Sounds like the only X development is being done by one guy at nVidia. Hopefully he won't decide to move on.
SMT is really the reaction to the death of PC's
on
Emergence of SMT
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· Score: 2
The processor world right now is 99% driven by embedded systems. You need to put multiple cores on the same die to boost embedded performance since there's not enough room for multiple processors. Now that PC's are dead we're seeing a spike in SMT press releases even though the technology has been floating around forever.
The fact that Intel's last processor release was a "mobile processor", Intel's future x86 vapormap includes pure SMT chips, and Compaq's future vapormap includes an SMT alpha shows how important that size reduction is.
Been unemployed for 3 weeks. Nothing on the horizon. Planning to go back to school for a PhD.
Software is more a matter of getting used to the idea of working only 9 months a year and programming is just too easy for people to do.
But you should think about EE instead of CS just the same. With PC's sitting on shelves gathering dust and mobile appliances flying off the shelves you need to focus on designing hardware.
No more linuxworld conventions further prove my traffic theory. The lighter traffic on 680 is a combination of engineers being fired by the ten thousands, conventions terminating, and companies folding in.
Then when engineers start committing suicide the traffic gets heavier because they jump on the freeways.
When was the last time someone over 20 started a professional golfing career? When was the last time someone over 16 got a music contract? Instant information transmission allows careers to start and end in much shorter periods of time than years ago.
Sylvania, Maytag, Kenmore
on
Linux TV
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· Score: 2
The good news is it's computers people are going to be able to use. The bad news is when are software engineers going to be relagated to the Maytag repair man?
Too bad the "official" Linux DVD player made their official release years after the rest of us were already getting the job done on the unofficial players. Too bad none of the assembly language code compiles on IA64.
As Linux's primary commercial role is in preconfigured appliances with no user interaction, the job of matching point releases is only done once in the life of the machine. In the future I expect even the bedroom use of applications on Linux to give way to one-time configured appliances, each with its own set of library versions.
Really we've seen that Linux does best as a server in a back room with only a web interface or an appliance with a button interface or a remote control. You wouldn't want users to have to interface it through a GUI or a command line.
I thought we consumers were supposed to buy things because they're novel and trendy, not because they're useful. Isn't that why everyone got rid of their radios and now listens to 8kbit AM quality streaming audio? Isn't that why everyone got rid of their TV's and now watches thumbnail video streams?
The real question is will TYAN see enough of a demand to justify the cost of mass producing these systems or will they just charge $1000 a part. They had dual Athlons since 1999 but manufacturing costs were far too high. Now with embedded systems the rage you'd think they'd never recover the cost of mass producing SMP boards.
Eventually there will be no computer monitor or keyboard. You'll hook your computer to a TV set, like the old days, except now there will be no window interface, command line, or multitasking.
It'll be pure menus, pointing and clicking for everything using a remote control. If you want a box with keyboard and monitor you'll have to go to Cray or something and pay through the nose.
It looks like when he says "TV out card" he's referrering to the RCA output on most VGA cards. There are lots of "TV out cards" but they use JPEG compression.
The problem with watching movies this way is you have to go from 24fps progressive to genlocked 29.97fps interlaced. Simply using a Microsoft media player on a TV would cause studdering because it wouldn't match the 29.97 interlacing exactly.
It's been rumored for a while that Intel was pulling back its efforts in number crunching power and focusing more on low power consumption and portability. It started when they discontinued SMP in the Pentium IV. Now it looks like they really are shifting to embedded systems.
We've seen the shift from desktop PC's to appliances and servers. You should either make a minimal LCD interface on a portable device or a web interface for a back room server but the idea that users should interact with the Linux interface directly is a failed experiment.
Microsoft makes as much difference in the larger scheme as Saddam Insane on oil prices. Every time Saddam gets an itch our gas prices double and now he's got hemorroids. Take the number of C#, DivX, and X-Box stories we've read and what do you get? Microsoft world domination.
