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F8 – an 8 bit architecture designed for C and memory efficiency [video]

(fosdem.org)
76 points mpweiher | 2 comments | 17 Feb 25 21:24 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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burjui ◴[20 Feb 25 14:35 UTC] No.43115148[source]▶
I wonder what's the point. 8 bits is not enough to store most values for most applications, it's bad for timers and multiplication, it's just a big waste of CPU cycles in general. The more work CPU has to do, the less time it spends sleeping, which is bad for battery-powered embedded devices. Perhaps, it has its place somewhere, but realistically, an 8-bit CPU these days is very niche at best. Imho, it's not going to take off in mainstream embedded.
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1. flohofwoe ◴[20 Feb 25 15:28 UTC] No.43115847[source]▶
OTH 8-bit floating point types are so hot right now in the GPU world:

https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/nvidia-arm-and-intel-publi...

Also, a simple 8-bit CPU like the 6502 is just 3.5k transistors while simple 16-bit CPUs like the x86 or 68k are somewhere between 30k and 70k transitors (e.g. I wonder if a 6502 running at full throttle still requires less energy than an x86 or 68k doing the same work in the same time).

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2. AlotOfReading ◴[20 Feb 25 16:35 UTC] No.43116788[source]▶
A minimal 16 bit system is something like a XAP [0] at 3,000 transistors. Incidentally, also a terrible architecture to program for.

I don't think any "real" x86 processor from the 286 onwards had under 100k transistors.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XAP_processor