Author

Paul Bone

Conference

Melbourne Haskell User Group

Date

July 26, 2018

Conference

Melbourne C++ Meetup

Date

May 14, 2019

Slides

Slides

Abstract

There's a very good chance that you're reading this on an x86_64, super-scalar, hyper threaded, 64bit, multicore, computer, with SSE, AVX and a bunch of other extensions of the instruction set (if you're using a computer at all, and not a mobile device). If that's the case did you know that as far as CPU compatibility is concerned it'll happily run MSDOS? Yes, a 16bit operating system from 36 years ago!

Intel, AMD and others have achieved this dramatic evolution from 16bit through 32bit to 64bit computing without breaking backward compatibility, (at least with popular software and features). This presentation will describe this evolution, kludges and clever innovations.