Monthly Archives: June 2020

ISCA, the International Symposium for Computer Architecture is an IEEE conference that usually we dont tend to hear from all that often in the public. The main reason for this is that most sessions and papers tend to be more academically oriented, and thus generally quite a bit further away from the practice of what we see in real products. This year, the conference has changed its format in adding an industry track of sessions, with presentations and papers from various companies in the industry, covering actual commercial products out there in the wild.

Amongst the sessions, Samsungs SARC (Samsung Austin R&D Centre) CPU development team has presented a paper titled Evolution of the Samsung Exynos CPU Architecture, detailing the teams efforts over its 8-year existence, and presented some key characteristics of its custom Arm CPU cores ranging from the Exynos M1, to the most recent Exynos M5 CPU as well as the unreleased M6 design.

As a bit of background, Samsungs SARC CPU team was established in 2011 to develop custom CPU cores that Samsung LSI would then deploy in its Exynos SoCs, ranging from the first-generation Exynos 8890 released in 2015 in the Galaxy S7, up till the most recent Exynos 990 with its M5 cores in the Galaxy S20. SARC had completed the M6 microarchitecture before the CPU team had gotten news of it being disbanded in October of 2019, effective last December.

The ISCA paper is a result of Samsungs willingness to publish some of the development teams ideas that were considered worthy of preserving in the public, essentially representing a high-level burn-through of 8 years of development.

The paper presents a gross overview table of the microarchitectural differences between Samsungs custom CPU cores:

The disclosure covers some of the well-known characteristics of the design as had been disclosed by Samsung in its initial M1 CPU microarchitecture deep dive at HotChips 2016, to the more recent M3 deep dive at HotChips 2018. It gives us an insight into the new M4 and M5 microarchitectures that we had measured in our S10 and S20 reviews, as well as a glimpse of what the M6 would have been.

The one key characteristic of Samsungs design was over the years, it was based off the same blueprint RTL that was started off with the M1 core in 2011, with continuous improvements of the functional blocks of the cores over the years. The M3 had been a big change in the design, widening the core substantially in several aspects, such as going from a 4-wide design to a 6-wide mid-core.

The new disclosures that werent public before regard the new M5 and M6 cores. For the M5, Samsung had made bigger changes to the cache hierarchy of the cores, such as replacing private L2 caches with a new bigger shared cache, as well as disclosing a change in the L3 structure from a 3-bank design to a 2-bank design with less latency.

The unreleased M6 core that had been in development was seemingly to be a bigger jump in terms of the microarchitecture. The SARC team here had prepared large improvements, such as doubling the L1 instruction and data caches from 64KB to 128KB a design choice thats currently only been implemented before by Apples CPU cores starting with the A12.

The L2 is said to have been doubled in its bandwidth capabilities to up to 64B/cycle, and also there would have been an increase in the L3 from 3 to 4MB.

The M6 would have been an 8-wide decode core, which as far as we know would have been the widest commercial microarchitecture that we know of at least on the decode side of things.

Interestingly, even though the core would have been much wider, the integer execution units wouldnt have changed all that much, just seeing one complex pipeline adding a second integer division capability, whilst the load/store pipelines would have remained the same as on the M5 with 1 load unit, 1 store unit, and one 1 load/store unit.

On the floating-point/SIMD pipelines we would have seen an additional fourth unit with FMAC capabilities.

The TLBs would have seen some large changes, such as the L1 DTLB being increased from 48 pages to 128 pages, and the main TLB doubling from 4K pages to 8K pages (32MB coverage).

The M6 would also have ben the first time since the M3 that the out-of-order window of the core would have been increased, with larger integer and floating-point physical register files, and an increase in the ROB (Reorder buffer) from 228 to 256.

One key weakness of the SARC cores seems to still have been present in the M5 and upcoming M6 core, and thats its deeper pipelines stages resulting in a relatively expensive 16-cycle mispredict penalty, quite higher than Arms more recent designs which fall in at 11 cycles.

The paper goes into more depth into the branch predictor design, showcasing the cores Scaled Hashed Perceptron based design. The design had been improved continuously over the years and implementations, improving the branch accuracy and thus reducing the MPKI (mis-predicts per kilo-instructions) continuously.

