The Unreasonable Ineffectiveness of Machine Learning in Computer Systems Research
In 1960, the physicist Eugene Wigner wrote a famous essay titled “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences” in which he explored the question of why mathematics is so remarkably useful in the natural sciences. A contemporary example of...
Geocomputers and the Commercial Borg
Although the desktop is largely an after-thought market of modern computer companies, many computer architects conceptualize modern computers as essentially a miniaturized desktop with some attached I/O widgets. In that computer, we take an ISA-centric definition that takes us back to the halcyon days of the RISC/CISC wars. Servers are x86 and run Linux. Mobile devices are ARM and run iOS/Android. But our emerging applications do not run on a single machine on our desk. A single application executes across many machines of diverse types that are strategically positioned across the planet. It is no longer appropriate to characterize them by what ISA or operating system is used. It is time that we update our mental model of the architecture of the computer that these applications run on today.
Welcome to Computer Architecture Today!
These are exciting times for the field of computer architecture. This blog is meant to be the place for all things computer architecture. Before we can talk about all the exciting activity, we have to get something out of the way.
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