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by jmorse2 1245 days ago
As there's something about branch prediction on the front page right now, "The slow winter" [0] is well worth a read too because a) We should remember the magma people are waiting for our mistakes, and b) the branches really did make a pact with an adversary, resulting in the spectre CPU vulnerabilities we know and love today.

(It really is worth a read; James Mickens is indeed a national treasure).

[0] https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/mickens/files/theslowwinte...

2 comments

"If her hard disk is active for more than a second per hour, or if her CPU utilization goes above 4%, she either has a computer virus, or she made the disastrous decision to run a Java program"
Thank you for the rabbit hole, I look forward to the day when I see a scrawl on the wall saying “THE MAGMA PEOPLE ARE WAITING FOR OUR MISTAKES.” and being able to nod sagely whilst others are wondering what aliens wrote this.