An interesting table thats showcased is the amount of storage structures that the branch predictor takes up within the front-end, in KBytes:

Were not aware of any other vendor ever having disclosed such figures, so its interesting to put things into context of what a modern front-end has to house in terms of storage (and this is *just* the branch predictor).

The paper goes onto further detail onto the cores prefetching methodologies, covering the introduction of a OP cache in the M5 generation, as well as the teams efforts into hardening the core against security vulnerabilities such as Spectre.

The paper further describes efforts by the SARC team to improve memory latency over the generations. In the M4 core, the team had included a load-load cascade mechanism that reduced the effective L1 cycle latency from 4 cycles to 3 on subsequent loads. The M4 had also introduced a path bypass with a new interface from the CPU cores directly to the memory controllers, avoiding traffic through the interconnect, which explains some of the bigger latency improvements that weve seen in the Exynos 9820. The M5 had introduced speculative cache lookup bypasses, issuing a request to both the interconnect and the cache tags simultaneously, possibly saving on latency in case of a cache miss as the memory request is already underway. The average load latency had been continuously improved over the generations, from 14.9 cycles on the M1 down to 8.3 cycles on the M6.

In terms of IPC improvements, the SARC team had managed to get to an average of 20% annual improvements over the 8 years of development. The M3 had been in particular a big jump in IPC as seen in the graph. The M5 roughly correlates to what weve seen in our benchmarks, at around 15-17% improvement. IPC for the M6 is disclosed at having ended up at an average of 2.71 versus 1.06 for the M1, and the graph here generally seems to indicate a 20% improvement over the M5.

During the Q&A of the session, the papers presenter, Brian Grayson, had answered questions about the programs cancellation. He had disclosed that the team had always been on-target and on-schedule with performance and efficiency improvements with each generation. It was stated that the teams biggest difficulty was in terms of being extremely careful with future design changes, as the teamnever had the resources to completely start from scratch or completely rewrite a block. It was said that with hindsight, the teamwould have done different choices in the past with of some of the design directions. This serial design methodology comes in contrast to Arms position, havingmultiple leapfrogging design centres and CPU teams, allowing them to do things such as ground-upre-designs, such the Cortex-A76.

The team had plenty of ideas for improvements for upcoming cores such as the M7, but the decision to cancel the program was said to have come from very high up at Samsung. The SARC CPU cores were never really that competitive, suffering from diminished power efficiency, performance, and area usage compared to Arms designs. With Arms latest Cortex-X1 divulged last week going for all-out performance, it looks to me that SARCs M6 design would have had issues competing against it.

The paper's authors areextremely thankful for Samsungs graciousness in allowing the publication of the piece, and thankthe SARC leadership for their management over the years on this moonshot CPU project. SARC currently still designs custom interconnects, memory controllers, as well as working on custom GPU architectures.

Go here to see the original:

ISCA 2020: Evolution of the Samsung Exynos CPU Microarchitecture - AnandTech

The Black Sea coast of Crimea, vacationing on the beaches Gurzuf

Even hardened Soviet women werent above putting on skimpy bikinis and showing off their bodies! This is how the gradual transition took place.

Its hard to picture a working woman or a kolkhoznitsa (collective farmer) in a swimsuit - let alone a bikini, wouldnt you say? In these rare 1920-30s photos, we can often glimpse swimsuits with little shorts, and on rare occasions encounter what would become the future bikini (invented by Parisian fashion designer Jacques Heim in 1946), albeit with the belly button still covered up.

The first bikinis began to appear in the USSR only in the 1950s. Open strapless tops elicited shocked reactions - worn mostly by actresses or members of the bohemian circle. However, the high-cut bottoms - which we refer to as retro today - would not go out of style until the start of the 1980s. During the period this photo was taken, however, many women still felt a bit uneasy about exposing their bodies, and preferred one-piece swimsuits.

The 1960s saw much more frequent bikinis. During that decade, the belly button was finally freed. However, swimsuits and certain other wardrobe items were in a substantial deficit, so the fashion lovers of the day made their own with chintz, satin and other available materials they could get their hands on.

