[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: 11 most influential microprocessors of all time

mmphosis wrote:

For me, the most influential microprocessor is the 6502.

Although extremely "influential", I think the Intel chips have a mob-
like following -- like people who insist that Windows is the only game
in town.  It wasn't until the 80286 that Intel sped up instructions,
everything else from Intel seems to have been about marketing clock
speed -- The P3 is faster than the P4!?!  I think Intel invented the
term "wait state."  And, I really don't like having a CPU fan running
in my computer.  I think that although Intel advanced clockspeeds,
their virtual monopoly hindered other advances in CPU design.

The modern day ARM processor was influenced by the 6502.  The ARM is
inexpensive, fast enough, doesn't require a fan, small overall
footprint, and is found in a plethora of devices.

Some discussions on this board talk about timing.  Timing at
instruction level with the 6502 in an Apple II is predictable.  Timing
on an Intel chip is difficult (impossible?) to determine, so much so
that the chip includes a built in timer.


In fact, the widespread introduction of caches in the 1980s, followed
by multiple Out-Of-Order execution units, pretty much guaranteed that
even the chip's designers couldn't accurately compute the time required
to execute an instruction sequence.  Simulators became the only way to
"observe" the dynamic behavior of a chip.

Deterministic timing is a relic of the past, except in small embedded
CPUs and, interestingly, in the Propeller multi-CPU.


I am looking forward to seeing more massively parallel CPUs.


You won't have long to wait--they have started a colony in your
computer's GPU...  ;-)

-michael

NadaNet 3.0 for Apple II parallel computing!
Home page:  http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."