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Comment by Swizec | Hacker News Reader

The last carburetors in the US were in 1994 ISUZU trucks. [1] Some motorcycles still use them for simplicity and the last NASCAR season with carburetors was 2011.

And anyway, why are we still teaching people how a CPU without branch prediction works? When will we let go of old technologies?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carburetor#History_and_develop...

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> And anyway, why are we still teaching people how a CPU without branch prediction works? When will we let go of old technologies?

Fuel injection systems have replaced carburators. Branch predictors haven't replaced anything, if you want to compare them with any engine that would be turbo chargers (i.e. they're optional).

I'm not sure comparing CPUs with engines makes a lot of sense though.

You can find them in the inboard motors on many not-so-old boats. My 10 year old Mercruiser uses one (although I think the newer Mercruisers have all shifted to EFI). I found the site to be very instructive. I'm always interested in learning more about how the engine in my boat works in case there's anything I can repair at home instead of taking it to the shop. I think a lot of the information on the site is transferable seeing as how mine is essentially a GM produced 'car-engine' mounted in a hull (minus a transmission and some other things).

Hi, I'm Maciek, I work on compilers. I would love to know how branch prediction in modern CPUs work, sadly they won't tell me (trade secrets).

You should really improve your metaphors.

Just search ACM for branch prediction papers at ASPLOS or similar conferences and look for corporate affiliation. IBM, Intel, and others routinely publish this stuff. It's usually patented first, so you can also check the USPTO.

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