Yacht outings, 1963

People vacationing on the beach in Sochi, 1960s

At the beach in Estonian SSR, 1960s

At the Palanga resort, Lithuanian SSR, 1964

Its 1969. The cult movie Brilliantovaya Ruka (The Diamond Hand) had come out, in which Svetlana Svetlichnaya showed up in a very provocative bikini by the standards of that day. She played a cunning seductress, and forever earned a reputation of a sex symbol of Soviet cinema (as well as the envy of every Soviet woman).

Still from The Diamond Arm

In the 1970s-80s, an opportunity finally arose to get ones hands on super-expensive - but incredibly trendy - Western swimwear. The beaches were starting to come alive with colorful swimwear and various new fashion trends. And, finally, the first skimpy bottoms appeared on the scene - the bikini had arrived.

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The evolution of the bikini in the Soviet Union (PHOTOS) - Russia Beyond

What is and is not possible for natural evolution may be explained using models and calculations from theoretical physics, say researchers in Japan.

Theoretically, every component of every chemical in every cell of all living organisms could vary independently of all the others, a situation researchers refer to as high dimensionality. In reality, evolution does not produce every possible outcome.

Experts have consistently noticed that organisms seem to be restricted to a low level of dimensionality, meaning that their essential building blocks appear to be linked to each other. For example, if A increases, then B always decreases.

Bacteria have thousands of types of proteins, so in theory those could be thousands of dimensional points in different environments. However, we see the variation fits a one-dimensional curve or low-dimensional surface regardless of the environment, said Professor Kunihiko Kaneko, a theoretical biology expert from the University of Tokyo Research Center for Complex Systems Biology and an author of the recent research publication.

To explain this low dimensionality, researchers simplified the natural world to fit idealized physics models and searched for any mathematical structure within biological complexity.

Researchers have long used statistical physics models to characterize certain materials transitions from nonmagnetic to magnetic states. Those models use simplified representations of the spinning electrons in magnets. If the spins are aligned, the ensemble of spins shows ordered and magnetic arrangement. When the spins lose alignment, there is a transition to a disordered and nonmagnetic state. In the researchers model of biology, instead of a spin being up or down, a gene could be active or inactive.

We applied the same method to this experiment, to observe what conditions were necessary to go from a disordered, high-dimensionality state to an ordered, low-dimensionality state, said Associate Professor Ayaka Sakata from the Institute of Statistical Mathematics in Tokyo, first author of the research publication.

An essential component of those statistical physics models is background noise, the level of inherent unpredictability that can be quiet and nearly nonexistent or loud and totally overpowering. For living organisms, noise represents tiny environmental variations that can change how genes are expressed, causing different gene expression patterns even between organisms with identical genes, like twins or plants that reproduce by cloning.

In researchers mathematical models, changing the volume of environmental noise changed the number of dimensions in evolutionary complexity.

Computer-simulated evolution of hundreds of genes under low levels of environmental noise led to high dimensionality, gene expression varying in too many ways without organized changes. Simulated evolution under high levels of environmental noise also led to high variability where gene expressions change randomly, meaning no organization nor functional states of gene expression.

We can imagine that organisms at either of those extreme noise conditions would not be evolutionarily fit they would go extinct because they could not respond to changes in their environment, said Kaneko.

When the noise levels were moderate, computer-simulated evolution of hundreds of genes led to a model where the change in gene expression followed a one-dimensional curve, as seen in real life.

With the appropriate environmental noise level, an organism that is both robust and sensitive to its environment can evolve, said Kaneko.

Read the original post:

Limits on evolution revealed by statistical physics - Mirage News

There are quite a few two-stage evolutionary families in the Pokmon world. Over the years, some have been given pre-evolutions or new stages, making them into a three-stage line or even a branched evolution. But still, there are quite a few two-stage lines that are due for a new, third stage.

RELATED:10 Weird Facts You Might Not Know About Psychic-Type Pokmon

Some of these Pokmon need a new evolution because their design seems unfinished, others need some competitive viability, and some just need to be refreshed because they're forgotten or boring. Here are some of the two-stage lines that need another evolution.

