Re: Print to SHR

[heuser.marcus@freenet.de]

On Mar 7, 12:19 am, aiiad...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> When did the 2.5Ghz come out?  It seems like there have been ZERO
> speed improvements in the last ?5? years.
>
> I have an article that I snipped out of the ?SanFrancisco Chronicle?
> around 1999...  "Motorola introduces super-fast CPU" or something
> like that. They claimed 75Ghz.  I'm pretty sure we had 2.0ghz
> available at the time.

But now we have up to four cores in consumer CPUs and much
larger caches.

Intel just presented a prototype with 80 cores breaking the teraflop
barrier - but it's not x86-compatible and will stay in the drawers
(they use it to learn how to produce x86-multi-cores etc.).


> > the hard disk guys continue
> > to out-run Moore with density and speed improvements.

I guess that's right but on the other hand Moore's Law seems
not to be some kind of "nature law" but some kind of "master plan"
for the silicon industry.
Like "Why produce exponentially faster CPUs if this speedup
is all that is needed to sell them?"

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore's_law


> It seems to me that reliability has gone down.  I haven't owned
> a ton of the new big drives, but I have had 2 40GB, 1 80 GB
> go bad on me in the last 4 years.

I on the other hand had very few harddisk defects and am
generally pleased with the progress in this field.
Hard disks get bigger, quieter, cooler, smaller & cheaper
all the time.
Graphics cards are nearly the opposite: They get faster
but bigger, louder, hotter and more expensive.


> > If it weren't for massive consolidation and the cost reductions
> > that come from economies of scale, things would be even dryer in
> > silicon valley.
>
> I read another article about speedup of CPU's...  The entire
> motherboard circuitry was on a chip.  The chip was glued
> to the board (non-upgradeable). There were fewer bus
> speed restrictions, because the bus is in the chip.
>
> I wonder when we'll get these?

I think I would welcome this if the price is right.

This sounds somewhat anachronistic for the modular PC world but
when I *really* upgrade my PC roughly every two years I'll have
to buy not only a new CPU & cooler but a new motherboard, new
RAM, a new graphics card and maybe a new power supply (maybe
even a new case).

Why is this? Because our friendly CPU supplies seem to
introduce new sockets faster than most people buy new underwear.
And this cycle accelerates, in my opinion.


> If any of you guys want a speedup, try installing windows 98 on
> your hard drive..  Install WindowsXP after, and it'll be dual boot.
> Windows 98 FLYS on a 2ghz machine.  Feels like an Apple II
> with an accelerator does..

If I want to play with old technology I play with 8 bits.


> I like Applewin..  Hold the Scroll Lock key and compiling things in
> merlin goes QUICK..
>
> I often reach for the Scroll Lock key when using XP...  Too bad turbo
> doesn't work in it :-)

What's your PC configuration, by the way?

bye
Marcus