Lore

As the son of a German father and a Polish mother who was raised in Germany, I have always been curious to learn more about my Polish family and culture. Having learned Polish as a second mother tongue, I grew up listening to Polish fairy tales and children's stories. This sparked my interest in Polish and Slavic folk tales. The processor architecture is named after Leszy¹, an old Slavic nature spirit, in its Polish spelling.

Leszy (pronounced [lɛʂɨ]) is a tutelary deity of the forest in the Slavic mythology. He is often depicted in illustrations as a bearded man with long hair, and sometimes with horns or antlers. However, as a shapeshifter he can take on any form or size he desires, including that of animals such as bears or wolves, as well as plants such as trees and bushes. It is said, that it is easier to hear a Leszy than to see him. His voice can imitate the wind in the trees or the rustling of leaves.

As a forest protector a Leszy punishes those who do not treat the forest with respect. These punishments can range from frightening visions that cause people to get lost in the forest of fall ill, to death by tickle. Conversely, a Leszy can protect and help humans who respectfully ask for it. For example, hunters who refrain from taking more prey than is permitted or only hunting on designated days may receive assistance from a Leszy in the form of herds of pray being led towards the hunter or his traps.

The forest spirit Leszy shares several similarities with the Leszy processor architecture. The processor's underlying out-of-order superscalar architecture represents the unpredictable and wild nature of an old forest and its protector. At first, both seem to behave randomly and chaotically, but with a deeper understanding, one can recognize the patterns and structures that tie everything together. One of the processor's unique features will be its ability to dynamically reconfigure, which is a direct analogy to the forest spirit's shapeshifting abilities.

The sharp contrast of naming a highly technological thing such as a processor architecture, after an ancient nature spirit is deliberate. With all the surrounding technology, we sometime forget that we are part of this planet's nature, that we depend on it, and that we should be respectful of it. This does not mean that we should not use the nature and its resources, but we should be aware of our impact we have on nature and, consequently, on ourselves.