel Computing Research Center."
That kernel architect (Score:1, Funny)
is Probertly right.
Re:Fist post! (Score:4, Funny)
Fist post!
I come to /. to read tech news... not so see people fisting.
Re:Fist post! (Score:0, Funny)
Re:Fist post! (Score:5, Funny)
I come to /. to read tech news... not so see people fisting.
Well, I came here to see the fisting. And frankly, so far this site has been a real disappointment.
Duh (Score:4, Funny)
Why should you ever, with all this parallel hardware, ever be waiting for your computer?'
For a lot of problems, for the same reason that some guy who just married 8 brides will still have to wait for his baby.
Re:Fist post! (Score:5, Funny)
That's actually pretty good typing with your fists. Do you have a comically large keyboard?
Re:This is new?! (Score:3, Funny)
now thats a program name that begs to be had fun with. Whoever named it that must have one impressive sense of irony.
Re:This is new?! (Score:2, Funny)
A: Restrict the time of daily torture to shortly before lunch, instead of afterwards or first thing in the morning. This goes slightly against my grateful learning of the Policy, but I believe it will improve appetite, reduce wasted corporate meal provisions, and it can reduce messes caused by bleeding on corporate property by allowing time for wounds to clot before work resumes.
B: Allow the compiler designers to breathe fresh air for an hour a day, in the evening before returning them to their chains in the boiler room. Most compiler designers will use the opportunity to weep quietly to themselves, which will advantageously clean soot from their eyes. Their temporarily improved eyesight will aid in morning productivity. Fresh air in the morning would be misconstrued as a reward for something, but in the evenings they'll be too exhausted from the standard seventy hours work to do anything but quietly babble and faint.
C: Use the whip at random after they've made their comments in our daily herding. Immediately whipping while they talk or right after discourages them from singling themselves out as disbelievers. When they are inevitably whipped, they'll naturally ask themselves why and your lesson will not go unheeded. Others being whipped at random will be that much more aware they shouldn't have listened, to the other lower workers.
D: The rigours of programming often take a toll on programmers eyes and hands, so reducing the pressure of clamps and other productivity devices attached might be more effective if used sparingly.
All hail to the management overlords. We obey, thou almighty ones. As I am but the brown haired guy from sub floor B, whom speaks to you with reverence. I eagerly await and deserve my anticipated punishments.
Humbly,
Systems Minion, B floor, seat 522.
Re:Microsoft's slowness and Windows 2005 (Score:2, Funny)
I am so glad I stopped using their products in 1999.
But you are still an asshole 11 years later! What gives?
Nothing to see here (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Fist post! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:This is new?! (Score:3, Funny)
Of course, you can do a bit more computing with 8 Q-bits than you can with 8 of the more mundane bits that the rest of us are using.
So an 8-bit quantum computer is the equivalent of a 9-bit standard computer?