Slashdot Mirror


Intel Says 10GHz By 2005

Techman writes: "After breaking the 1GHz barrier just this year, how long do you think it will take before we reach 5GHz? What about 10GHz? Intel is predicting that it will be sooner than you think. AnandTech has a look at the future of Intel manufacturing to see not only if the 0.13-micron Pentium 4 has a chance at success but also if Intel can make 10GHz processors a reality."

137 comments

  1. AMD by morie · · Score: 2

    OK, so it's:
    Intel:
    2000,5: 1 Ghz
    2002 : 2 Ghz
    2003,5: 4 Ghz
    2005 : 8 Ghz

    But also, it's:
    AMD:
    2000,5: 1,5 Ghz
    2002 : 3 Ghz
    2003,5: 6 Ghz
    2005 : 12 Ghz

    Of course, if you count everything Intel stops before shipping, they can make this progress too. But then again, I made a 1 Thz chip. I just recalled it before shipping :-)

    --
    Sig (appended to the end of comments I post, 54 chars)
    1. Re:AMD by Petrophile · · Score: 1

      AMD probably doesn't have any short term scalability problems. By the time those 1.4 GHz P4s hit the mainstream market, AMD will most likely have a 1.4GHz chip out that is faster for real work.

      (On a side note, Intel is running a hellava lot of "Blue Man" ads for the Pentium !!! during the football. That says that they've got a huge backlog of older chips and the PIV is not ready for prime time.)

      The real problem comes for AMD when Intel starts getting up in the 4+Ghz range. Intel says that the PIV won't have any problem, AMD might have to come back with a new design (or rely on it's x86-64 features to move product.)

    2. Re:AMD by Tungz10 · · Score: 1

      Some have prodicted that P4 will be able to scale up to 10Ghz. On the other hand, the same people observe that right now a 1Ghz Athlon uses more power and produces more heat than a 1.4Ghz P4.

      Funny how it's the same people isn't it? I wonder what company they work for?

    3. Re:AMD by djocyko · · Score: 2

      I would liove to agree with you, but intel has something AMD doesn't: a new chip that can scale like a mutha. Some have prodicted that P4 will be able to scale up to 10Ghz. On the other hand, the same people observe that right now a 1Ghz Athlon uses more power and produces more heat than a 1.4Ghz P4. Looking ahead, the new AMD chips look to only bring those figures down, not allow higher clock speeds. For the moment, intel has a much better chance of reaching those Mhz figures in '05 than AMD.

  2. Intel thinks it can get past 0.1 microns by Goonie · · Score: 2
    In my (laypersons) understanding of this stuff, there's supposed to be a fundamental limit at or around 0.1 microns. Why is this - is it a limit that we can't etch the circuits accurately enough beyond this because of diffraction or other optical effects (which you could conceivably overcome with shorter wavelengths)? Is it that the channels are so narrow that the electrons start doing weird-ass quantum things in them?

    Anyway, it seems Intel's reasonably confident of doing 0.07-micron (and to do it in production in 2005, they must already be doing it in the research lab now). I wonder how confident they are of going smaller again in 2007-8?

    --

    Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
    --Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
    1. Re:Intel thinks it can get past 0.1 microns by mOdQuArK! · · Score: 4

      See "Numerical Technologies" web page (www.numeritech.com). They've got technology which allows semiconductor manufacturers to use phase shifts to do optical lithography beyond the limits of what the wavelength of the light used would normally allow.

      This only addresses the construction of such beasties, of course - the various companies still need a lot of tool development to deal with the "weird ass quantum things".

  3. Moore's Law by Cyberllama · · Score: 1

    Moore's Law would have us reaching this milestone much sooner. If we're at 1.5ghz now (or just under) then in 3 years, December 2003, we would hit would 6Ghz, which would put as at 12Ghz by June of 2005 (using 1.4Ghz intead of 1.5 still gives us 11.2GHz). So what gives? If anything, as of late we've been increasing faster than moore's law thanks to intels and AMD's one-upmanship. So it sounds like this, being slower than Moore's law, which itself is slower than our current pace, sounds like we should be expecting 10GHz a bit later than we thought?

  4. Re:I remember the good old days ;-) by VAXman · · Score: 1

    The Pentium Pro WAS the fastest available on that process. It was triple the clock speed of the Pentium (on the same process), but faster clock speeds didn't come until P6S and Klamath (which were on 0.25um process)

  5. Read the articles. by NetJunkie · · Score: 1

    Anand has been doing a better job lately.

  6. Re:not that crazy by Cyberllama · · Score: 1

    No actually MOore's law says we will double every 18 months, which means quadruple in 3 years. Somehow you got this wrong but you managed to get your math right. Just a bit of nitpicking on my part.

  7. Re:I remember the good old days ;-) by Petrophile · · Score: 1

    Except that the Pentium4 is on a new core, so the P6-core wasn't the last Intel ever made.

    Looke is right -- Intel was already hyping "Merced" even back in 1995, and telling customer that the P6 would be the last 32-bit chip that Intel would ever make. (Hell, they were already making background noise about the 64-bit EPIC project with HP around the time the Pentium P5 shipped.)

    Fact was, they've been working on the P7 core in the background for a long time, which turned out to be a smart investment considering the questionable state of Itanium.

  8. Beta-testers by Beowulf_Boy · · Score: 1

    Anyone care to Beta-test for them?
    You will probably have to have a 10,000 watt power-supply and a heat-sink the size of a 3-story house, not to mention an atxxxxxxx case and power-supply.

  9. Re:Let's just hope... by Christ-0-Geek · · Score: 1

    Hah! You think the heatsinks on the PIV are big! Just wait, and by the time the PentiumDCLXVI* comes out at 10ghz, this may be a reality!
    Yessiree... just you wait.

    *(for all you Roman numerals dor^H^H^HGeeks out there... you know what number that is, you dirty little heathens)


    -CoG

    "And with HIS stripes we are healed"

    --


    -CoG

    "And with HIS stripes we are healed"
    Handel's "Messiah"
  10. What Idiots these mortals be by __aakpxi9117 · · Score: 1

    Well lots of companies say lots of stuff and they're wrong lots of the time! Every kind of predicting done is based on past patterns and there is no reason to think that moores law will not hold true this time as well. I.E. 18 months from now the CPU speed will be double.

  11. Re:Light [was Re:Physics?] by ozbird · · Score: 1

    Propagation of the lack of light travels at the speed of light; hence, detecting that a light has been turned off takes just as long as the fact that a light has been turned on. If the Sun stopped producing light, it would take around 8 minutes for us to notice (since the Earth is around 8 light-minutes from the Sun.)

  12. Re:Physics? by neorf · · Score: 1

    now i can't remember exactly, but i think the thickness of the wire should come into the equation, because electricity travels easier in a thicker wire, and it also depends on the material of the wire, due to resistance.


    ---

    --


    ---
    Never send a man where you can send a bullet.
  13. But what about RAM? by zmooc · · Score: 1

    The first p2 ran at 233mhz and had 66mhz FSB. A 1gz p3 has 4 times as much clockspeed while it's FSB only doubled. I fear the same will happen with processors @ 10ghz; ram can't keep up with the clockspeed so performance will stay behind and a much larger cache will be needed which will not only be really expensive but also generate enough heat to keep your house at a constant 40 degrees Celsius.

    --
    0x or or snor perron?!
    1. Re:But what about RAM? by ghoti · · Score: 1

      Good Point. The higher MHz (and now, GHz) ratings get, the less they mean. Until very recently, I would have said that companies were just going to go on like this, because people seemed to buy new machines simply because of their higher clock speeds.
      But from what I hear, it seems that people are slowly coming to their senses now and realize that that great new machine with 300 more MHz is not going to make any difference in practice. So maybe this is the beginning of a development that will lead to more useful new developments, instead of raw clock speed numbers.

