@sirjofri There are tons of different implementations out there, each one instantiating a different selection of extensions.

It's really looking like software will have to be compiled for individual processors rather than just having a 'risc-v' architecture like x86_64 or aarch64.

I think this will be sufficient to ensure it always sucks to use, just like XMPP.

@khm yeah, sounds legit. Although I must admit arm64s also have different feature sets, but they at least have a common instruction set

@sirjofri you can test for arm features. With RISC-V I think there's a register you have to query to find out what's going on. I guess we'll need to bring 'fat binaries' back.

Oh. I just realized what this actually means: people will only write enough software to get a browser started, and it'll be JITted javascript from there.

RISC-V even has a 'nonstandard extension' mechanism; I'm not sure how you're supposed to meaningfully query for those.

@khm I was more expecting people just write software dedicated to their one task they plan and basically run a specialized OS (or even just bare metal application) for risc-v and use protocols to interface with a higher-level OS running on an A-level arm or even a standard PC, whatever standard means

@khm I guess you can use the nonstandard extenstions for your own stuff, like, if you build your own risc-v variants for your own very specific use case.

I should dive deeper into lowlevel and hardware stuff. The A64 I target currently is nice, but the project is big and I have no experience.