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Sun Working to Eliminate Circuit Boards

Posted by michael on from the EEs-everywhere-rejoice dept.

lokedhs writes "Sun Microsystems is coming out with new chips without connectors. According to the article, this will have a lot of advantages: 'Performance, for instance, could greatly escalate because the speed of transferring data among chips and the number of channels for the transfers would increase. Energy consumption could also decline. Just as important, overall costs could fall, because defective chips could be removed like Scrabble tiles.' This technology will also lead to new CPU's without cache: 'The technique could also allow designers to remove the cache--the large pool of memory currently found on the processor--and put it on a separate chip. Caches were integrated onto processors to amplify bandwidth. Adding cache, however, bumps up manufacturing costs, as it greatly increases the number of transistors. With the bandwidth constraint gone, caches could once again be made independent without it having an impact on performance.'"

8 of 349 comments (clear)

  1. Re:eh? by cuzality · · Score: 5, Funny

    so basically they want to stack the chips? umm, heat?

    They should get together with Pringles or Lays -- they've both been doing this for a while...

  2. Sun developed something? by zaqattack911 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I figured Sun would have laid off their entire R&D department by now :)

    Love,
    Zaq

  3. 10-pt tiles? by !splut · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just as important, overall costs could fall, because defective chips could be removed like Scrabble tiles.

    With my luck I'll get a dead Pentium Z or Q that I just can't get rid of.

    --
    The angel in the oatmeal.
  4. Even better! by Saeed+al-Sahaf · · Score: 4, Funny

    And in other news, scientists are developing a computer with no electronic parts at all!

    --
    "Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
  5. "Sun Invents Positronic Brain" by HotNeedleOfInquiry · · Score: 4, Funny

    Let's see, in 2 weeks the've anounced that they were looking a buying Novell and getting rid of circuit boards. I guess a positronic brain will be next.

    --
    "Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
  6. Re:Oversimplified by upsidedown_duck · · Score: 5, Funny

    Since you can "upgrade" your cache by replacing a peer-chip, now you can pay-as-you-go.

    Wow, were back to my old 386 PC!

    --
    -- "Makes Little Debbie look like a pile of puke!" - Moe Szyslak
  7. Re:[OFFTOPIC] Explanation of 503s? Post here by zombiestomper · · Score: 5, Funny

    The next 503 error will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!

  8. Interlocking chips by Smallpond · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sun service engineer: I'm trying to fix this CPU, but all I have is sky pieces, anyone have a piece with a little bit of a boat?