Some years ago, I tried downgrading to a 200 MHz computer from a 2000 MHz computer as an experiment, to see what parts of the GNU/Linux experience would be least and most painful at the lower speed. I found that web browsers were the main pain point. Playing videos was also almost impossible but not a deal-breaker. But most everything else ran sufficiently quickly at 200 MHz. Mind you I don't so video-editing or anything. Recently I've noticed the co-existence of processor architectures in Linux, namely the "big-little" arrangement of 64-bit and 32-bit ARMs. It seems to be a useful strategy for handling the two levels of engagement-- CPU intensive (2GHz) versus let us say keyboard-intensive (0.2GHz). I do not know whether the 32-bit CPU is the (master) bootstrap processor or the (slave) application processor in these systems, or even whether to separate kernels are running cooperatively. But it occurs to me that if it were possible to build a computer that uses a slower CPU of a less common architecture most of the time, such as MIPS or the 100%-free OpenRISC, so that the kernel only invokes the x86 processor when compute-intensive tasks are being run such as web browsing and video playback, then perhaps this would be an even better strategy than ARM's big-little (TM) approach because most malware writers are focused on x86 and ARM, hence this would give the system a greater degree of security albeit only "security by obscurity". A further advantage: If the main processor were something designed-and-refined to be good at security, like not allowing some of the exploits that make the x86 so attractive for malware writers, I could imagine a system where there are two risk levels: Low risk for the bootstrap CPU, and higher risk on the application processor. So my question is, is it really possible for the Linux kernel to support two very different architectures simultaneously? And can an x86 be relegated to a lower status or does it typically want to be the bootstrap processor? Thanks. AM ____________________________________________________________ Can't remember your password? Do you need a strong and secure password? Use Password manager! It stores your passwords & protects your account. Check it out at http://mysecurelogon.com/manager -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-smp" in
