CPU/Hardware optimized for Erlang

[Thomas Lindgren]

--- Marc van Woerkom
<Marc.Vanwoerkom@REDACTED> wrote:

> Has there been any cpu/hardware design optimized
> for Erlang?
> 
> Would one aim for a beam virtual machine in hardware
> or something more lowlevel, but still optimized
> somehow?

The canonical example is probably ECOMP

http://www.erlang.se/euc/00/processor.ppt

The BEAM originates in the WAM, which was intended for
hardware implementation (well, microcode on a VAX).
The details depend on what you want to do :-)

I'm normally skeptical to special-purpose hardware for
specific programming languages -- such chips have
always gotten steamrollered by the killer micros.
Instead, my advice would be to try to target an
application niche, a problem. Graphics cards, network
processors, the APZ, ... are all intended for
applications, not languages. And have been fairly
successful to boot.

Best,
Thomas



		
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