Posted by
Hemos
on from the conjecture-or-convinced dept.
vmircea writes "If you think clock speed is the most important measure of a processor, IBM's Bernie Meyerson wants you to reconsider. Meyerson, who heads research and development efforts for Big Blue's semiconductor group, says processor chip speed is old news. Go to ZDNet for the interview."
Speed
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
The end result that people care about. When a system is purchased,
and people are looking at transaction processing capabilities, that is an end
result. They are not looking at whether the clock frequency of the
microprocessor is 8 percent higher.
Isn't that how non-idiots have been looking at it, all along?
I don't think this is really a new attitude.
It's all marketing
by
grunt107
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
The processor speed for marketers is comparable to the engine size wars in the 60s/70s. If I say I have a 402 (6.6L) in my Chevelle and Bob next door has a (snicker) 350 (5.7L) in his Nova, my car gets the approving nods, but may not be faster since the Nova is lighter. Now compare said Chevelle w/today's Z06 'vette. Little 'wimpy' vette has just a 5.7L, but kicks the snot outta the Chevelle in performance.
IBM, and other marketing 'geniuses', need to name their products to entice the 'mine is bigger' crowd. Right now, in the consumer computer realm, GHz talks. Most non-IT people I know will spout the "My PC is 4GHz - what's yours?" mantra when a 2.8 Opteron w/SCSI320 will kick its butt. The enlightened will know, but 'tis the general ignorant masses that have the buying power.
Re:Poeple still want more ghz...
by
Jameth
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
"It makes poeple think that prosesor runs faster when it realy doesn't."
Actually, it makes people think the processor runs faster when it really *does*. Which is why I like their numbering scheme: it compensates for consumer ignorance.
GHz is the wrong metric
by
kennykb
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Most applications nowadays founder on memory
hierarchy performance (L1/L2 cache, main store,
backing store). Cache misses are a usual killer,
and fetch prediction doesn't work very well at
all yet.
Even on the base CPU, the most important metric,
I find, is "MIPS per watt". That's what determines
how much horsepower you can get off a given amount
of cooling, which is the real limiting factor for
CPU speed.
Slashdot Mirror
The processor speed for marketers is comparable to the engine size wars in the 60s/70s. If I say I have a 402 (6.6L) in my Chevelle and Bob next door has a (snicker) 350 (5.7L) in his Nova, my car gets the approving nods, but may not be faster since the Nova is lighter. Now compare said Chevelle w/today's Z06 'vette. Little 'wimpy' vette has just a 5.7L, but kicks the snot outta the Chevelle in performance. IBM, and other marketing 'geniuses', need to name their products to entice the 'mine is bigger' crowd. Right now, in the consumer computer realm, GHz talks. Most non-IT people I know will spout the "My PC is 4GHz - what's yours?" mantra when a 2.8 Opteron w/SCSI320 will kick its butt. The enlightened will know, but 'tis the general ignorant masses that have the buying power.
"It makes poeple think that prosesor runs faster when it realy doesn't."
Actually, it makes people think the processor runs faster when it really *does*. Which is why I like their numbering scheme: it compensates for consumer ignorance.
Even on the base CPU, the most important metric, I find, is "MIPS per watt". That's what determines how much horsepower you can get off a given amount of cooling, which is the real limiting factor for CPU speed.