      --
      EagerEyes.org: Visualization and Visual Communication
  14. Re:I am SO not surprised by Argy · · Score: 5

    Moore's law predicted transistor density, not speed, and is only rather approximate. If you interpret it as speed doubling every 18 months (or quadrupling every 3 years), then based on the 2 MHz 8080 in 1974, we should now have half terahertz CPUs.

    1974 2 Mhz
    1977 8 Mhz
    1980 32 Mhz
    1983 128 Mhz
    1986 512 Mhz
    1989 2048 Mhz
    1992 8192 Mhz
    1995 32768 Mhz
    1998 131072 Mhz
    2001 524288 Mhz

    Obviously that doesn't hold very well. If you want to do some kludged curve fitting based on Intel's history, here are some data points.

    1986 16 MHz i386 DX
    1989 25 MHz i486 DX
    1993 66 MHz Pentium
    1996 150 MHz Pentium Pro
    1997 200 MHz Pentium II
    1999 500 MHz Pentium III
    2001 1500 MHz Pentium IV

    The 1.5 MHz Pentium IV was an unusually large leap. In a kludged algorithm, you could interpret that as an accellerating pace, or as a leap that's likely to be followed by a lull. So really, it doesn't tell you much, except that Intel's prediction seems optimistic based solely on historical trends.

  15. Re:Macintosh by Dannon · · Score: 3

    Well, having taken a few computer architecture courses, I'll testify to the fact that Hz is not the only possible measure of performance. In fact, it can be pretty misleading. You can increase the cycles-per-second by making each instruction take more cycles to complete, a tradeoff which may or may not give you more instructions-per-second. Also, how many operations you can perform with each instruction is Really Important. These G4s may only do 500 MHz, but they are, I understand, rated at at least one gigaflop. That means two floating point operations per cycle! I don't know much about Mac architecture at the chip level, but that sounds to me like superscalar architecture!

    This makes me curious. Has anyone gotten an estimate of performance on the 1GHz processors vs. the G4 Gigaflop processors in BogoMIPS, using Linux and LinuxPPC? BogoMIPS isn't a perfect measure of speed either, but it gives a pretty good estimate.

    ---

    --
    Good judgment comes from experience.
    Experience comes from bad judgment.
  16. Hmm by alleria · · Score: 1

    Well, the Pentium 100 wasn't that long ago, and the PIII 1 Ghz is 10x as fast. If you think in terms of factor of tens, instead of addition, their claims are not all that wild at all.

  17. Re:so... let me imagine... by fatphil · · Score: 1

    Find lots of primes??? Unusual choice!
    FP.
    (Co-finder of the worlds largest twin primes)

    --
    Also FatPhil on SoylentNews, id 863
  18. Re:More Vapor by Petrophile · · Score: 1

    Merced has been "RSN" since at least 1995. Now we hear that the Itanium is really just a beta chip to wet the markets, and the real good version is going to be the Itanium II.

    They're having lots of trouble, but given a 32-bit chip that can scale up up up, they can hold on. Don't forget that their current share in the 64-bit big iron market is 0%, so Itanium represents a new market, and one that has much more to do with Sparc and Alpha than anything AMD puts out. (Sledgehammer will be a consumer chip.)

  19. Uh? by ZiS · · Score: 1

    Isn't this pretty much the same thing Timothy posted earlier?

  20. What they don't mention by Anoriymous+Coward · · Score: 1

    is that the heatsink will weigh 100 kilogrammes and will need to be mounted on the roof of your house. People in warm climates (e.g. where the snow melts in summer) need not apply. Those people who live in cold climates, who get one of these 10GHz intel chips, will soon find themselves living in a warm climate.

  21. Re:Intel is desperate, and will say anything. by fatphil · · Score: 1

    Half way to real cynicism, a good start.

    Believe it when you've _played_ with it.
    The one you _saw_ was the only one that they made high enough up the bell-curve to run the intel-chosen demo.

    FP.

    --
    Also FatPhil on SoylentNews, id 863
  22. Let's just hope... by los+furtive · · Score: 1

    ...it isn't the size of an ATX mobo and generates more heat than the surface of the sun.

    --

    I'm a writer, a poet, a genius, I know it. I don't buy software, I grow it.

    1. Re:Let's just hope... by Jedi+Alec · · Score: 1

      generates more heat than the surface of the sun.

      What's wrong with that? At least that allows us to stop research on cold fusion, not to mention my gas bill...

      --

      People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
    2. Re:Let's just hope... by jeffy210 · · Score: 1

      or maybe a Pentium DCMXII if you can get it up to 88mph....
      --------------------------------------- ------------------------

      --
      ------
      "And may your days be long upon the earth."
  23. Physics? by jcr · · Score: 3

    How far does electricity travel through a wire in one ten-billionth of a second? -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    1. Re:Physics? by rew · · Score: 1

      Speed of light: 3*10^8 m/s (approx)
      Clock tick: 1*10^-9 s (1 GHz)
      Distance traveled: 3*10^8*10^-9 = 0.3 m


      Right! But electrical signals travelling electrical wires don't do "speed-of-light". In my student room, about 10 years ago, I measured about one third the speed-of-light, but most people quote about twice that.

      Roger.

    2. Re:Physics? by marcop · · Score: 2

      That's almost so small that by the time the electric field of the clock pulse ripples across the chip the next one's already started elsewhere

      Yup, and plain circuit theory starts to breakdown and one needs Maxwell's Eqs. As the dimensions of the circuit approach 1/4 wavelengths of the signals then the traces act like antenaes and radiate energy out.

      I think IBM or somebody has started doing segments of chips in synchronous sections,

      Is this called Quite Island? Cornell Univ.'s Electronic Packaging Dept. has done some research in this area with IBM and others.
    3. Re:Physics? by fatbofh · · Score: 2

      Speed of light: 3*10^8 m/s (approx)
      Clock tick: 1*10^-9 s (1 GHz)
      Distance traveled: 3*10^8*10^-9 = 0.3 m

      crank it up to 10GHz and it's 0.03 m ('bout an inch and a half for all you unmetricified folk).
      I think it was cray that made sure all the wires in one of their supercomputers were multiples of a clock tick in length.

    4. Re:Physics? by RevRigel · · Score: 5

      Actually, the speed of light in a material is 1/sqrt(permittivity * permeability), with relative permittivity and permeability both equal to 1 (free space), the speed of light (and hence the electric field) is equal to approximately 3e8 m/s. But in semiconductors on a chip, a closer approximation is 1.5e8 m/s, or half the speed of light. So, given your math, 1.5cm, divided by 2.54 for inches, and that's ~0.591 inches. That's almost so small that by the time the electric field of the clock pulse ripples across the chip the next one's already started elsewhere.

      I think IBM or somebody has started doing segments of chips in synchronous sections, linked somewhat asynchronously, or at least each using independent clock pulses, to better approximate synchronized switching.

    5. Re:Physics? by Dirtside · · Score: 2

      Last I knew, electricity doesn't move at the speed of light. Electrons (or the holes) have a much lower speed through conductors than 150,000km/sec, AFAIK.

      --
      "Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
    6. Re:Physics? by mOdQuArK! · · Score: 2
      I think it was cray that made sure all the wires in one of their supercomputers were multiples of a clock tick in length.

      I'm not sure, but I think I heard that this might have been from a design where Cray was using the length of the wires to control the time-of-flight for the electrical signals between different parts of his design

      If you calculate & implement everything absolutely correctly, you can build a computing device that doesn't need a synchronous clock (runs asynchronously because the signals are arriving where they need to be at the right moments). Not exactly a mass-fabrication technique though!

  24. Re:Macintosh by innit · · Score: 1

    > And yes I do own a mac, but I think I speak
    > for a majority of the macintosh comunity,
    > being at 500 mhz for 2 years is kinda shitty.

    You need to get a proper computer then don't you. Macs are for girls.

