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Intel Core 2 'Penryn' and Linux
An anonymous reader writes "Linux Hardware has posted a look at the new Intel "Penryn" processor and how the new processor will work with Linux. Intel recently released the new "Penryn" Core 2 processor with many new features. So what are these features and how will they equate into benefits to Linux users? The article covers all the high points of the new "Penryn" core and talks to a couple Linux projects about end-user performance of the chip."
"There are some new instructions that could be more convenient to use in some special cases (like the new pmin/pmax instructions). But these will have no real performance benefit."
"So we do not plan on adding SSE4 optimizations. We may use SSE4 instructions in the future for convenience once SSE4 has become really widely supported. But I personally don't see that anytime soon..."
I think that puts the hype over penryn into perspective. There are some nice improvements energy leaks and such, but it's nothing revolutionary.
I got a catholic block.
The place for hardware decoders is on the graphics card. Hence the reason why Linux needs to use the CPU.
This just reminds me of CONFIG_ACPI_SLEEP. About 2 times a month I am staring at this option wondering if I will ever get to use it. Some things just are not worth developer time to implement.
OMG facts!
Unless the bus and ram start running faster than the cpu, cache will have place in the design. And when die space is as cheap as it is for Intel now, why NOT use it for more cache?
Seriously, I get tired of the AMD fanboy "Well if Intel did this they wouldn't have to do that," or "Intel is cheating by doing processors this way instead of that way." So understand this: None of that shit matters. The only thing that matters to the end user is performance for the dollars. That's it. You can bitch and scream all you like about how doing things a different way is theoretically better, what matter is actual, real performance. In that category, the Core 2 is very good. It's a damn fast chip for a good price. That's all it needs to be. I don't care about pissing matches over how it is done, only that in the end it works well for the things I do. Doesn't matter if there's a theoretical situation it's bad at, if that's not one I encounter, I don't care.
Also as for bus speed, you might note that the real limiting factor is RAM speed. It is pricey to get faster RAM, and that's ultimately where you've got to go for non-cached data. You can build as fast a bus as you like, if you are waiting on the RAM it gains you little.