One of my first paid gigs was to write a debugger for a RIP implemented in 2900 bitslice. It was a specialized SIMD architecture. The debugger was written in C and ran on the bootloader processor, which I recall being a 68k. Having taken an architecture course as an undergrad I sort of knew what I was doing, and microcode is inherently simple compared to, for example, 64-bit x86. I recall thinking "this is what a really wide PDP-11 would be like." The project was also interesting in that my customer was one person: The guy who designed the processor and who was writing the microcode.
actionfromafar
I sometimes wonder if not these CPUs are just waiting to have their power unleashed. Almost like FPGAs, they could be reprogrammed to have custom instructions by someone skilled.
sebow
I assume this does not support AMD? Or even a broader & better question: does AMD even have such undocumented instructions that allow the 'takeover' of the CPU?
marcodiego
Does this help us getting rid of IME?
TheDesolate0
SaulJLH
Can someone please explain to me like I'm a 5yo;
Why, if at all, this is significant?
It "seems" significant, but no real idea, TBH.