Research Reveals Mislaid Microprocessor Megahertz

SlashRating^© 6*10^23 slashdottit! ^tm ransom1982 noted a new article on The Register that says "Not only are chip companies regularly releasing ever-faster microprocessors, but new research has revealed that modern CPUs actually lose megahertz over time." This makes it even more complicated to compare the performance of Intel and AMD CPUs since you have differing architecture, clockspeeds AND the year of manufacture to consider. Buyer beware!

Comments

The sad thing is...

[Khaed]

This one wouldn't surprise me if it turned out to be true, because sometimes I certainly feel like my processor is degrading...

Re:The sad thing is...

[ColdWetDog]

You computer guys are all alike. No balls. We car guys don't whine about our wheels going slower, we just get out the drill and polish and start working. The trick is to take weight off the vehicle by drilling out any unnecessary metal. That's called "adding lightness".

Even geeky guys can do this. And you don't need a real drill, just a dremel tool. Just start drilling holes in those IC's, you soon see the flames roar out! Smoke! Speed!

Works like a charm. Even works for Windows.

Re:The sad thing is...

[Sigma 7]

This one wouldn't surprise me if it turned out to be true, because sometimes I certainly feel like my processor is degrading...

It is true. Processors don't live forever, and will eventually die from entropy - hence some retailers and manufacturer's selling extended warranties to cover the period between 1-3 years where it's not likely to have noticable problems.

The rate at which Mhzs are lost does vary - if you run DOS, you can be sure that MHzs would be working at optimum capacity as there's isn't more than 1 task wearing away the ability of the processor.

When the processor malfunctions or finally dies, that means it's lost too many MHzs to contine operating. It may simply stop working, develop the Pentium division bug (or some other interesting event), or some other symptom. Some people compensated by overclocking the chip to recover these MHz - but removing the heat sink caused these MHz to spew out so rapidly that it blew a hole in the mainboard.

Re:The sad thing is...

[hahiss]

I just added pin-stripes and a big-ass wing instead. . . .

Oh, and speed holes. Lots and lots of speed holes.

Re:The sad thing is...

[Smidge204]

Yeah, they just don't build 'em like they used to. I remember when I got my first Pentium system back in the late 1990s, the cache pipeline burst and I spent that whole evening picking bits out of the carpet.

=Smidge=

Re:The sad thing is...

[Khaed]

(AOLer) I don't know what my ceiling fan has to do with it, but okay... (/AOLer)

Is this another April fool's story?

[andy314159pi]

I'm too dumb to figure out if this is an April fools joke or not.

Re:Is this another April fool's story?

[metlin]

Well, who cares.

I think we should celebrate - this is the only way we'd see the word laid in any on the front page of Slashdot.

Re:Is this another April fool's story?

[skoaldipper]

"Research Reveals Mislaid Microprocessor Megahertz"

For a brief second there, I thought MIT introduced their first prototype for the Fembot Miss Universe competition in 2010.

Re:Is this another April fool's story?

[Technician]

I'm too dumb to figure out if this is an April fools joke or not.

Let me update you. In simplistic terms on each clock cycle, the CPU performes an operation. Using just that metric, it would not be the chip that changed. If the clock slowed down, so would the chip. Now lets get just a little more complicated.. On each clock cycle, the chip requests information and sends requests, computes results, stores results etc. Sometimes the chip has to wait for several clock cycles such as requesting data from memory or the hard drive. An old Pentium III chip at one Ghz clock for example would typicaly have used PC-100 memory. From the time the CPU requested a memory fetch, at least 10 clock cycles may have passed before the data is delivered. Due to the time the memory takes to set up the address, fetch the result, present the result and tell the CPU the data is here and valid, many more clock cycles may have passed. If the transistors have gotten weak, it may take an additional couple clock cycles for the rise time before the CPU accepts the data as valid. This is an age realated slowdown.

Another age related slowdown is built into some chips. (Feature, not flaw) The speed setp technology would be like having a car that when the radiator became plugged, it would auto reduce power on a long steep hill to keep the temprature below boiling. It's better to go up the hill slow and not boil over than stay at full speed and blow a headgasket due to warped heads.

As the heatsink compound dries out and the face of the heatsink developes an insulating layer of oxide, under intense computing, some chips slow down to prevent destruction by overheating. Cleaning and replacing the heatsink grease (maybe replacing a fan with worn bearings) will restore new operation.

The article appears to be an April Fools prank, but there are valid reasons systems slow down. Most are related to it takes longer to complete any task because all the Windows tasks keep stacking up so there is just so much more to do. Have you looked at the number of patches and hotfixes out for XP these days. This is in addition to any rootkits, (SONY & Others) toys (Weatherbug, google toolbar, internet radio) or other things the user may have added which run constantly using up clock cycles. You think automatic updates doesn't require CPU time?

Let's face it, your CPU is very busy even before you log in and request it to do something else in it's busy schedule. Most times your CPU gets more done in a day before you log in than you get done all day.

Re:Is this another April fool's story?

[Brandybuck]

I'm still amazed they can count the number of molecules in a mole. Does it throw the count off if the moles poop halfway through?

Slashdottit

[Kryptonian Jor-El]

Ever notice how the slashdottit number is 1 mole http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_(unit) ? 6 * 10^23 thats great

El Reg at the weekend?

[jd3nn1s]

To me the giveaway was El Reg posting new articles at the weekend :)

OMG!!! Ponies!!!

[nbritton]

1. Download: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/217 5
2. Tools > Add-ons > Slashdotter > Options.
3. Click on styles tab, than change 'Default style'.
4. ???
5. OMG!!! Ponies!!!

So if your lose megahertz's wouldn't that screw up the RTC calculations?

Now it is my turn

[houghi]

I should be modded insightful for no reason.

Re:Now it is my turn

[uchihalush]

What about me?

How about Interesting?

Re:HAHAHA

[linvir]

Nerd sarcasm, a formidable species of non-humour, but it only unleashes the full extent of its pathetic failure when the user accidentally makes a dick of himself by revealing laughable misconceptions through implication. In this case, we can see that this particular subject has somehow convinced himself both that Slashdot is intended to be "useful" and my mom got scared and said "You're movin' with your auntie and uncle in Bel Air". I whistled for a cab and when it came near, the license plate said "FRESH" and it had dice in the mirror.

If anything I could say that this cab was rare but I thought "Nah, forget it". "Yo homes, to Bel Air!". I pulled up to a house about seven or eight, and I yelled to the cabbie "Yo homes, smell ya' later!". I looked at my kingdom, I was finally there, to sit on my throne as the prince of Bel Air.

Hey it works!

[EmbeddedJanitor]

I thought parent was posting bullshit, but though what the heck let's try this.... except I didn't want to screw up hardware so I thought I'd take a stab at lightening Windows. I went into the Windows directory and truncated a few DLLs to make them lighter.

Well who would have expected it... Windows BSODs much faster than it used to!

Obligatory Joke

[Tesla Tank]

What happens if Chuck Norris punches you?

Megahertz!