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Author here! Thanks for posting :) Just want to make a brief note here that we raised a 4.5m seed round to found a tech startup, the Higher Order Company, to wo

Author here! Thanks for posting :) Just want to make a brief note here that we raised a 4.5m seed round to found a tech startup, the Higher Order Company, to work on the HVM. Our goal is to improve the runtime, the Kind language, and eventually build our own hardware. There are already several cool ideas on the pipeline, so expect exciting news and massive improvements soon!

antibasilisk 3y ago
Are you hiring?
- LightMachine 3y ago
  Yes, starting next week or so! We'll be looking for engineers that have skills relevant to our projects, including compilers, low-level assembly optimization, functional programming, type theory, parallel computing, and so on. Right now, we're quite busy with incorporation and bureaucracy, but you should see job postings in our to-be-released landing page (higherorderco.com) soon. Meanwhile, I answer DMs on Twitter (@VictorTaelin) and Discord (VictorTaelin#2253).
  - artemonster 3y ago
    Digital hardware engineers too?
    - LightMachine 3y ago
      Eventually, definitely, but less likely for this round.
  - nerpderp82 3y ago
    What are your thoughts around WebAssembly, Typed Assembly [1] and will you be using BlueSpec [2] to implement these ideas in hardware? [1] https://www.semanticscholar.org/search?q=typed%20assembly%20language&sort=relevance https://www.semanticscholar.org/search?q=typed%20assembly%20... namely, Greg Morrisett and Neal Glew's work https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/J.-G.-Morrisett/143649399 https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/J.-G.-Morrisett/14364... https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/MorrisettGreg/1643921721 https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/MorrisettGreg/1643921... (semantic scholar incorrectly thinks there are two Greg Morrisetts) https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/Neal-Glew/1710858 https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/Neal-Glew/1710858 [2] https://github.com/B-Lang-org/bsc https://github.com/B-Lang-org/bsc
    - LightMachine 3y ago
      I love WASM - who doesn't? Maintaining a WASM target was included on HOC's current fundraise, and is essential to our JIT plans. I don't know much about typed assembly, but I guess it would enable optimizations that aren't possible without types, as well as increased safety - although I wonder if that's relevant, if the source language is already typed? In general though, I think we should move away from procedural instructions towards "interactional" instructions. HVM's AST can be seen as an assembly language with high-level instructions like LAM-APP (lambda application) and FUN-CTR (pattern-matching), and that's possible precisely because beta reduction is O(1) on interaction nets. A hardware with HVM's interactional instructions could make let us break out of the Von Neumann bottleneck and make processors much faster. Here is a table of HVM's core instructions: .-----------------------------------------------------. | Opcode | Effect | Cost | |-----------|---------------------------------|-------| | APP-LAM | applies a lambda | 2 | | APP-SUP | applies a superposition | 4 | | OP2-NUM | operates on a number | 2 | | OP2-SUP | operates on a superposition | 4 | | FUN-CTR | pattern-matches a constructor | 2 + M | | FUN-SUP | pattern-matches a superposition | 2 + A | | DUP-LAM | clones a lambda | 4 | | DUP-NUM | clones a number | 2 | | DUP-CTR | clones a constructor | 2 + A | | DUP-SUP-0 | clones a superposition | 4 | | DUP-SUP-1 | undoes a superposition | 2 | | DUP-ERA | clones an erasure | 2 | |-----------------------------------------------------| I think BlueSpec is impressive and a good direction in the (arguably messy) hardware language domain. It is likely that we'll consider using it in our research and projects.
      - sroussey 3y ago
        The slowing of Moore’s Law was going to eventually lead to the loosening of the stranglehold that Von Nuemann machine design has on the industry. I’m glad to see things like this!
  - johntitorvm 3y ago
    Will be there jobs for early-career engineers? I have skills in Rust and a lot of interest in working on this project, but I only have one year of experience
kldx 3y ago
Congrats on the funding. Happy to hear!
haweemwho 3y ago
What do the GHC folks (or anybody from the Haskell community) say about your work?

antibasilisk 3y ago

Are you hiring?

LightMachine 3y ago
Yes, starting next week or so! We'll be looking for engineers that have skills relevant to our projects, including compilers, low-level assembly optimization, functional programming, type theory, parallel computing, and so on. Right now, we're quite busy with incorporation and bureaucracy, but you should see job postings in our to-be-released landing page (higherorderco.com) soon. Meanwhile, I answer DMs on Twitter (@VictorTaelin) and Discord (VictorTaelin#2253).
- artemonster 3y ago
  Digital hardware engineers too?
  - LightMachine 3y ago
    Eventually, definitely, but less likely for this round.
- nerpderp82 3y ago
  What are your thoughts around WebAssembly, Typed Assembly [1] and will you be using BlueSpec [2] to implement these ideas in hardware? [1] https://www.semanticscholar.org/search?q=typed%20assembly%20language&sort=relevance https://www.semanticscholar.org/search?q=typed%20assembly%20... namely, Greg Morrisett and Neal Glew's work https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/J.-G.-Morrisett/143649399 https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/J.-G.-Morrisett/14364... https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/MorrisettGreg/1643921721 https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/MorrisettGreg/1643921... (semantic scholar incorrectly thinks there are two Greg Morrisetts) https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/Neal-Glew/1710858 https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/Neal-Glew/1710858 [2] https://github.com/B-Lang-org/bsc https://github.com/B-Lang-org/bsc
  - LightMachine 3y ago
    I love WASM - who doesn't? Maintaining a WASM target was included on HOC's current fundraise, and is essential to our JIT plans. I don't know much about typed assembly, but I guess it would enable optimizations that aren't possible without types, as well as increased safety - although I wonder if that's relevant, if the source language is already typed? In general though, I think we should move away from procedural instructions towards "interactional" instructions. HVM's AST can be seen as an assembly language with high-level instructions like LAM-APP (lambda application) and FUN-CTR (pattern-matching), and that's possible precisely because beta reduction is O(1) on interaction nets. A hardware with HVM's interactional instructions could make let us break out of the Von Neumann bottleneck and make processors much faster. Here is a table of HVM's core instructions: .-----------------------------------------------------. | Opcode | Effect | Cost | |-----------|---------------------------------|-------| | APP-LAM | applies a lambda | 2 | | APP-SUP | applies a superposition | 4 | | OP2-NUM | operates on a number | 2 | | OP2-SUP | operates on a superposition | 4 | | FUN-CTR | pattern-matches a constructor | 2 + M | | FUN-SUP | pattern-matches a superposition | 2 + A | | DUP-LAM | clones a lambda | 4 | | DUP-NUM | clones a number | 2 | | DUP-CTR | clones a constructor | 2 + A | | DUP-SUP-0 | clones a superposition | 4 | | DUP-SUP-1 | undoes a superposition | 2 | | DUP-ERA | clones an erasure | 2 | |-----------------------------------------------------| I think BlueSpec is impressive and a good direction in the (arguably messy) hardware language domain. It is likely that we'll consider using it in our research and projects.
    - sroussey 3y ago
      The slowing of Moore’s Law was going to eventually lead to the loosening of the stranglehold that Von Nuemann machine design has on the industry. I’m glad to see things like this!
- johntitorvm 3y ago
  Will be there jobs for early-career engineers? I have skills in Rust and a lot of interest in working on this project, but I only have one year of experience

kldx 3y ago

Congrats on the funding. Happy to hear!

haweemwho 3y ago

What do the GHC folks (or anybody from the Haskell community) say about your work?