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Pentium 4 Overclocked to 7.1GHz, Sets World Record

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the unstable-mutation dept.

Netmonger writes "This Japanese guy overclocked a Pentium 4 to 7.132GHz!! The system managed to calculate pi to 1 million decimal places in 18.516 seconds, setting the world's record." The article notes that a Pentium 4 had been overclocked faster earlier this year, but at that speed it was not possible for the machine to function beyond BIOS. Of course, they'd yet to try diverting power from the dilthium crystal reactor to the deflector array.

39 of 392 comments (clear)

  1. World record? by bcmm · · Score: 4, Insightful

    World record for the P4 or for a single x86 processor?

    --
    # cat /dev/mem | strings | grep -i llama
    Damn, my RAM is full of llamas.
    1. Re:World record? by PsychicX · · Score: 5, Interesting

      My question is this. Tom's Hardware put a P4 under liquid nitrogen a while ago, put the northbridge chipset under a phase change compressor, and replaced the motherboard power converter in order to supply enough power to the chips, and they were only able to achieve 5.25GHz max. What did this japanese guy do different that gained him another 2.5 GHz? Is it entirely a result of using newer chips with new manufacturing technologies like Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI)? Or did this japan guy do something that Tom's didn't?

    2. Re:World record? by pooly7 · · Score: 5, Informative

      That's not exactly true, you can compute the Nth binary digit of PI without the need of the previous one. Here is the guy who discover it : http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/pi/

    3. Re:World record? by wfberg · · Score: 4, Informative

      Calculating pi is a series of mathematical operations where you can't do the next one without the prior because you need the remainders. Supercomputers are super due to a heck of a lot of CPUs all working on different parts of a problem that can be broken into chunks. How exactly do you break a series of operations that depend on the priors into chunks for a supercomputer to rip through?

      Use the BBP Formula. Pifast is just a benchark, like all benchmarks it's rather silly. The record is for PCs, the top 500 supercomputers are benchmarked using another silly benchmark (LINPACK).

      --
      SCO employee? Check out the bounty
    4. Re:World record? by ArcticCelt · · Score: 5, Funny
      "The system managed to calculate pi to 1 million decimal places in 18.516 seconds"

      ...but still took 25 to open an Adobe Acrobat document!

      --

      Yahh, hiii haaaaa! -Major Kong, from Dr. Strangelove
    5. Re:World record? by cperciva · · Score: 4, Informative

      Calculating pi is a series of mathematical operations where you can't do the next one without the prior because you need the remainders.

      Leaving aside the BBP algorithm which several other people have mentioned, you're mostly correct here.

      How exactly do you break a series of operations that depend on the priors into chunks for a supercomputer to rip through?

      But you're going a bit astray here. Large classical computations of Pi are exercises in performing big Fast Fourier Transforms; and there are very good algorithms for doing those in parallel. Using the AGM or a Borwein iteration, computing a million digits of Pi requires approximately 200 full-length FFTs plus some additional linear-time trivially parallelizable work.

      So anyway, it looks like this calculating pi is a record in general, not for just a PC.

      Give me a 4 processor 3.8GHz Pentium 4 system, and I can beat the reported time by a factor of two. If you can do parallel FFTs, you can do a parallel classical computation of Pi.

      --
      Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
    6. Re:World record? by ikkonoishi · · Score: 4, Informative

      I know you are joking, but try adobe liposuction

      It worked for me. I can open a pdf in less than the time it takes a politician to go from idealistic young upstart to corporate whore.

    7. Re:World record? by kesuki · · Score: 4, Insightful

      or course it doesn't scale well.

      quite frankly intel was supposed to be selling 6-7 ghz p4's around now... the fact that they can't but can be overclocked that fast is proof that the architecture was designed to run at those clock speeds, but that actually implementing that kind of clock speed would require insane cooling and power requirements that most sane people find unacceptable.

      --
      https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
  2. But.,. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Does it run... OSX86 ?

