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The 30 million line problem

• Source

• #todo The ecological benefits of fire

• #todo Arrakis: The Operating System is the Control Plane

Principles

• Simplification makes our systems more reliable

Takeaways

• Simplification of the interface to hardware can increase our reliability writing software

Related (random) thoughts

Is there a way the market can incentivize this? Perhaps a particularly good (even extraordinary) device that forces everyone else to move in this direction, like the iPhone did when it was first release.

Notes

• Hardware quality is at is historical best.
  • My question here is if this is just a function of size and speed compared to the past. Are there other metrics by which we are at the historical best?
• Software quality is at is historical worst
  • Is software worst by a function of itself? Or by compounding complexities in the hardware?
• OS design is not getting simpler, but more and more complex.
  • Linux code base has grown exponentially.
  • Isn't that due to it handling hardward complexity? Yes. (*)`Here I wrote the answer since I was writing as I typed, and himself said so.`
• Using an application becomes a function of all the underlying layers.
  • He points out that getting a response from a web server, might take 55M LoC. Albeit, not all code paths light up, but you need to understand all of that to know which paths are at play.
• He refers to simplifying as a wild fire.
  • I'll read this later The ecological benefits of fire
• Hardware has gotten really complicated due to the enablement of using generic interfaces (He mentions usb)
• He proposes we need to simplify hardware first.
  • System on a Chip (SoC) are a step in the right direction.
  • Are there OS designed solely for SoCs? Is android that?
• Modelling an x64_84 ISA (Instruction Set Architecture) as an SoC could simplify the entire ecosystem.
  • ISA is the definition of how the memory layout is interpreted by the hardware.
  • Having a defined ISA can remove the need for driver layers.
  • Consistent ISA would mean an ecosystem of software that can reliably be executed in different consumer devices.
  • Simplify NIC (Network Interface Card), SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment), USB and Video interface
• After getting to the simpler defined ISA, we need a simpler OS for that ISA.
• Everything boils down to moving memory around.
• Hardware this days is not more complicated necessarily, but communicating with it and using it has too many layers.