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elucidator
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Guest18
hi
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Guest18
will hashing goes up if we remove microcode from cpus
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sech1
If you remove microcode from cpus, you'll get nice paperweights instead of cpus
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moneromoooo
But fast paperweights ?
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moneromoooo
I think what was meant is, if Intel were to remove the programmability layer there to hardcode what it currently does.
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sech1
microcode is only used for complex instructions which are rarely used
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sech1
In RandomX, only CFROUND translates to instructions that use microcode
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Guest18
maybe microcode remove hidden specs from cpus
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Guest18
or better keeps hiden some specifics specs
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Guest18
sorry for my english
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elucidator
poor guy, if he thinks the microcode is the only way cpu manufacturer can put "hidden features" he'll be shocked when he learns manufacturer makes the hardware itself...
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Guest18
where motherboard manufacturer insert more code except cpus
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Guest18
we are not talking about servers that have management cpu
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moneromoooo
Various chips have "firmware" that get run on boot.
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moneromoooo
There's always the silicon that can have code that gets activated by seeing some trigger data (eg, network cards scanning for packets with some predefined bit pattern).
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moneromoooo
There are various "negative ring" layers, I forget now. The big one used to be the... EMM I think it was called ? Massive bunch of stuff your hypervisor doesn't see.
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moneromoooo
The "management engine" type stuff, which IIRC is different, but there's so much nowadays.
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moneromoooo
The baseband processor for phones. I totally dropped off that stuff ages ago, too much to keep track of. Basically, we're fucked in plemty of interesting ways.
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sech1
risc-v to the rescue :D
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Guest21
is libreboot the bets solution right now?
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elucidator
moneromoooo: like the Intel amt?
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Guest21
no i mean to run a computer without hidden code
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Guest21
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Guest21
this one is a good example
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m-relay
<4rkal:matrix.org> Could a highly optimized Linux kernel improve hashrate? Is it worth my time to optimize?
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moneromoooo
Improving kernel performance is good regardless.
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moneromoooo
But to your question, I doubt it will make any difference at all.
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sech1
Maybe playing with spectre/meltdown and other mitigations can affect hashrate. Not just disabling, you can test both options
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hyc
a simple optimization could be just to delete support for all but the most fundamental of features.
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hyc
a single type of storage device driver, a single specific network driver. boot up and run miner, nothing else.
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hyc
no dynamically loaded modules; dynamic linkage is a 5% overhead all on its own
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hyc
another approach - integrate miner into a unikernel.
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hyc
no user mode context switches at all