    Retep Vosnul

    1. Re:But.,. by uberdave · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Ah! Witness the emergence of a new Slashdot catchphrase.

      --
      "I'm not impatient. I just hate waiting." - My Dad
  3. Prove it by Danborg · · Score: 5, Funny

    Paste all the numbers here for verification please.

  4. That's cool but by notque · · Score: 5, Interesting

    How long can the machine last at that sort of overclocking? How much experience have others had with lifetimes of chips once you overclock them by a lot.

    --
    http://use.perl.org
    1. Re:That's cool but by alragh · · Score: 5, Funny

      About 18.516 seconds by the looks of things

  5. Jesse James' calculator?? by gearmonger · · Score: 4, Funny

    Calculating Pi is good...but what FPS can it do in Battlefield 2?

  6. In related news.. by leathered · · Score: 5, Funny

    Overclocking experiment results in largest single release of thermal energy in Japan since 1945.

    Casualty figures as yet unknown.

    --
    For all intensive porpoises your a bunch of rediculous loosers
    1. Re:In related news.. by pwroberts · · Score: 5, Funny

      Some tasteful moderation there by whoever modded the parent "Flamebait"... ;-)

    2. Re:In related news.. by Xabraxas · · Score: 5, Insightful
      REALLY FUNNY considering we just had the anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. Perhaps you want to joke about the Jewish holocaust or the slaughter of the Native American indians.

      It is really funny. Hell I even joke about the holocaust and Native American slaughter. Guess what, so do my Jewish and Native American friends. If you don't have a sense of humor then I pity you.

      I'm about as liberal as can be but I absolutely hate political correctness. It doesn't help anyone, it just gives some jerkoffs the opportunity to complain about trivial shit. If you really want to complain about something try taking a stab at shit that is going on now and affecting us now like the criminals in office and their illegal war, illegal torture, and illegal detention.

      --
      Time makes more converts than reason
    3. Re:In related news.. by joNDoty · · Score: 5, Funny

      One of my relatives died in the holocaust. It was a horrible, humiliating way to die -- he fell out of the guard tower.

      So please, don't ever joke about the holocaust.

  7. and people womder... by C0vardeAn0nim0 · · Score: 4, Funny

    why siberia's permafrost is melting @_@

    --
    What ? Me, worry ?
    1. Re:and people womder... by aktzin · · Score: 5, Funny

      Maybe this is what Sir Arthur C. Clarke meant when he said that supernovae are probably industrial accidents.

      --
      Quantum mechanics: the dreams that stuff is made of.
  8. More info and a pic or two by erick99 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'd like to see a pic of the machine, especially the liquid nitrogen cooling stuff. I would also like to know if this machine ran for five minutes, ten minutes, melted?

    --
    http://www.busyweather.com/
    1. Re:More info and a pic or two by The+Hobo · · Score: 5, Informative

      Here you go Clicky

      --
      There is another kind of evil which we must fear most, and that is the indifference of good men. -- Boondock Saints
  9. Booting Windows XP by kihjin · · Score: 5, Funny

    The maximum speed at which he could boot Windows XP operating system and perform memory testing was 6.60GHz.

    Funny, since, no matter how fast I OC a Windows XP box, the XP "loading bar" still moves the same old speed.

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    This slashdot-related signature is a stub. You can help kihjin by expanding it.
  10. pi=42 by Spodlink05 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Good job they didn't try that on an original Pentium, what with all those decimal places...

  11. actual link by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Link to the actual forum posting, complete with pics.

    http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php ?t=70225&page=5&pp=25

  12. Apple was right! by Geckoman · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now we know why Apple switched to Intel! I can't wait for a PowerBook running one of these, complete with the Ghostbusters-style backpack pumping liquid nitrogen to my laptop!

  13. Diverting power from the dilthium crystal reactor? by exley · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yeah, maybe, but they could really get some serious overclocking done if they just reversed the polarity.

