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by fluoridation 1079 days ago
Modern computers are VMs all the way down. x86 is also not implemented in hardware. The x86 machine is actually a VM running on top of the microarchitecture.

Also, browsers are no less general purpose computers than physical computers are. There's nothing you can compute in one that you can't compute on the other.
1 comments
layer8 1079 days ago
Why aren’t we seeing browser computers then, if they are analogous as you argue? My point is the reasons why we are not seeing them points to where they are actually not analogous.
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fluoridation 1078 days ago
There are several reasons.

1. There's no software specifically developed for webassembly, unlike for x86, ARM, and the other architectures.

2. Webassembly itself was designed by software people, not hardware people. As such, it's probably doesn't make as much sense to implement directly in hardware. Doubly so when combined with reason #1.

3. Webassembly doesn't belong to any hardware manufacturer, and therefore nobody has any incentive to introduce a line of native webassembly machines.

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