hardware objects - LeFreq/Singularity GitHub Wiki

Hardware "objects" allow all of the other objects in the data ecosystem to be hardware independent.

XXX This is a misnomer. These are not objects. They are termination points that ground the object model to the hardware.

Consider a DEVICE identifier in the OS. The identifier could abstract the actual hardware addressing used by the hardware system (a 16-slot bus for example would use 4 binary bits to select and address the hardware in the slot itself.). So GPU as a symbol and hardware ID in the OS would map to slot #4: \b0100. Writing "myObject >> GPU" would send the next dataword from myObject over the hardware bus to the GPU, automatically raising the pins to select slot #4 (\b0100). (or consider SLOT0100 as the identifier and GPU as a alias.)

Hardware objects will probably have a special language syntax to attach to other (standard) objects. API follows? standard objects:

Consdier these hardware outputs:

• STDOUT
• PRINTER
• USB_SSD
• INTERNET (sends pre-structured data to TCP/IP network)

A getstate query on a hardware device should get an 64-bit ID from the device. This data can be sent to a object holding ID database on an external device via a TEE type command ?PRINTER | TEE FLOPPY:\Object_DBase and returns the English translation of the device ID.

They should not have standard object API, but a universal hardware API that all hardware conforms to:

• get/setstate of the device, returning a word (?HARDWARE for getting state, or SET_HARDWARE(setstate_hexcode))
• read/write a word to/from the device HARDWARE >> HardwareObject; myObject >> HARDWARE.
• Get ID from device for plug-and-play functionality (HARDWARE(GETID))

Such devices are like StdIn on Unix, but expand to other devices. If you want to store an object into the persistent stroage "cloud" you simple send an object to it.

Bits could be sacrificed to do all of this within the machine word or separate control lines to select data that belongs to 1 of 2 states (a meta-like get/receive hardware info OR get/recv datalines) and one of the 1 of 2 data flows.

2 Control lines (in addition to bus address selection and the DATA BUS):

• 1: ON means the next word is for hardware control SETSTATE, receive to peripheral (network card, GPU card, etc.) data bus
• 1: OFF means the next word is for hardware control GETSTATE, receive on CPU data bus.
• 2: ON means the next word is for data WRITE (to peripheral)
• 2: OFF means the next word is for data READ (from peripheral).