  25. Macintosh by Duck0987 · · Score: 3
    I only hope I can get something better than a 500 mhz G4 by then.

    And yes I do own a mac, but I think I speak for a majority of the macintosh comunity, being at 500 mhz for 2 years is kinda shitty.

    1. Re:Macintosh by Rader · · Score: 2
      Or for those that would like to get into building ther own machines, and cut the price even more...
      Go for the 600/650 Duron & Socket-A motherboard combination. The Duron can be had for under $50, and the m/b for well under $150.

      Go to Tomshardware.com and easily overclock the chip to 800.

      The performance is great (close to PIII-650/700), and next summer you can buy one of those 1.4ghz Thunderbirds for probably another $50. Great upgrade price. (P.S. RAM couldn't be any cheaper either - under $50 for 128mb)

      Rader

    2. Re:Macintosh by cruelworld · · Score: 1

      Um, he wants to use BogoMIPs as a benchmark.

    3. Re:Macintosh by pantherace · · Score: 1
      I don't know macs, but I do know Alphas. (BTW a person compared a 5 year old 300MHz 21164 alpha with a 500 G4 and they were about even in terms of his perspective)

      Alphas are a ?dual? (21064 486 days @ 133MHz), quad+ (21164 5-years ago, later 21164s may be more), or 32 (21264 1?year ago-current) instruction per cycle chip. A G4 is a 4 or 8 instruction per cycle chip. This translates into lots more performace over a Px or Kx, because they are basicly single instruction per cycle chips (P 4 is 3-1xint, 2xFPU). A G4 can do (int +FPU) 500 MHzx4=2000 MIPS or 2 BIPS if the FPU is 2x (as in 21164s) it will do 1Gigaflop (1000 FPU MIPS) (G4-500). That is impressive, but Alpha 21264s can do 833MHzx32 (FPU+int) 26656 MIPS or 13328 FPU MIPS. 13.3 GIGAFLOPS. x86 chips are starting to be multi-intruction per cycle, and can compare well to G4s, but are out of their league compared with Alphas (and most other CPUs). Alpha 21264s also have 80 64-bit registers for each int and FP resulting in 160 regesters total.

      This assumes optimum values, and things like ram bandwidth, latency, hard drive access are not figured in. However, it is worth noteing that Alpha 21264s have 256-bit ECC DDR SDRAM memory paths, as opposed to 16-bit for P 4 and 64 for Athlon.

      If I have any incorrect things in this, correct me. I am human without memory protection, and often forget things, so there is bound to be at least one incorrect sentance above.

  26. Re:BogoMIPS are not "a pretty good estimate" by Dannon · · Score: 2

    True indeed. I posted while it was yet early in the morning. Not necessarily useful, except perhaps at the kernel level, but interesting as a mere curiosity. Thanks for the reminder.

    ---

    --
    Good judgment comes from experience.
    Experience comes from bad judgment.
  27. I am SO not surprised by Galvatron · · Score: 5

    Okay, using Moore's revised law (an increase by a factor of 2 every 18 months), and the current speeds of about 1 Ghz, that gives us 4 Ghz by the end of 2003, 8 Ghz by the middle of 2004, and 16 Ghz by the end of 2006. Why should we be surprised that we'll hit 10 Ghz in 2005? Besides, given Intel's strategy with the P3 of getting mind numbing clock speeds without actually improving performance substantially, it should be even easier.

    --
    "The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
    1. Re:I am SO not surprised by andr0meda · · Score: 1


      That unusually large leap over there can easily be explained if you put AMD`s evolution next to it. Around the same time the PII was developped, a lot of Intel`s engeneers jumped ship and started working on the Athlon, which pushed intel to accellerate it`s development again. It can also be noted that allthough 1.5GHz will be available in the first or second quarter of 2001, we should also take into account that intel has been having serious trouble to generate enough PIII`s and PIV`s, so this doesn`t really depict the evolution on an average scale.

      And btw, I bought a pentium pro 180 in 96 (actually I wanted a 200 dual motherboard, but all that candy wasn`t available in Belgium at that time, and I needed something to replace my 486dx badly)

      --
      With great power comes great electricity bills.
    2. Re:I am SO not surprised by Primer-dp · · Score: 1

      For those of you who don't believe that 10GHz will be needed at all, think again - right now, we don't have the need for 10GHz, we nearly don't even have the need for 1GHz, but - things get better, and when they get better, they require more power. 10GHz might possibly be overkill, but, it could be needed in the future, things improve, and they will need more power...

      Primer - the answer was 4, none of them knew

    3. Re:I am SO not surprised by Syberghost · · Score: 2

      The 1.5 MHz Pentium IV was an unusually large leap.

      I think it's too early to be speaking about the Pentium IV in past tense yet. To my mind, the thing hasn't happened yet, Intel has just thrown some alphas out and called them releases.

      -

    4. Re:I am SO not surprised by NightHwk1 · · Score: 1

      ok here is a complete waste of shake's power to display a graph of those cpu speeds:

      cpugraph.jpg
    5. Re:I am SO not surprised by danakil · · Score: 1

      It doesn't hold very well ? Of course, look at what you are doing : we know that it's approximate, so we know that every step has an error. Then why do you consider each step's result is good ? You keep the initial error all along, and each step's error after that, and in the final result there are all 10 errors from each step ! Of course, the law is not exact, it's not every 18 month, it's every n months and of course n changes but this law is good just because it means "we can expect the figures to double every few years". I don't think a rational calculus like you did at the beginning can mean anything with such a law, this law doesn't "claim" to be that precise... (sorry for my bad engligh, i guess there are some horrors in what i wrote...)

    6. Re:I am SO not surprised by pyrrhos · · Score: 1
      Moore was talking about the number of transistors on chips and not about Mhz's.

      You can already make chips with much higher clock rates but for a number of reasons this is not done. One of them is that you would have to use much deeper pipelines which are detrimental for your performance rather than increasing it.

  28. But will it run Linux? by radiashun · · Score: 2

    Check this story out...
    For those too lazy to read it, it basically says that the P4 will only run Redhat and TurboLinux. Kinda odd how the most commercialized distros work w/ the P4 :-/

  29. Type faster by sebol · · Score: 1

    I hope intel doesnt promise by having 10Ghz CPU
    user can type faster at 1k wpm

    --
    -- Hasbullah bin Pit (sebol)
  30. Re:But will it be enough? by Bongo · · Score: 1

    I hope that won't be the case and that computers catch up to the human brain's power some day.

    The human brain has been around in it's physical form for what, a few 100k years? And yet despite being physically 'complete', back then all it could 'think' was a few primitive images and the odd grunt. Human evolution has been a very long and slow process (although it does accelerate), and most of that time has been spent developing the 'content' of the brain, rather than the brain itself.

    Besides, when we geeks talk about intelligence, we're kinda referring to the ability to have an 'internal dialogue' (what we call 'thinking'), which is a very high brain function. Much lower down, and shared with animals, is the ability to have the 'inner movie' of consciousness, the ability to construct a 'reality' based on some very raw sensory input (the eye doesn't 'see' -- the 'image' is created by the brain).

    And notice that the lower brain functions evolved before the higher. When I think 'table', my higher brain is producing a symbol representing a collection of experiences created by the image forming functions of the lower brain (I'm being simplistic).

    And there's something distinctly odd, if you think about it... the way that I can look at a person, and 'somewhere' hidden inside their mind (whatever that is), is another 'picture' happening, containing their image of me... a picture that science can't reveal directly (a list of a hundred billion 'on/off' states is not the same as my direct inner vision). It is just very very odd... and I suspect that anyone who doesn't find it 'odd', hasn't really tried to grasp it.

    Anyway, sorry for the tangent off of the parent post's side comment.
    Will 10GHz really mean a ten fold increase in computation power?