  14. And people said by Drew+Curtis · · Score: 5, Funny

    that x86 would never hit 100MHz!

  15. Still slower than G4! by porneL · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'll be missing "nah, that's just megahertz myth".

  16. Dry Ice Slot by gregor-e · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Somebody needs to make an auto-overclocking system that has a slot for feeding in bricks of dry ice.

    You want that render to finish before lunch? Just slide in a brick of dry ice and watch the steam come out the sides as your motherboard's temperature sensor gives the go-ahead to crank the clock up to 7 GHz.

  17. Stardate 7234.1 by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Funny

    Spock: Our ship's computer is running too slow. I project we will collide with the Klingon cruiser in 2.3 minutes.

    Bones: You green blooded sonofabitch.

    Kirk: Bones... shut... up... Scotty, I need 7ghz... now.

    Scotty: I canna do it, cap'n. It'll blow the mains, and Windows 9000 will crash.

    Kirk: No... excuses... Scotty... just get me... 7ghz.

    Scotty (resigned): Aye, cap'n.

    Uruha: We're getting in a signal for Starfleet Command. It's Admiral Gates.

    Kirk: Put... him... on...

    Admiral Gates: Here at Microsoft we believe in innovation. Thus we are sending you SP23482378485847825727347198874741 which will allow Windows 9000 to interact with an overclocked Pentium without making rude sounds and the voice of the computer changing from Majel Barrett to Carrot Top. Let me demonstrate.

    Spock: Admiral Gates, it appears that your demonstration computer has exploded, taking out a large chunk of the planet Earth.

    Scotty: Cap'n, we've got 7ghz now!

    Kirk: Good work, Scotty. Sulu... reboot... the... computer.

    Spock: Captain, it appears there's a penguin on the main viewer.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    1. Re:Stardate 7234.1 by thumperward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Whoever modded this funny should take a long, hard look at themselves. And never tell jokes again.

        - Chris

  18. Now at 7285.1 MHz by Ixalon · · Score: 4, Informative

    Someone has already clocked up an extra 150MHz!

    Calculating 1m decimal places of Pi now down to 18.093s...

    http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php ?p=1001108#post1001108

  19. Vista requirements by Medieval_Thinker · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...and in related news, Microsoft has revised the minimum processor requirements for Vista.

  20. RTFA, please, by hummassa · · Score: 4, Informative

    it's just two paragraphs for $DEITY sake.
    Ok, I'll tell you, lazy boy: besides cooling with liquid N2, they tweaked the processor and the memory voltages.

    --
    It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
  21. Re:Does it really matter? by Tony+Hoyle · · Score: 4, Funny

    How how would they be able to do this without Scotty?!?!

    Easy. They reversed the polarity. You can fix anything by reversing the polarity.

  22. According to his calculation... by TCQuad · · Score: 5, Funny

    All the numbers were 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 0.

  23. Re:wow... by Dogtanian · · Score: 4, Funny

    By my estimates, it's about as fast as a Cray-2, but I may be pulling that out of my ass.

    You intend pulling a Cray-2 out of your ass?!

    Are you a fan of the Goatse man by any chance?

    --
    "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
  24. And some luck. by btarval · · Score: 4, Informative
    They also must have gotten lucky with the CPU. Back before Intel started adding their stupid locks to limit overclocking, it was painfully obvious that the production run played a factor. And even within the production run, there were always CPU's within any given batch that were better than others.

    The last set of great overclocked CPU's were the Celeron 300's. Many of those went to 450-500 MHz with no problem. A very few could be made to hit 600 MHz, though it is questionable on how reliable they were at that point. Certainly reliable enough to calculate the value of PI quickly; but you wouldn't want one for reliable web server.

    Granted, some of the one's which could do 450-500 MHz were made for that speed, and then sold as 300's. But certainly not all of them.

    The bottom line is that cherry-picking your CPU's helps lead to a better chance of success with overclocking.

    --
    The best way to predict the future is to create it. - Peter Drucker.