Crustle is a Pokmon that was introduced in Generation V. It evolves from Dwebble at level 34. Both are Rock/Bug-type and feature a large rock-like shell on their crab-like bodies.

Crustle needs a new evolution because of its design. Sure, it's already pretty great, but it's basically being crushed by the giant block of sedimentary rock on its back. It would be great to see a new evolution that further incorporates the rock into the Pokmon's body, harnessing its defensive power.

Poor Ledian. This Bug/Flying-type from Generation II evolves from Ledyba at level 18. It's been the subject of the question "Is Ledian the worst Pokmon" more than once, making it definitely clear that it needs a new evolution.

RELATED:Ranking Every Pokmon Sword & Shield Legendary By Design

Ledian also seems unfinished in its design. If it were to be said that Ledian evolves into something, few people would probably be surprised. Its counterpart, Ariados, is much more "finished"-looking. Ledian could also use a stat boost its current base stat total is only 390.

This very loveable and interesting Pokmon evolves from Cherubi at level 25. Both are pure Grass-types introduced in Generation IV. Cherrim is one of the many Pokmon with a form difference it opens up into a pink blossom in sunny weather, otherwise remaining mostly shrouded by its outer petals.

Cherrim could definitely see an interesting evolution. Perhaps some type of flower- or leaf-inspired Pokmon that harnesses the power of the sun in its design. Maybe it could even be the first Fire/Grass-type Pokmon.

One of the more forgotten Pokmon from Generation I is Primeape a pure Fighting-type that evolves from Mankey at level 28. Primeape is okay as a competitive battler, but is definitely outclassed by many others. It would be great to see it evolve into something more viable.

As for its design, it's definitely a clear inspiration and uses the whole "it's super angry" lore well. However, it could be further developed into a hulking monkey beast that truly harnesses the power of its anger in its design.

Onix is one of the only Pokmon that might actually need a pre-evolution or Baby Pokmon added to its evolutionary family. This Rock/Ground-type snake already received a new evolution with Steelix's introduction in Generation II, but it could have a pre-evolution for sure.

RELATED:Pokmon: The 10 Hardest Unova Pokmon To Catch, Ranked

Onix seems very developed for a base-stage Pokmon, design-wise. Of course, there's nothing wrong with this, but it could easily have a simpler and more concise-design as a pre-evolution, perhaps a small snake made from a couple rock segments.

Some of the most hated Pokmon in franchise history are the elemental monkeys Pansage, Pansear, Panpour, and their evolutions. For whatever reason, the fanbase have responded extremely negatively to these designs.

Giving them an evolution might not completely save them from the ire of the fans, but it could help. As it stands now, the final stages of each are pretty well-developed, but they can always improve. Like Primeape, turn them into hulking gorillas! Why not? Oh, and give them a secondary type, too. It would be fun.

While the elemental monkeys are easily remembered due to the fact that they are widely-criticized, Lumineon finds itself at the opposite end of the spectrum. This poor Water-type fish introduced in Generation IV is often called the most forgotten or forgettable Pokmon ever made. It's basically just a blue fish that evolves from a blue fish. There are already a ton of Water-type fish Pokmon, so it's understandable that Lumineon falls under the radar.

If it were given a new evolution that expanded its frilly fins into something more sea monster-esque, maybe people would remember it.

Lumineon might be one of the most boring designs, but its Generation IV friend Bronzong is quite the opposite. This Steel/Psychic-type evolves from Bronzor at level 33 and is based on a bell or gong, specifically the dotaku or an old Japanese legend about a group of priests building a bell for their temple from bronze mirrors.

RELATED:Pokmon: 10 Things You Missed In FireRed & LeafGreen

That legend tells the story of a woman whose mirror won't melt because of her regret of donating it. This legend could be expanded further, giving the next stage of the story to Bronzong's design.

One of the only Pokmon with gender differences that matter beyond appearance is Meowstic. Male and female Meowstic have different stats and movesets, which is pretty interesting. Since Espurr evolves into these two pretty different forms depending on its gender, the developers could take it a step further.