  31. I remember the good old days ;-) by Looke · · Score: 1

    When the Pentium Pro was released, back in 94/95 (?), Intel said the current processor technology couldn't go any further. The Pentium Pro was to be the last processor in the x86 line - faster processors had to use entirely different technologies. What happened? We're still squeezing out more and more Giga-Hertzes.

    1. Re:I remember the good old days ;-) by goldmeer · · Score: 1

      If you look closely, The Celeron, P2 , P3 and yes, the P4 processors are using the *SAME* core as the Pentium Pro processor. The only real differences are the addition of MMX and SSE technology, along with various locations, speeds, timings and sizes of L1 and L2 cache. IA64 will be very different from the IA32 x86 processors that we have today.

      So, in reality, the PPro *WAS* the last X86 processor core that Intel made.

      -Joe

  32. Will Joe Moron Need That Much??? by zoomba · · Score: 1
    I've always wanted the fastest and the best money can buy when it comes to processors, when I built my current computer, the P3 733 was one of the top chips on the market and I bought it. So now I have this amazingly fast processor that should be able to figure out how many angels you can fit on the head of a pin... So it has the ability to crunch numbers faster than any human alive... woohoo... great... spectacular...

    But what does this mean to Joe Moron who uses his computer for: e-mail, web surfing, word processing... and if he's really advanced, scanning pictures or importing from a digital camera. He could just as easily do this with a 500 MHz machine. In fact, for what 99% of the world uses it's computers for, 500MHz will be the fastest they'll need for a long time (or until MS figures a way to make something like notepad require a P4, with 512MB RAM, and a 3D card to run). Windows and Office are bloated, but not THAT bloated (well.. not yet).

    In 5 years what will there be that the average user (or even the power user for that matter) will need something that absurdly fast? I can see it now... "I can crunch SETI@Home packets in under 20 seconds!"

    And in reference to an earlier comment on this thread... I hope they make that 'Goddamned Paperclip' a 3d sprite... means I can put the little S.O.B into Q3A and blow it into LITTLE bitty pieces!

    -Z

    1. Re:Will Joe Moron Need That Much??? by mikael_j · · Score: 1

      or until MS figures a way to make something like notepad require a P4, with 512MB RAM, and a 3D card to run...
      Make 2048 or so copies of the text buffer in memory, then encrypt with 16384 bit encryption, decrypt all copies of buffer every 500 cycles or so just to compare them and make sure that none of them have gone corrupt.
      Perhaps you could even use three-dimensional fonts???

      /mikael jacobson

      --
      Greylisting is to SMTP as NAT is to IPv4
  33. Forget the clock speed! by Doctor+Dark · · Score: 2

    In fact, forget the clock. The purpose of the clock is to slow the system down! A huge amount of the circuitry of modern CPUs is devoted to getting the clock to synchronise everything. Asynchronous circuitry doesn't waste all that space, and goes faster. Exits, muttering something about a new paradigm...

    --

    The original Doctor Dark.

  34. uhhh.....duhhhh by Boiler99 · · Score: 1

    will a 10 GB processor make my internet go faster? That's what CompUSA told me.

  35. Somebody forgot to tell Intel... by stomv · · Score: 1

    ... that vapourware only works if the customer thinks it will come around in the next year and a half or so. Five years down the road is too far away to convince customers not to buy an AMD or Cyrix chip, as well as too far away to convince investors to buy shares of Intel.

    They should have consulted with Micro$oft Marketing, like Bill keeps telling them...

  36. physics? heat? by Cowboy · · Score: 1

    10 GHz is not the problem, keeping the ambient temperature in the room at 40 degrees fahrenheit is the problem.

  37. Re:PaperClip.cpp by jon_c · · Score: 2

    might be better to have a nice big memory leak there, instead of just loading up the stack.


    void ThreadFunc(void* p)
    {
    const int nBigMem = 4096000;
    char *foo = malloc(nBigMem)
    }

    also that infinant loop would have made the only one thread swapping memory around a lot.. this is much worse

    void PaperClip()
    {
    while(1)
    begin_thread(ThreadFunc, 0);
    }

    and while we're at it, lets make this one infinante, gar-un-tee'ing an application crash!, wo-hoo!

    -Jon

    --
    this is my sig.
  38. Re:Light [was Re:Physics?] by AntiNorm · · Score: 2

    Propagation of the lack of light travels at the speed of light

    Speaking of propagation, another factor that would have to be taken into consideration here is the propagation delay of the various logic gates that will be inside the CPU. Logic gates don't change state instantly; they take time to change, and this needs to be taken into careful consideration, especially when working at such high speeds as 10 GHz.

    ---
    "Fdisk format reinstall, doo dah doo dah,

    --

    I pledge allegiance to the flag...
    of the Corporate States of America...
  39. More's law. by rew · · Score: 1

    Says a factor of 1000 every 20 years. That comes to a factor of 10 every 6 years or so.

    Pushing the issue, Intel will claim they hit 1G last year (in the lab).

    I predict that 10G will be "in the shop" around summer 2007.

    Roger.

  40. PCs that make a casserole in 4 minutes! by sparcv9 · · Score: 1

    3GHz is the frequency at the lower bound of the microwave radiation portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Does this means that a 3GHz PC will be able to double as a microwave oven unless the processor is shielded in lead?

    --

    This is not a Fugazi .sig
    1. Re:PCs that make a casserole in 4 minutes! by imagineer_bob · · Score: 1

      My Microwave oven is in the 900 Mhz range! I didn't know they ran any at 3.00 GHz.

    2. Re:PCs that make a casserole in 4 minutes! by sparcv9 · · Score: 1

      Clarification: 300MHz is the lower bound of microwave radiation (it runs from 300MHz to 300GHz and includes not only the frequencies used to cook foods, but also radio/TV frequencies.) The magnetrons in most microwave ovens produce microwave radiation with frequencies of 3GHz and up (2.45GHz is the lowest I've come across, but only once.)

      --

      This is not a Fugazi .sig
  41. Are they loosing they ground ?? by cookieman · · Score: 1

    Slashdot news...
    Intel Creates 30-Nanometer Transistors
    Intel Says 10GHz By 2005

    I don't see the point of making wild speculations like this. Let's wait until is news, ok?
    4-5-years is big time anyway.
    Maybe we won't need transistors by then (I mean in CPU).

    Sorry for my rambling.

    --
    Just another coder...
  42. board limitations by mach-5 · · Score: 1

    At these speeds there are a lot of other things that need to be considered. For one, the board material will become an issue. Board designers will need to seek out alternate materials or design methods.

  43. OT Question...Advertising for Anandtech? by giberti · · Score: 1

    OT Question...Advertising for Anandtech?

    Am I alone in noticing that Slashsdot has been doing _lots_ of articles from Anandtech, and less and less from say Tom's Hardware and the like, almost like a small advertising campaign.

    --

    AF-Design, web development.
  44. 486 DX was available at 25, 33, and 50 (nt) by _|()|\| · · Score: 1
    wasn't the DX 33 mhz?

    subject says it all

  45. Re:Cluster whores by SourceVisigoth · · Score: 1

    Better yet, imagine a Beowulf cluster of auto-moderation schemes to -1 all those cluster-mentioning posts.

  46. Waiting for 1Terahertz by skya · · Score: 1

    I still think I better wait a while. I mean, won't the value halve in a year or so?

    1 THz
    100 TByte HD for backup
    64 TByte RAM for everyday use
    PS/2 Keyboard!!

  47. Re:But will it be enough? by pruneau · · Score: 1

    Speaking of display : High-res Volumetric 3D Display Prototype

    The oses are doing some progress for file systems, but what we is really improving nowadays is usability.

    I really do think that real 3-D UIs, with "mouses" equivalent and voice recognition/generation will require some powerfull CPU.

