Two Approaches to the Next-Generation Desktop

puppetman writes: "Tom's Hardware has a review up of a pre-production P4/2666 using 533 mhz Rambus memory (and shows it stomping the competition). The Pentium 4 needs memory bandwidth, and DDR doesn't supply it. Or does it? Anandtech, ironically, has a preview of the E7500 chipset from Intel - dual channel DDR with support for up to 16 gig of RAM. With a new bus architecture, this looks perfect for high-load databases that need wide pipes to hard-drives, memory, and ethernet. Both of these technologies look great for mid-range database servers. Anandtech claims that dual DDR200 will provide 3.2 gig/second bandwidth, where Tom claims that DDR266 (single channel) offers only 2.1 gig/second. Intel is sure hedging their bets. I wonder what AMD has up their sleeves."

Comments

Rambus makes poor server memory

[Sivar]

To access data in a Rambus module, the request must pass through all modules in sequence up to the module that has the data and then must pass back through those modules to deliver the data to the northbridge. This is, BTW, why continuity RIMMs are required.
As one can derive, this greatly increases latency as the number of modules increases. Servers, being systems that generally have lots of RAM, often have at least 8 modules available.
Due to this increased latency as a function of the number of modules (and other factors), Rambus is therefore poor memory for servers.
Note that this is per channel, meaning a dual channel Rambus system with eight modules has the memory latency of a four module system because the modules are split between the Rambus channels.

Not fast enough.

[tshak]

With all of the posts saying that our 1GHz's are fast enough, I say until Quake n looks like Final Fantasy (the movie!) we don't have fast enough CPU,RAM,Video,[Insert Bottleneck Here].

And 640K outta be enough for anybody...

[jriskin]

It is important for a variety of reasons not to let up upon the current technological pace occurring today. There are so many factors to consider economically, scientifically, and sociologically. If we allowed a slow down of the current pace of technological advancement it could have a devastating impact on our society at large.

First off, it is naive to think that current users wouldn't use or enjoy more powerful computers. It is the software industries fault that end users are unable to fully utilize the more powerful machines being built. Already plenty of comments have suggested a variety of applications from facial recognition to video editing that all would benefit from faster more powerful computers.

It is actually important to me that regardless of the 'need' the average user has for more powerful computers, that the software industry does its job to drive the users to want more power.

Only by nurturing and then feeding the publics appetite for technology does the industry continue to push us forward technologically. If millions of people and companies didn't demand the upgrades and new features that are available with more powerful systems we risk losing all the potential gains for the future that these desires produce.