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Putting the "You" in CPU (2023)

Since the first time that I saw this here in HN I've been sharing it with several people around me. This including CS students, CS professors and non-technical people who only asked "how does a computer work?". I only say "just type 'cpu.land' and read that". This is one of the best things that I've found here.

4 hours agolucasoshiro

Meanwhile, companies are taking the "You" out of the CPU so they can control your hardware and by indirection, you.

7 hours agoamelius

How?

5 hours agohigh_na_euv

Secure boot etc. It's in every ARM device, including the management engines in x64 devices (which are ARM devices).

4 hours agoimmibis

Oh, I see.

Fortunely there is still x86

4 hours agohigh_na_euv

> Oh, I see.

No, you don't.

Because of the SMI/ACPI/Intel Management Engine/AMD Secure Technology/UEFI, and optionally AMT-complex, where usually only parts of can be deactivated partially, but never all of it.

It's actually more bad than the above mentioned ARM-stuff, which is misinformed(maybe because of raspberry piish broadcomisms, or locked down dumbphones), because on ARM, you either can disable that stuff, or even can run your own instead.

https://www.trustedfirmware.org/projects/op-tee/

https://github.com/OP-TEE

https://docs.kernel.org/next/tee/op-tee.html

4 hours agoLargoLasskhyfv

I think this is a good overview for most people, this is probably what they want.

For me personally I was surprised given the name that very little is about cpus and most of the material is in the operating system.

2 hours agoIsamu

I guess I gotta write one about CPUs now ;)

4 minutes agoarchmaster

> The bottom of every page is padded so readers can maintain a consistent eyeline.

God bless

2 hours agoCagedCoder

Great introduction to programming fundamentals as well.

Being able to explain something this simply usually requires a very good understanding of the entire subject.

6 hours agoitopaloglu83

Great presentation.

7 hours agodrob518

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