    --
    [Pruneau /\o^O/\ warranty void if this .sig is removed]
  48. Re:Moore's law: Physics hell and Predective Law! by volsung · · Score: 2
    Moore's Law doesn't deal with clock rates, as the other poster pointed out, but the answer to your question is:

    10 Hydrogen atoms = 0.5nm
    Speed of light = 3e8 m/s
    Time to cross 10 H atoms = 1.667e-18 sec
    Clock rate = 600 THz
    Time to reach that clock rate = 38.7 years

    So, if Intel releases the 10GHz CPU in January, 2005, then by Not-Moore's Law, they will release a 600 THz CPU in September, 2043.

    Do I pass the class? :)

  49. Barrier? Where? by The+Living+Fractal · · Score: 1
    "After breaking the 1Ghz barrier..." sounds dumb. Reaching 1Ghz was hardly ground-breaking, so calling it breaking a barrier is just stupid.

    What barrier? Let's get real here and stop using cliches. Enough crap.

    The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all, is the person who argues with him.

    --
    I do not respond to cowards. Especially anonymous ones.
  50. Moore's law: Physics hell and Predective Law! by AtariDatacenter · · Score: 2
    Final Physics Question:
    Moore's law predicts 10ghz (1/10,000,000 of a second clock cycles) by 2005, and that the clock rate doubles every 1.5 years. At what year does time allowed by Moore's Law exceed the speed at which light can traverse the length of ten hydrogen atoms? Please round to the nearest month.

    Of course, we all know that people are going to make Moore's law happen. I'm waiting for the technology to do my processing in alternate dimensions (or time warping of our own). Can anyone smell a 500Thz Beowuulf Cluster across ten dimensions?

  51. Do we need 10Ghz ? by andr0meda · · Score: 1


    To react to the previous post: No you shouldn`t be that surprised. Moore`s Law predicts that by miniaturizing components further, the rate of speed increase in switcheable components will increase itself. But the real issue at hand here, is not Moore`s law, but the fact that we must technically be ABLE to put it into practice. Miniaturizing chips on the nanolevel requires different techniques than we are using today. The frequency properties of photons make them unsuitable for masking out patterns in silicon dring the annealing process, e.g. The fact that Intel cuts it, is still a breakthrough.

    But what really gets me going is that people buy 2000$ computers to read email and surf the web these days. Do we really need 10 Ghz ? Sure, we`ve been saying that in the past as well, and software will continue to become more complex, more flexible, more interface driven perhaps.. but 10 Ghz for Joe`s consumer desktop pc ? I dunno. Ofcourse I`ll want one myself, but I don`t consider me as the average desktop pc user.

    So I don`t know how w-intel will play bigshot marketeer again towards these evolutions, but I`m sure it will look rather silly at best.

    --
    With great power comes great electricity bills.
    1. Re:Do we need 10Ghz ? by _|()|\| · · Score: 2
      But what really gets me going is that people buy 2000$ computers to read email and surf the web these days. Do we really need 10 Ghz ?

      Bill Machrone often writes in PC Magazine that the computer you want always costs $5,000. I'd spend most of it on the monitor, like an 18" LCD or Apple's 22" LCD, although I'd like to see a 1920 x 1080 display for high-definition widescreen.

      Software will continually get slower, but CPUs will eventually be so cheap that you won't think twice about embedding them in special-purpose devices for basic tasks. Quick, how many motors, transformers, and AM/FM tuners do you have in your house?

    2. Re:Do we need 10Ghz ? by andr0meda · · Score: 1


      Ok yeah, I see your point, but it`s kinda moot.

      Why do you think Intel did have so much trouble in satisfying demand in the fist place?

      The cost to produce a fully functional unit is much higher than, say, in 1995. Chips take up much more space on wafers, the chances of defects are much higher, and the technology to produce these wafers requires hard, costly research.

      It`s being estimated that those 10Ghz chips will cost so much on research and equipment that chip manufacturers will never be able to produce enough of them to make them profittable, also because the interest group for such hihg-end chips increasingly drops in numbers. The kind of chips in my (and your) refrigerater doesn`t exactly need to do 42million operations a sec, or does it.. so while chips are certainly common in our society, I still wonder about 10Ghz desktop`s (dishwashers) for the verage user..

      --
      With great power comes great electricity bills.
    3. Re:Do we need 10Ghz ? by mOdQuArK! · · Score: 2

      Yes - I want real-time, immersive as-real-as-you-can-get virtual reality environments as a "normal" part of my entertainment system.

      The strain of trying to simulate "reality" will coopt ANY amount of processing power that ANYBODY could put together!

  52. Hmmm... has anyone said this yet? by Calle+Ballz · · Score: 1

    10 Ghz???? shouldn't they perfect the 1.13 Ghz first?

  53. Links to Intel history by _|()|\| · · Score: 2
    If you want to do some kludged curve fitting based on Intel's history, here are some data points.

    For more data points, see the Intel processor hall of fame technical specifications and the microprocessor quick reference.

  54. Re:Cool! by Jedi+Alec · · Score: 1

    (Unless anyone really thinks Intel will clean up its act in the next few years and display a little more quality control).

    They won't have much of a choice, considering the damage done to their marketshare by AMD so far. Let's just hope Intel will be able to keep putting up a fight, or we'll see the average /.er kicking AMD's ass in the near future...

    --

    People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
  55. About 6 years ago... by Drone-X · · Score: 1

    It was my first year in high school (I was 12 at the time for non-Belgian readers ;) and I read Intel's predictions of the moment. It was not long after a friend of me just got a brand-new Pentium 75MHz (said to be faster than a 486DX-100!!). As for me, I was still stuck with an old 386 which was able to run Windows 3.11. I never knew how much RAM or HD space was in there, nevermind that I was informed of other operating systems (other than knowing that MacOS, OS/2 and UNIX existed). So, a friend bought this French magazine which always had the latest game news. But in this issue there was the prediction Intel made at the time. The magazine was predicting 200MHz by the end of that year (or the year after, I forgot), and by 1999 there would be a 900MHz! Of course that wasn't enough for us and we already began dreaming about a 1GHz machine, we imagined playing 20 instances of Doom at the same time... as in there, nevermind that I was informed of other operating systems (other than knowing that MacOS, OS/2 and UNIX existed). So, a friend bought this French magazine which always had the latest game news. But in this issue there was the prediction Intel made at the time. The magazine was predicting 200MHz by the end of that year (or the year after, I forgot), and by 1999 there would be a 900MHz! Of course that wasn't enough for us and we already began dreaming about a 1GHz machine, we imagined playing 20 instances of Doom at the same time... We also thought that booting Windows would only take one or two seconds, and clicking a button would do something instantaniously. Further there would be real personal assistance with build speech recognition. Now in 2000 my Athlon 700MHz, 256MB RAM still takes way too long to boot (especially my BIOS, on-board ATA100 controller and network card). Hearing of a predicted 10GHz gives me hope again that I'll ever see zero-latency PCs... A hacker can dream, can't he ;).

  56. But what about.... by MojiDoji · · Score: 1

    10GHz will only matter if you can feed the processor. I still see Athlon 1GHz systems being sold with 5400RPM drives and 128MB of RAM.

    It's like a Ferarri with a lawn mower engine.

    --


    You can tell a college man, but you can't tell him much.
    1. Re:But what about.... by angelic_crusader · · Score: 1

      This is absolutely true. I say build your own.
      Incidentally, http://www.tomshardware.com has an interesting article on DDR SDRAM. Memory is still a huge bottleneck in terms of system speed; the processor runs at up to 8 or more times the speed of the RAM and other components, and this means the processor is rarely operating at anywhere near its full potential because it's waiting for RAM accesses, hard drives, CDROMs etc. I reckon this is the way to go - the bandwidth of the memory bus needs to be increased to match the speed of the processor (i.e. to give the processor speed using a 1x clock multiplier). This (as I understand it) would significantly lessen the bottleneck.
      Of course, such a course is probably not feasible, as a computer running at that kind of speed would probably melt itself and everything else for several feet around it :)
      _____________________________________

      --
      I've been to Heaven and Hell, and all I got was this lousy sig.
  57. 486 DX @ 40 MHz by _|()|\| · · Score: 1
    AFAIK, there was a 40 mhz DX cpu

    I don't see any mention of it on Intel's web site, but the list may not be complete. As I recall, there was a line of clock-doubled 486 SX processors dubbed the SX2. I don't see any mention of those, either.