After Espurr evolves into female or male Meowstic, the two could both receive a new, branched evolution that is based on gender. These two new Pokmon could be completely different, like Gardevoir and Gallade.

Like some of the other entries on the list, Sunflora is frequently criticized and laughed at for being incredibly weak. After being exposed to a Sun Stone, Sunkern will evolve into Sunflora. Sunkern itself has one of the lowest base stat totals in series history, and Sunflora doesn't do a great job of improving on it.

Design-wise, Sunflora could also see some improvement through an evolution. It's basically a sunflower with arms and legs. The developers of the series can go way further with this theme, and they should.

NEXT:Every Pokmon That You Can Ride In Let's Go, Ranked

Next The 10 Best Minecraft Dungeons Armor Enchantments, Ranked

Michael is a journalist with several years of experience writing about video games, television, and social issues. He loves playing indie platformers, old games he's already finished ten times, and Pokemon. Michael also enjoys cold weather and drinking too much coffee.

Continued here:

Pokmon: 10 Pokmon That Need A Third Evolution | TheGamer - TheGamer

Scorching images from across the country fill our screens, a reminder that the racial past remains an unhealed burn in Americas present. The mood in our own area is shocked and anxious, as we watched violence and looting spread from Seattle to outlying cities like Bellevue and Tukwila. It is getting very close to home.

Some have called racism Americas historical original sin. Where did many white people of the past get the wicked idea that their lives matter more than black lives? The question is complex but, without doubt, Darwinian theory helped to fuel our present racial fire.

Comprehending the national burden of hatred is a task not only for scholars but for all Americans. So too with understanding the origins of the opportunistic criminality that has piggybacked on heartfelt protests against racism and police brutality. As others have pointed out, forcing young males to sit idle for months in an open-ended lockdown was to invite an eventual explosion. But the history, of course, goes back much further.

The pandemic has been a seminar on how science intersects with culture. Now add to that the cross-country chaos of the past few nights, a convulsion that has a stout tendril tracing back to scientific thinking. Its a good time to review that legacy by watching the documentary Human Zoos: Americas Forgotten History of Scientific Racism, written and directed by Discovery Institute Vice President John West.

As Charles Darwin conceived it, evolution posits a racial hierarchy. Thats not surprising, since the theory sees all of life as a vast smudge, graduating from the simplest to the most complex animal life. In any hierarchy, someone has to be at the bottom. As Darwin stated explicitly in The Descent of Man, that place was occupied by Africans. For generations, American public school children learned from their biology textbooks the pseudoscience that Caucasians are more advanced on the evolutionary ladder than Africans. Yet this was the scientific consensus of its day. Listen to the scientists, I imagine that 19th- and 20th-century racists might have instructed us. In the multiple award-winning Human Zoos, Dr. West unearths a forgotten but instructive chapter in that painful history.

As Wesley Smith noted here the other day, one of the tragic trends in thinking about evolution has been to blur the distinction between humans and animals. History warns us not to regard this lightly. Indeed, dehumanizing Africans and others is not only part of Americas but of evolutionary biologys terrible burden. Near the turn of the last century, in New York City, St. Louis, Seattle, and elsewhere, Africans and other native people were put on exhibit in zoos, as animals. Human Zoos recounts, among other heart-breaking stories, the life of African pygmy Ota Benga (1883-1916). He was bought in a slave auction and displayed in 1906 alongside an orangutan in the Monkey House at the Bronx Zoo. The organizers intended this as a lesson for the public illustrating the scientific truths of Darwinian theory. African-American clergy at the time spoke out against the insult to their dignity, only to be dismissed by the New York Times, which explained that the pygmies are very low in the human scale.

That may seem long ago. But as Human Zoos also documents, present-day racists of the Alt-Right continue to drawn on Darwinian racial theory.

Over this past weekend, at the South Bronx intersection called The Hub, peaceful protesters called for racial justice, remembering George Floyd and his death at the end of Minneapolis police. I wonder how many who came out to demand life We deserve to live! also remembered the horrific injustice that occurred, in the name science, just a few miles away. Ota Bengas own protest I am a man! I am a man! summarizes the very best message of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Human Zoos reminds us that this history must not be forgotten. What is going in our country at this moment cant be grasped without it. Please consider sharing the film, already seen by nearly a million viewers on YouTube, with your friends and family.

