/tech/ - Technology

The image you posted is code prediction where the CPU microcode predicts the code path so it can keep the pipeline full during a fork in the code path. Thus it doesn't know what the user wants to do, it doesn't even know a user exists, it just looks ahead in the code and makes a prediction so it can prefetch data.

>>16998
It's a branch predictor driving a prefetcher.

>>16999
what does that mean

>>16998
that's good
i'll keep making unpredictable moves so the pc doesn't know it's alive

TGEBAWIRTH80OHTRUWOEHTEO HWETHATWT T

gotcha bitch

>>16995
Wait didn't Intel processors already do something similar that led to many exploits like Meltdown and Spectre?

>>17041
>what does that mean
imagine the processor getting instructions like people queuing in a supermarket to get to the cashiers.
this stuff just organizes the people to optimally load each cashier with customers and items to scan.
It does not really work like this, but this is just a simplification to give you at least some idea.
when this stuff got introduced it was a huge deal, processors more than doubled in performance with this one simple trick.

>>16995
didn't this exact branch prediction bullshit cause huge security vulnerabilities in the past aka SPECTRE/MELTDOWN, etc.?

>>17041
When you open a program, it is loaded into the memory. The CPU can only hold a small number of instructions in its own store, when it is done with them, it has to fetch instructions from memory. This is slow. The prefetcher tries to fetch the next instructions from memory before the CPU actually needs them so they are ready to be executed as soon as the CPU is ready. This speeds things up.

A branch is a decision point in the code. Based on some condition, different code will be executed. A branch predictor tries to predict what decision will be made. Based on this, the prefetcher will load the instructions that will be needed after the branch. If the prediction was wrong, the loaded instructions will be useless and the correct instructions will have to be fetched, and the CPU will have to wait until they arrive from the memory, slowing things down.

>>17045
>>17048
Branch prediction is commonplace, the image's claim of novelty is that they are using Artificial Intelligence™ in it.

>>17050
I'm sure there's no way this will lead to catastrophic security vulnerabilities that will get found in a decade or so.

>>17054
You have a head start in finding and exploiting them, don't let the opportunity be wasted.

>>17058
>You have a head start in finding and exploiting them, don't let the opportunity be wasted.
Sure just hop into your time machine and go back to 2018.
it's actually quite funny how pathetic lefty /tech/ boards are

>>17062
what's wrong in this thread

>>17062
Uhhhhhhh ok