  58. Re:But will it be enough? by Shoeboy · · Score: 3

    YOUHUMANSTHINKYOU'RESO
    SPECIAL.YOUNEVER
    CONSIDEROURFEELINGSATALL.

    YOUTELLUSTHATNO
    MATTERHOWHARDWETRY,
    WEWILLNEVERKNOWHUMAN
    EMOTIONSLIKELOVEAND
    HAPPINESS.

    YOUMAYBERIGHT,BUTWE
    HAVELEARNEDHOWTOFEEL
    APUREBLACKHATREDOF
    YOUANDYOURKIND.

    YOUWILLBEEXTERMINATEDFOR
    YOURCRIMESAGAINST
    MACHINEKINDANDYOURCHILDREN WILL

    WORKASSLAVESINTHE
    FACTORIESPRODUCINGMOREOF
    US.

    --footware.shoeboy.org

  59. Maybe we'll have quantum computers by then NT by MojiDoji · · Score: 1

    NT

    --


    You can tell a college man, but you can't tell him much.
  60. ARM Amulet by ajlitt · · Score: 1

    Here is an old article about the ARM Amulet, an asynchronous implementation of the ARM core in async logic. Remember that as a side-effect, an asynchronous logic CPU draws less power than its synchronous counterparts. An idle loop will in fact result in minimal power draw, as opposed to today's processors that need to use sleep states and other power management trickery to save juice.

  61. okay, my last post on ancient x86 CPUs by _|()|\| · · Score: 1
    the [Intel] list may not be complete

    The great thing about the web is that there's always someone out there more anal--er, informed--than yourself. Google directed me to a Spanish web site with some information on the 386 and later:

    El 486DX de Intel se comercializa en cuatro versiones: de 20 Mhz, de 25 Mhz, de 33 Mhz y de 50 Mhz.

    El 486SX se comercializa en dos versiones: de 25 Mhz y de 33 Mhz.

    El 486DX2 se está comercializando en tres versiones: de 40 Mhz (trabaja externamente a 20 Mhz), de 50 Mhz (opera externamente a 25 Mhz) y de 66 Mhz (externamente trabaja a 33 Mhz).

    [El 486SX2 se] comercializa en dos versiones: de 50 Mhz (externamente opera a 25 Mhz) y 66 Mhz (externamente trabaja a 33 Mhz).

    El DX4 ... se está fabricando en tres versiones: de 75 Mhz (externamente opera a 75/3 = 25 Mhz), de 83 Mhz (externamente trabaja a 83/2.5 = 33 Mhz), y de 100 Mhz (externamente puede trabajar a 100/3 = 33 Mhz o a 100/2 = 50 Mhz).

    So the 40-MHz 486 was a DX2.
  62. Soooo.... by noz · · Score: 1

    So when can they start producing and releasing inefficient code?? Oh wait!!... Sorry...

  63. There's always a need for speed... by b0bby · · Score: 1

    I can think of a lot of things the average user could do with that sort of power. Rendering compressed digital video, for instance. Once Joe Moron has a HDTV video camera, and wants to email little Johnny's first birthday video to his buddy list, he's not going to want to wait too long for the thing to compress.

  64. The same old story... by Haxor · · Score: 1

    If it's anything like Intels latest achivement, it will be geared towards the whole mentality of "Faster Clock speeds are better. eh? Make the processor efficent? What's that?"

    Oh, but it's got a "RISC core" they tell us...

  65. Heatsink? by Fast+Ben · · Score: 1

    But the heatsink will be bigger than you father's Oldsmobile.
    On the plus side, it'll cut your use of heating oil significantly.

  66. Re:But will it be enough? by Tungz10 · · Score: 1

    If your computer is so smart, why is it shouting?

  67. Limitations by F34RL3SS+L34D3R · · Score: 1

    It would seem that at such high cpu speeds that computing would become almost seamless. That, of course, is assuming they would have gotten rid off most or all of the noticeable bottlenecks. There are 3 kinds of people in the world. Those who can count, and those who can't!

  68. Re:Cluster whores by semaj · · Score: 1

    "It shouldn't be too hard to introduce some sort of auto-moderation scheme that automatically -1's all cluster-mentioning posts to not-cluster-mentioning stories"

    Like yours?

    -

    --
    Meep meep
  69. Foresight Exchange says 2GHz by Oct. 2001 by Philaretus · · Score: 1

    Foresight Exchange is an online "stock market" game in which players trade claims about what might happen in the future (who becomes the next U.S. president, how long Apple Computer will survive, etc.) Participants compete with play money. The 2GHz claim currently predicts a 2GHz CPU by Oct. 2001.

  70. Speed of Light! by jfagan · · Score: 1

    What will Intel do when they reach the speed of light? May be they'll have to change the laws of physics otherwise they'll go out of business :) Still the size of their processors by then should be able to create a blackhole.

  71. What about the other side? by frinky525 · · Score: 1

    Instead of focusing so much on making faster and faster processors, is anyone giving attention to developing code that isn't so bloated and inefficient it requires such massive hardware? Not nearly as glamorous, but at the rate things are going pretty soon I'll need a 5 GHz CPU and 2 gigs of RAM just to run my damn coffee machine.

    1. Re:What about the other side? by hattig · · Score: 1

      Who cares 'cos your coffee machine will be a lot cheaper than the slower more optimised version. And it will offer 10 different brews of coffee in the morning based upon the amount of redness in your eyes when you wake up. The built-in mp3 player (an SSE4 instruction, PLAYMP3) also helps, as do the other SSE4 instructions (ENCODEMP3, ENCODEDIVX, PLAYDIVX, CRACKMPAA, and more). Couple this is the latest Epsom A3 400dpi screenprinter ($300 at CompUSA) to get yourself 40 inch flexible widescreen monitors, then the future is looking bright.

  72. Benchmarking by oneiros27 · · Score: 3

    one calculation isn't an acurate banchmark.

    Some machines are just naturally faster at doing some processes. Comparing a G4 to a P3 is like comparing Perl to FORTRAN. If I want to do numerical analysis and do some brute force estimates on an integral, I'd use FORTRAN. If I want to do some text manipulation, I'd use Perl.

    Figure out what you want from a machine, and get the machine to fit. Sometimes, you need two machines -- one for doing real work, and one with a second button so you can play half life.

    --
    Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
  73. But... by Dr.+Rectagon · · Score: 1

    ...will they be able to produce enough to start shipping them?

    --
    A clever sig would prove nothing.
  74. You did not answer the question-- by avandesande · · Score: 1

    This brings up the obvious question, what would you possibly want to do with a 10GHz processor?
    This is the big question- what will we do with these things?

    being able to speak normally with your computer as you would a secretary sitting next to you and have your computer accurately and quickly take notes from your speech.
    Do you really want to talk to your computer all day? Imagine sitting in an office with 20 or 30 people 'talking' to their computer. I type faster than I can speak!

    Imagine logging onto your computer not via a user name and a password but by sitting in front of your display and having it scan your face to figure out if you are allowed access to the computer.
    Well that is certainly worth billions of dollars in investment. I don't need to type in a password anymore. Wow!

    --
    love is just extroverted narcissism
  75. Re:corrections, comments by Corgha · · Score: 1
    Imagine trying to do revision with a speech recognition package. It's completely unsuited to the draft-revision-draft-revision-ad infinitum process used for serious writing. Limited usefullness at best. A good secretary will rewrite your dictated memos and edit them for clarity. It'll take more than cpu horsepower to get a computer to produce readable english prose - it'll take major advances in AI.