Photo: A peaceful protest in Minneapolis, by Fibonacci Blue / CC BY.

See original here:

Human Zoos How Science Fueled the Racial Fire - Discovery Institute

Naturally the automobile much like later developments such as radios, television, motor cycles, electrical equipment, 35mm cameras and plastic materials was adopted eagerly by anyone with a few extra dollars or pounds to spare and is wasnt long before there were thousands of them chugging about our roads. That was when both the big money and the world of design took over the situation.

First it was the introduction of the production line, invented by a genius named Henry Ford, which meant that cars could be built in minutes, instead of days, which both increased his profit and the popularity of the car. Then the designers really stepped in, thinking up all sorts of things that the car simply could not do without(in their opinion), such as semaphore turning signal or the electrical windscreen wiper to remove rain spots in inclement weather and movable seats, so that each person taking over to drive could adjust their position for maximum comfort and visibility.

At first progress was fairly slow. It was after World War II, once car manufacturers got back to building cars instead of tanks, that real progress started to be made.

The car designers discovered something the aircraft builders already knew aerodynamics! If the cars body was made in a particular shape it travelled much faster and at the same time was much more economical in the use of fuel. This led to one small undesirable effect most makes of car started to look very much like their competitors; aerodynamics demanded it, so the designers had to dream up other ways of attracting customers to their brand. Some used extravagant tail structures, great fins sticking up like some space rocket, while others attracted attention with massed chromium parts, bumpers, mud guards, window strips, hinges, door handles and mirrors got the chrome treatment; you could barely look at a car in those days, if the sun was shining!

Then of course, the electronic age arrived and the car manufacturers were all compelled to install CD players into our cars, plus radios, satellite navigation, heated seats, electrically adjusted mirrors, power steering, anti-skid devices, airbags, turbos, fuel injection, cruise control and all manner of other devices. Designers had the bit between their teeth by now, and they started going off the planet with their suggestions, so that we are now looking forward to (with some trepidation I believe), driverless cars, electric cars and cars that run on hydrogen!

I guess it wont be long before we have to absorb such notions as cars that fly, instead of running on roads, or perhaps, in the extreme future we might be able to beam ourselves to where we want to go, with no vehicle at all, just like those folk on Star Trek had us imagining! It all makes for a rather frightening future, doesnt it?

Read more:

Behold the future: A brief look at the evolution of modern cars - Starts at 60

Silent Hill is filled with monsters that represent the deepest fears, regrets, and traumas of those who are unfortunate enough to be trapped inside. Of all the monsters, one of the types that has stuck with players and have presented themselves to the most protagonists is the Nurse.

Most people have been in a hospital at some point in life. It may have been to visit someone, to go to work, or even receive treatment. Due the many different types of memories people have in hospitals, the perception of nurses is different for every person.

RELATED:Silent Hill PS5 Reveal Expected This Week

The Nurses of Silent Hill have appeared since the very first game on the original PlayStation. Because of the constantly changing protagonists and the different themes of each Silent Hill, their appearances are different in most Silent Hill titles. Some changes are more obvious while others are more subtle. Players should note that there will be spoilers for the majority of Silent Hill games below due to plot elements being related to the symbolism behind these Nurses.

Far different from the Nurses commonly known by fans, the very first Nurses in Silent Hill are known as Puppet Nurses. These monsters appear are normal human female nurses that have parasitic growths on their backs. Puppet Nurses have a variety of different hair colors and clothing colors. Despite their appearances however, they are still very dangerous.

They are capable of ganging up on protagonist, Harry Mason, with one Puppet Nurse able to grab him while the others attempt to stab him. Puppet Nurses are additionally the only type of Nurse that has a male counterpart. These are known as Puppet Doctors. They are stronger, but slower than the Puppet Nurses.

Unlike other Silent Hill titles, the monsters in the original are not based on the protagonist, but are rather based on the traumas and memories of Alessa. Alessa Gillespie is a girl who was tortured by a cult known as the Order in Silent Hill so that she would give birth to their god.

