Everything is memory (paraphrasing UNIX paradigm)

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baldr

Joined: 19 Mar 2008
Posts: 1651

baldr 25 Sep 2010, 18:31

With all that MMF/MMIO stuff, can we get to the point where everything could be treated as some region in memory? x86-64 got pretty much of available logical/linear memory to allocate. I thought about that for a couple of years, yet there is at least one obstacle: I/O completion. Both sides of communication have to have some means to notify other end of tube that the transfer is complete.

If anybody is interested, I can arrange an essay on my proceedings.

25 Sep 2010, 18:31

edfed

Joined: 20 Feb 2006
Posts: 4330
Location: Now

edfed 25 Sep 2010, 18:40

learn IBM AS400. it is exactlly this kind of concept, everything in memory (address space) but it needs many more than a X86 to achieve that because of the limited adress bus. even X86-64 is limited to 40 bits on phisical adress bus, leading to under capabilities compared to as400.

25 Sep 2010, 18:40

baldr

Joined: 19 Mar 2008
Posts: 1651

baldr 25 Sep 2010, 18:54

edfed,

I slightly know AS/400 (why do you think I've mentioned MMIO?). The idea is to interact with any device through a region in memory.

USB Flash? Read/write at xxxx, it will be updated properly. Scanner? Write parameters to yyyy, read scanned image from zzzz. Mouse? Read coordinates from tttt, write to wwww to make it shake/blink/explode. Wink

Real interaction will be done by drivers, like MMF. Physical address bitness has nothing to do with that.

25 Sep 2010, 18:54

f0dder

Joined: 19 Feb 2004
Posts: 3175
Location: Denmark

f0dder 25 Sep 2010, 21:26

I'd say you still need an interrupt mechanism for a lot of devices. Or, I guess an alternative could be a read instruction that doesn't return until the device signals it's ready - you could shoehorn an interrupt mechanism on top of that.

Would be nice if the platform had super-fast generic DMA - copying more than a few kilobyte? Set up a DMA transfer and do something else while it's going on.

25 Sep 2010, 21:26

edfed

Joined: 20 Feb 2006
Posts: 4330
Location: Now

edfed 25 Sep 2010, 21:45

baldr wrote:

edfed,

I slightly know AS/400 (why do you think I've mentioned MMIO?). The idea is to interact with any device through a region in memory.

USB Flash? Read/write at xxxx, it will be updated properly. Scanner? Write parameters to yyyy, read scanned image from zzzz. Mouse? Read coordinates from tttt, write to wwww to make it shake/blink/explode.

Real interaction will be done by drivers, like MMF. Physical address bitness has nothing to do with that.

yep, it is a global idea, and it can be achieved in many ways.
me too i am coding my stuff with this idea in mind.
everything is memory, and memory is file.
even CPU internal registers to be parts of the file system.

the problem i mainly meet for the moment is the referencing of this memory.
global? local? relative? absolute? indexed?

but it is just a concept, the application is little more complex. and needs a very well designed code. something very difficult and long to do.

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25 Sep 2010, 21:45

guignol

Joined: 06 Dec 2008
Posts: 763

guignol 27 Sep 2010, 12:04

Everything is paradigm (no paraphrasing, none at all)

27 Sep 2010, 12:04

baldr

Joined: 19 Mar 2008
Posts: 1651

baldr 27 Sep 2010, 14:30

guignol,

Do you have something to say (apart from being a guignol)?

27 Sep 2010, 14:30

guignol

Joined: 06 Dec 2008
Posts: 763

guignol 28 Sep 2010, 12:28

bold r... bold r... revolution?

28 Sep 2010, 12:28

revolution
When all else fails, read the source

Joined: 24 Aug 2004
Posts: 20289
Location: In your JS exploiting you and your system

revolution 28 Sep 2010, 12:38

guignol wrote:

bold r... bold r... revolution?

This has been mentioned before:

http://board.flatassembler.net/topic.php?p=85164#85164

28 Sep 2010, 12:38

MHajduk

Joined: 30 Mar 2006
Posts: 6115
Location: Poland

MHajduk 28 Sep 2010, 12:56

guignol wrote:

bold r... bold r... revolution?

Reminds some abbreviation... maybe we could "decipher" it this way:

baldr -> B. Al. Dr. -> Doctor Alex B.

Wink

No offense, baldr, just kidding. Razz

28 Sep 2010, 12:56

revo1ution

Joined: 04 Mar 2010
Posts: 34
Location: somewhere, twiddling something

revo1ution 29 Sep 2010, 10:43

guignol wrote:

bold r... bold r... revolution?

revolution... revo1ution...

around and around Razz

29 Sep 2010, 10:43

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