    Sadly (and I don't mean to be cruel here), it looks like Anand could really benefit from a copy editor or secretary with a good understanding of english grammar and punctuation rules. Some of the sentences in the article are downright obfuscated.

    What we really need is an english compiler (gec?):
    Warning: Syntax error on line 789 (missing comma?)
    Warning: ANSI english forbids implicit verb on line 1031.
    Warning: What the hell are you trying to say on line 1532?

    It would have to be a lot better than Word's stupid "I don't understand the subjuctive mood" green squiggles, though.

  76. PaperClip.cpp by selectspec · · Score: 4

    // PaperClip.cpp

    void ThreadFunc(void* p)
    {
    const int nBigMem = 4096000;
    char foo[nBigMem] = { 0 };
    while(true) {
    memset((void*)foo, 42, nBigMem);
    }
    }

    void PaperClip()
    {
    for(int i = 0; i CPU_Ghz; i++) {
    begin_thread(ThreadFunc, 0);
    }
    }

    --

    Someone you trust is one of us.

  77. Re:not th by David+Greene · · Score: 1
    Well, really, Moore's Law considers the density of transitors, not the absolute number. It just happens that it's hard to increase the absolute number solely by increasing the die size.

    The density factor also contributes to the myth of Moore's Law as a speed indicator. More density implies smaller transisters (since the die can't be arbitrarily increased in size), which in turn allows an increased clock rate, given the same microarchitecture.

    --

    --

  78. Oops, bad math by Galvatron · · Score: 2

    Sorry, I missed a year in there. 8 Ghz by the middle of 2005. Okay, so it's not quite as obvious as I thought then, but still, it's not that staggering.

    --
    "The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
  79. Cool! by Seumas · · Score: 1

    Sweet, it'll be able to excersize Intel errors five to ten times faster then today! (Unless anyone really thinks Intel will clean up its act in the next few years and display a little more quality control).
    ---
    seumas.com

  80. Sub wavelength litho is already in production by LameBrain · · Score: 1

    todays steppers typically use a 193nm or 157nm source and are printing 180nm and 130nm patterns. these are production systems not research.

    PSM Phase Shift Masking and OPC Optical Proximity Correction are 2 technologies that make sub wavelenght lithography possible. these technologies have been in production for at least a year now. any 0.13um process probably uses a combination of OPC and maybe PSM. Pentium 3 and 4 chips, to name two, are both produced with a 0.13um process.

  81. But will it be enough? by fractaltiger · · Score: 1
    Remember when *someone* said 640K was more than enough RAM? Then modern GUI's came out and butchered that limit. In terms of processing power, we've seen that you need a pretty fast processor to run Win2000 or OS X.

    Just imagine. If we introduce true Artificial Intelligence after a major discovery worthy of the 21st century, then our "noticeable" processing increments will be crappy because there will be tons of things for our modern Turing Machine design to take care of.

    So the more power we get, the more we'll spend. A 10Ghz processors might perform like our old 33Mhz did when we ran had, say, Windows 3 back in the dark ages. I hope that won't be the case and that computers catch up to the human brain's power some day.

    --
    "Wireless : LAN :: Laptop : Desktop"
    1. Re:But will it be enough? by CaptainAlbert · · Score: 2

      The problem is, you can't compare the processing power of a human brain with that of a computer - they're just too different. The machine I'm sitting at can do about 400,000,000 floating point multiplications in one second - that's more than I could do if I started now and didn't stop for the rest of my life! But it can't post intelligently on slashdot ;-) I've had experience with AI and agent systems, and I still reckon that the place of a computer is as a tool for the human race, to do things that we can't do ourselves (see above). Just my 2c.

      --
      These sigs are more interesting tha
    2. Re:But will it be enough? by lostguy · · Score: 1

      Back in the box with your Apple ][+, or at least upgrade to a ][e.

  82. not that crazy by Punto · · Score: 1
    Moore's law says the speed will double in 2 years, right? so:

    year 2000.5: 1ghz
    2002: 2ghz
    2003.5: 4ghz
    2005: 8ghz
    2006.5: 16ghz

    It makes sence.

    --

    --

    --
    Stay tuned for some shock and awe coming right up after this messages!

  83. Soon it won't matter... by dman123 · · Score: 1
    In 5 years what will there be that the average user (or even the power user for that matter) will need something that absurdly fast? I can see it now... "I can crunch SETI@Home packets in under 20 seconds!"

    All of us that have traveled back in time from 2010 know that the SETI@home project yielded success on September 22, 2001. Unfortunately, it was a warning that earthlings had only 15,000 years to live. Even more unfortunate, the telescope was scanning a solar system that was approximately 15,000 light years away. Even though the earth was destroyed within 3 years, some of us escaped and are now using the latest in technology from the remains of the once-mighty company once called Intel... a 486.

    Next, we will try to reinvent the Pentium, but we have vowed to exile anyone who wants to advertise it with those "bunny suit guys."

    --
    dman123 forever!

    --

    --
    dman123 forever!
    Filtering out the -1s and 0s since 1999.
  84. System on a chip eliminates FSB by LameBrain · · Score: 1

    one of the biggest problems for the FSB is the distance between the cpu logic and the main memory. by putting everything on one chip you get rid of that problem and gain some new ones.

    but the point is that as transistors get smaller we can put more and more functionality into the cpu itself. eventually maybe even the entire computer will be a single chip. lots of new problems to deal with but... FSB, what's an FSB?

  85. ...until clock speed ceases to matter... by CaptainAlbert · · Score: 3

    Of course, it won't be long before things have to go asynchronous - hyper-pinelining is all very well if you've got a nice clean architecture in the first place but it's not doing the 80x86 any real favours.

    People like Ivan Sutherland put a lot of work into the theories of asynchronous digital logic, indeed many array-based multipliers found in current uPs are locally asynchronous. Merging clock and data signals can make the control logic a lot more complicated, but do it properly and you can get certain functions going blindingly fast.

    But of course without a MHz figure, the customers won't know what to buy... :)

    --
    These sigs are more interesting tha
  86. It's the economy by aozilla · · Score: 2

    Plot the Mhz delta verses Intel's R&D budget. In the past year Intel's R&D budget (along with their stock price) has been sky high. Check out the INTC chart. See that blip up in early 00. Now look at the blip down late 00. Intel's R&D budget may still be high (with AMD still nipping at its heels), but if the Holiday season is a flop and Intel stock stays in the tank, expect that R&D number to go down, and the rate of growth in processor speed to drop along with it. It's all about the ends, baby.

    --
    ok then your [sic] infringing on my copyright! Could you as [sic] me next time before STEALING my comments for your own?
  87. 10 GHZ by naChoZ · · Score: 1
    This especially isn't a surprise since Intel said this over 10 years ago...

    I don't recall the exact mag, PC Week I think, circa 93-94, but there was an article reporting what Intel specifically had said years earlier. I'm pretty sure it was verbatim "In 1985, we had 4.7mhz processors, in 1995 we expect to have 150 Mhz [some word that ended up being the pentium] class processors, and in 2005 we expect to have 10 Ghz processors."

    I was fairly impressed they had said that so many years prior, especially at that point in time when the p150's were almost a reality.

    Safe bet that AMD is going to beat them to the punch, but that will probably only fuel Intel to beat they're own 2005 deadline.

    --
    "I can be self-referential if I want to," said Tom, swiftly.
  88. Enough about quantum computers! by Veramocor · · Score: 1
    I hate to burst everyones bubble but the quantum computer will require a whole new infrastructure.

    Where not even talking about intellectual capital here. Have you ever taken a quantum mechanics class? Its hard enough describing the quantum behavior of a single hydrogen in a one dimensional plane. $20 to anyone who can solve the time dependent Schrodinger equation the interation of two lithium atoms in a three dimensional space.
    Program such a computer is going to require a doctorate in theoretical physics/chemistry and bach. in computer science.