The Puppet Nurses represent how Alessa saw the nurses in the hospital while she was kept alive after being burned alive. While the nurses weren't members of the Order, they were still being puppeted around by them through keeping Alessa alive. It is also possible that this is how Alessa saw herself with the Order's god being a parasite on her body.

The Bubble Head Nurses from Silent Hill 2are the most famous of the Nurse types and have influenced the designs of all later Nurses. These Nurses appear to have their heads wrapped in a wet vinyl that completely covers their faces. The bottom of their vinyl masks has the shape of the face of a baby, but this is sometimes blocked by one of Silent Hill's prominent Red Squares. As they walk, they are always twitching, giving a very unnatural look to them.

Bubble Head Nurses also have another variety that can be found in the Otherworld where their clothes are far more dirty with spikes driven through their masks. They additionally also have a fleshy protrusion coming out of backs and shoulders.

RELATED:10 Horror Games We'd Rather See Remade (Instead Of Resident Evil 4)

The Bubble Head Nurses have many meanings to them involving Silent Hill 2's protagonist, James Sunderland. The most obvious example being with how the vinyl masks covering the Nurses' faces causing them to unnaturally convulse referencing James killing his wife, Mary, by suffocating her in her hospital bed with a pillow. The masks also give the effect of how Mary's head was swelling while sick.

Another meaning to them is the sexual frustrations and possible adultery of James Sunderland. Due to not being able to be sexual with his wife while she lay dying in the hospital, it's very possible that he ogled the nurses that were taking care of Mary in the hospital. However, he did not see them as just beautiful women, he simply saw them as objects without a face, explaining the Bubble Head Nurse's covered face and exposed body. In development, the Bubble Head Nurses originally wielded a blood transfusion stand, but it was changed to a steel pipe as a callback to the weapon most used by Harry Mason.

Silent Hill 3combines the more human appearance and the sexualized outfit for their take on the Nurses. These Nurses are simply known as Nurses and all share the same black bob haircut, purple eye shadow, and purple lipstick. Their eyes are always shut and have a red stain around their mouths that is similar to the red squares of the Bubble Head Nurses. The Nurses here can carry iron pipes as in Silent Hill 2, but they can also use a revolver against protagonist, Heather Mason. They not only can shoot, but they are also capable of performing pistol-whips if too close.

Due to Heather being a reincarnation of Alessa, these nurses represent Alessa's memories in the hospital once more. However, their dark hair may serve as a reminder to Heather of what her original hair color was. The sexualization of the nurses could possibly represent Alessa's fears of becoming pregnant with the Order's god. According to designer, Masahiro Ito, the red stains around their mouths represent madness. These Nurses can also be seen as upgrades to the Puppet Nurses, due to there being a large red stain on their upper back where the parasite could have been. Their movement also suggests their movement being controlled by some sort of puppet strings.

Silent Hill 4: The Room didn't have any nurses of any kind, but the next evolution of the Nurse appeared in Silent Hill: Origins for the PSP and PlayStation 2. These Nurses are similar to the Bubble Head Nurses, but have stockings with garter belts, high heels, and a surgical mask that appears to be melted to their faces. The arsenals of the Faceless Nurses is similar to that of the Puppet Nurses with their only weapons being scalpels and syringes. They twitch a lot more than any other Nurses as well.

RELATED:Silent Hill on PS5 is Looking Likelier by the Day

Due to the protagonist, Travis Grady, possibly being a serial killer, the Faceless Nurses could represent his victims. The twitching of the Faceless Nurses could be representative of Travis's victims shaking in fear before dying. Even their names could be referencing that Travis saw the victims as faceless.

The Silent Hill movies had their own variety of Nurse based on the Bubble Head Nurses. These Nurses are known as Dark Nurses and were portrayed by dancers in the first Silent Hill film in order to get across their inhuman movements. Their faces seem to be made of of deformed flesh with each Dark Nurse having a unique and organic face. There are signs of burns or rotting in some of them, while others have faces that appear much smoother.

