The computer at the bottom of a canal
Summary
The article revisits the Rekursiv project from Linn, detailing its object-oriented hardware with hardware-enforced memory safety, a unified memory-disk store, and four gate-array chips. It explains why the design faded against the rise of commodity processors, and draws a modern parallel to CHERI-style security ideas, arguing that many Rekursiv concepts persist in today’s workload-specific silicon and memory-safety initiatives. The piece uses the canal anecdote to illustrate cyclical technology patterns and the tension between innovation and the commodity curve.