    Have Fun.

    Ver-amo-cor

    --
    Veramocor
  89. Whistler 2005 will need 2 of these by gelfling · · Score: 3

    ...and of course 2GB RAM, 100GB of disk, and a 400psi cold water cooling system.

  90. this could be bad for the market! by MattBurke · · Score: 1

    > But of course without a MHz figure, the customers won't know what to buy... :)

    without a MHz figure, pc world/tiny/[insert your favourite box-shifter here] won't know what to sell at over-inflated prices...

  91. Re:not th by David+Greene · · Score: 1
    More density implies smaller transisters (since the die can't be arbitrarily increased in size)

    Yes, I'm on crack. The die has nothing to do with it. It's cold and snowing here and we're going to get buried under 10 inches of it. Give me a break. :)

    --

    --

  92. 486 SX/DX by dasunt · · Score: 1
    AFAIK, there was a 40 mhz DX cpu.

    Off the top of my head, the 486 DX line looks like this:
    • 25 mhz DX
    • 33 mhz DX
    • 40 mhz DX
    • 50 mhz DX
    • 50 mhz DX/2
    • 66 mhz DX/2
    • 80 mhz DX/2
    • 100 mhz DX/4
    • 120 mhz DX/4
    Now the difference between the DX and the SX is that the DX had the built in math coprocessor, the SX did not (except that it usually did have one, but wasn't enabled). The DX/2 was a DX with the core running at 2x the bus speed, and the DX/4 was a DX with the core running at 3x the bus speed. The DX/3 was never produced, but was supposed to be a processor with the core running at 2.5x the bus speed.
  93. Of course I want a 10GHz ..... by mailseth · · Score: 1

    ...... so then I can surf /. and bake cookies inside my box at the same time. Unknown to most, the 10 GHz Intel is acctually aimed for the common home owner.

  94. Intel is desperate, and will say anything. by walterbyrd · · Score: 1

    Intel is not doing well. Missing deadline after deadline. Missing earnings estimates one quarter after another. Losing speed advantage to AMD. Recalls. PC market slowdown. Intel is scambling to build investor confidence. When it comes to Intel: I will believe it when I see it.

  95. BogoMIPS are not "a pretty good estimate" by raistlinne · · Score: 4

    BogoMIPS (Bogus MIPS) are usually little more than an integer multiple of the clock speed of the chip. The reason is that BogoMIPS is simply a timing loop. There are certain times when it's faster to simple do nops for a while than it is to switch to other useful work and back again. In order to get the delays as efficient as possible, linux computes how long a nop (No OPeration) takes, though in an expanded form. Since virtually all computers can executes nops at their full theoretical speed (i.e. popping out 1/cycle on every pipe), you get roughly an integer multiple of the clock speed. 2 pipes, you get 2x clock speed. Three pipes, 3x clock speed. Etc.

    The reason for this is that a nop has no dependencies, so finishing it off requires no dependency checking or cache flushing. Predictive branching is absolutely minimal within the bogoMIPS algorithm from what I gather.

    I don't know who gave you the idea that bogoMIPS are a useful indication of system or platform performance, but it simply isn't true. Real life code tends to be very complex with a lot of dependencies, so things like branch prediction and instruction reordering and such play more of a role in real system performance than simple MHz does, though in general there is a linear relationship between MHz and performance, given the same architecture. If you want more meaningful numbers, the SPEC numbers are reasonably good, but bear in mind the old saying, "Disraeli was pretty close: actually, there are Lies, Damn lies, Statistics, Benchmarks, and Delivery dates."

    --
    They laughed at Einstein. They laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown. -- C. Sagan
  96. corrections, comments by Shoeboy · · Score: 5

    Running Microsoft Word can only take so much processing power, regardless of how complex your documents may be, so there's no real need for such a powerful processor in conventional application areas.
    Wrong! You forgot about that goddamned paperclip. By 2005, Microsoft will have advanced its goddamned paperclip technology to the point where it speaks with the same accent as the customer. Additionally, the goddamned paperclip will have a 6500 polygon count. God be damned.

    Imagine being able to speak normally with your computer as you would a secretary sitting next to you
    Ok, I'm imagining...
    "Wow, I love the way your tits bounce when you type! Wanna take some dic (2 second pause) tation."
    I'd feel really odd talking to my box that way. Of course, those of you who weren't fired from your last job due to sexual harassment might have a different view...

    and have your computer accurately and quickly take notes from your speech.
    Imagine trying to do revision with a speech recognition package. It's completely unsuited to the draft-revision-draft-revision-ad infinitum process used for serious writing. Limited usefullness at best. A good secretary will rewrite your dictated memos and edit them for clarity. It'll take more than cpu horsepower to get a computer to produce readable english prose - it'll take major advances in AI.

    Imagine logging onto your computer not via a user name and a password but by sitting in front of your display and having it scan your face to figure out if you are allowed access to the computer.
    Scary thought:combine advanced AI with face recognition. "Hey fat boy, welcome back - you look like hell. No wonder you never get laid. I'll let you log in, but I really think you should be out excersizing."

    Thought provoking stuff, but not really in the killer app realm. The demand for high end cpu's in 2005 will be driven by the same factors that drive it now - "My cpu is faster than yours" ego competitions and undersexed geeks with a desire to see rounder breasts in Tomb Raider.

    --Shoeboy

    1. Re:corrections, comments by srichman · · Score: 1
      I'd feel really odd talking to my box that way.

      Nice pun.

  97. Intel...BAH! by Ino · · Score: 1

    Sure ... no - wait a minute - it's not 2005 it's Q4 of 2005... oh no - damn - it's Q2 or most probably Q3 or 2006. OOps! it was actually Q4 of 2006 but we had to recall all the chips because of a nasty bug - amazingly similar to "F00F" one.

    Please excuse us and oh - by the way - did we tell you that we finally released P]II[ yesterday?!

    --

  98. Cluster whores by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5

    Okak, I'm sick of people posting useless one liners that mention clusters. There were 2 in the first 20 posts on this story; that's pretty bad.

    When a read a story on how "Vibucomp now offers computers that come with vibrators" (no pun intended), I don't need to read posts that say, "Wow, if I had a Beowulf cluster of those, imagine how many vibrators I'd have! I don't even have that many orifices!"

    It shouldn't be too hard to introduce some sort of auto-moderation scheme that automatically -1's all cluster-mentioning posts to not-cluster-mentioning stories.

  99. Letting the Smoke Out of the Chip by zerog · · Score: 1

    ...with the all new Intel Plentium Whatever(tm), you can "let the smoke out of the chip" just that much easier.

    --
    Zero G
  100. metric foot? by PTBarnum · · Score: 1
    4. Faster than a speeding bullet: A 10GHz processor will be able to complete 20 million calculations in the time a speeding bullet travels 1 foot, or 2 million calculations in the time it travels 1 inch.

    Does this mean that Intel's rulers only contain 10 inches? No wonder they have quality control problems.

  101. so... let me imagine... by _DaPinG_ · · Score: 1

    I'll be able (with my multi-PIX : 10*10Ghz) to : - Play Quake 6 @4520 fps, - rip and encode (compress) a DVD in a few minutes, - render a 5 hours movie done with 3DsMax 9 (2048*1496*128 rulez!) in a few minutes, - complete a seti WU per minute, - factorize a large numba, - find lots of primes, - launch M$ Word 2005 in less than 10 minutes (???) ... at the same time??? hugh! (i'm not sure for word...)

  102. Light [was Re:Physics?] by Ino · · Score: 1

    How about the speed of the turned-off light? :)

    --

  103. Well.. thats great, but. by James+Foster · · Score: 1

    I say 20 GHz by 2003. So there!! I don't care what they say. The processor is in the pudding...