The Dark Nurses use pipes, knives, scalpels, and syringes, making these the Nurses with the largest variety of weapons. Dark Nurses additionally seem to be in larger clusters than in the games, making them extremely dangerous. Their movement appears mechanical with them being very sensitive to any light. It's possible that the Dark Nurses symbolize how Alessa saw her nurses as faceless, while additionally feeling self-conscious about her own deformities due to being burned alive. The Dark Nurses would be seen as beautiful and sexy women if it weren't for their monstrous parts, after all. It's also possible that Alessa felt jealous toward her nurses due to them being able to come and go as they pleased while she remained trapped.

In the sequel movie, Silent Hill: Revelation, the Dark Nurses make a return. Due to Heather's circumstances in the movie being similar to how they were in the games, it's possible that the Dark Nurses represent Heather's feelings on growing up into womanhood. They could also simply be the remains of her old memories coming back to haunt her.

Using many design parts from the Dark Nurses as well as the Bubble Head Nurses are Silent Hill: Homecoming's Nurses, which are known as Demon Nurses as labeled in their concept art. These Nurses have deformed and fleshy faces with sexual nurse uniforms made out flesh. They additionally wear high heels and can be seen growing a fetus inside them when lit up by any light source that isn't a flashlight.The DemonNurses react to light violently and are capable of making very fast slashes with their knives that can catch players off guard. However, they can be avoided completely if the player turns off their flashlight and passes by them quietly.

With the Demon Nurses being the first enemy that players will find while playing as protagonist, Alex Shepherd, in Silent Hill: Homecoming, they have a lot of roots within his character. Due to Alex Shepherd being institutionalized within a mental hospital for four years, he was stuck with only his sexual fantasies while also being surrounded by nurses. While there, Alex fantasized about being part of the military and in a military hospital instead.

He would write in his journal about how the military only hired attractive nurses with sexual uniforms to make the stay better, when it was actually what he wanted in the hospital. These Nurses likely represent a dark and twisted version of his fantasy with them being only faceless and sexual beings. Demon Nurses are additionally the only Nurses in Silent Hill to have jiggle physics.

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The Demon Nurses being pregnant could symbolize a couple of things. They could symbolize Alex wanting to have sexual relations with women without care. They could also symbolize how Alex's life changed when his mother became pregnant with his younger brother, Joshua. With Alex killing the fetuses by killing the nurses, it could also symbolize how Alex killed Joshua.

Many players are waiting and hoping for a Silent Hill announcement from Konami for the PlayStation 5. While there is nothing confirmed as of now, it is interesting to think about what form the Nurses could take in the next title.

Based on the symbolism and analysis of all the Nurses above, it's probably best to have a new fresh Nurse. Most of the Nurses are based on the Bubble Head Nurse, and while it is an iconic design, it is limited in what kind of symbolism it can have. Not every protagonist of Silent Hill has to have a past involving sexual repression. There are so many possible things a Nurse could be to someone, so it might be time to let the Bubble Nurse and her sisters go on a well-deserved vacation.

Nurses can be mother figures to those who've been in the hospital at a young age. They can also be saviors to those who have survived terrible things. These thoughts can become twisted in the realm of Silent Hill into truly frightening monsters. A monster that believes that its healing when its actually harming can be very dangerous as well as scary.

New nurses don't necessarily have to go back to looking like humans, but there is so much variety in the monsters inhabiting Silent Hill that the Nurses can be changed. If the next Silent Hill wants to get into mind game territory with leaning on the fourth wall, the nurses could take on the faces of those players' galleries or something crazy like that.

There could even be Nurses that subvert the expectation of the look of Silent Hill Nurses by incorporating even more body horror, creating a very uncomfortable monster to look at. While some of the changes made over time, such as Homecoming's fetus, are very neat and add something new, the next Nurse should be completely new.

There is currently no new information on when or if a newSilent Hilltitle is coming out.

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Sam is a guide writer for GameRant, as well as an independent game designer. Sam loves horror games most of all when it comes to making and playing. She however plays games from all genres and loves playing games most when it's with friends and family. Readers can follow her on Twitter @IceWoodrick

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The Evolution of Silent Hill's Nurses and Where They May Go - GameRant