[Info-vax] VMS Software needs to port VAX DIBOL to OpenVMS X86 platform

John Dallman jgd at cix.co.uk
Thu Dec 24 12:06:00 EST 2020


In article <rs2fpo$gsj$1 at gioia.aioe.org>, xxx.syseng.yyy at gfsys.co.uk
(Chris) wrote:

> Indeed, and with Microsoft building their own Arm server
> designs for their cloud and Apple ditching X86 for Arm
> in their machines, it's not a very big step to see Arm
> on the desktop in 2021.

No step at all: it's already happening. The ARM-based Macs are so quick
that they run x86-64 Mac software under the Rosetta II emulator faster
than Intel-based Macs. My employers are working on porting software to
ARM Mac, and it's going well so far.

There's going to be some lag time while other ARM manufacturers work out
how Apple has made their processors so fast and duplicate their work.
Windows and Linux already run on ARM, and that's going to become more
important for them. 

I reckon VSI should stay on their current course with the x86-64 port,
but should do so with an eye to a need to follow up with ARM. Clang and
LLVM are already mature technology on ARM, so there should not be any
need for switching compilers. 

John 



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