Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by insoluble 3934 days ago
If we can agree that low-level hardware such as CPUs are essentially physical software, then it would seem that there are many bug-free software pieces out there. Many operating systems these days seem to have perfect or near perfect memory and thread management. Kernel mode drivers in general require a high level of quality since bugs usually mean death. User mode is where things get sloppy, and front-end Web Development is where things often get extra sloppy.
1 comments
wglb 3933 days ago
it would seem that there are many bug-free software pieces out there.

I don't think that you can consider CPUs to be bug-free. Just to pick one, Intel got SYSRET wrong: https://blog.xenproject.org/2012/06/13/the-intel-sysret-priv...

link
greenyoda 3933 days ago
And don't forget the famous Pentium division bug in the 1990s:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_FDIV_bug

link
chrisBob 3932 days ago
The fact that the famous Pentium division bug is still being talked about speaks highly of processors as bug-free software.
link
insoluble 3933 days ago
I never said they were all bug-free. I am aware that there have been some problems over the years, but the track record seems much better with CPUs than with most things having what could be called advanced programming.
link
wglb 3931 days ago
Having a game over user to kernel exploit available for who knows how long is not my idea of anywhere near bug-free.

And who knows what happens or what bugs are fixed when intel/amd push new firmware to the chip.

link