The wrapper for Microsoft's DLL is open source. The actual DivX/MPEG-4/ASF algorithm is still licensed strictly to Microsoft and available only in Win32 DLL's, which make it useless in IA64.
Sure a buffer overflow in Flash is big news. It's bigger than the uninitialized variable of 1999. But I think the news item of the millenium is going to be the null pointer dereference in Netscape. Look out CNN. We've got a null pointer story.
First the IBM 4 way die. Then the 52 way die some guy was raising venture capitol to build. Now Compact's 8 way die. With Intel dropping out of SMP support and AMD never seriously moving SMP support out the door, it looks like everyone whose tried SMP has gotten so little interest as to focus on higher clockspeeds instead. Sounds like Compact is getting ready to unload some Alpha engineers and proposing SMP Alphas on a single die under the name "SMT" is their last attempt at career recovery.
Shift to servers and embedded systems
on
A Year of Linux
·
· Score: 2
I noticed the momentum to move Linux away from the user interface and into the background infrastructure of the internet and embedded systems. The trend was to get users as far away from the Linux interface as possible. Part of the problem is current users were brought up on the GUI and don't have the inherent thought process of past users who grew up on the command line. As fewer and fewer people are able to use the Linux interface it's going to be more important in background infrastructure.
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Sounds like the only X development is being done by one guy at nVidia. Hopefully he won't decide to move on.
The processor world right now is 99% driven by embedded systems. You need to put multiple cores on the same die to boost embedded performance since there's not enough room for multiple processors. Now that PC's are dead we're seeing a spike in SMT press releases even though the technology has been floating around forever.
The fact that Intel's last processor release was a "mobile processor", Intel's future x86 vapormap includes pure SMT chips, and Compaq's future vapormap includes an SMT alpha shows how important that size reduction is.
Been unemployed for 3 weeks. Nothing on the horizon. Planning to go back to school for a PhD.
Software is more a matter of getting used to the idea of working only 9 months a year and programming is just too easy for people to do.
But you should think about EE instead of CS just the same. With PC's sitting on shelves gathering dust and mobile appliances flying off the shelves you need to focus on designing hardware.
No more linuxworld conventions further prove my traffic theory. The lighter traffic on 680 is a combination of engineers being fired by the ten thousands, conventions terminating, and companies folding in.
Then when engineers start committing suicide the traffic gets heavier because they jump on the freeways.
Is anyone actually still buying PC cards?
When was the last time someone over 20 started a professional golfing career? When was the last time someone over 16 got a music contract? Instant information transmission allows careers to start and end in much shorter periods of time than years ago.
The good news is it's computers people are going to be able to use. The bad news is when are software engineers going to be relagated to the Maytag repair man?
And one day we'll treat human cloning as casually as organ transplanting.
Too bad the "official" Linux DVD player made their official release years after the rest of us were already getting the job done on the unofficial players. Too bad none of the assembly language code compiles on IA64.
As Linux's primary commercial role is in preconfigured appliances with no user interaction, the job of matching point releases is only done once in the life of the machine. In the future I expect even the bedroom use of applications on Linux to give way to one-time configured appliances, each with its own set of library versions.
Trends like this are the reason SMP officially ended in 2001. Computer parts are getting simpler and smaller.
They can get DVDs to play in space but not on Earth. If you're using Linux that is. It's a sign of the times.
Really we've seen that Linux does best as a server in a back room with only a web interface or an appliance with a button interface or a remote control. You wouldn't want users to have to interface it through a GUI or a command line.
Corel ends its Linux operation, Red Hat shuts down in San Francisco, Suse shuts down American operations, TurboLinux fires 1/3 of its staff.
Looks like the commercial experimentation with Linux came and went and now we're getting back to bedrooms and operating systems classes.
I'm looking for a program that instead of using the directory structure uses the class heirarchy to draw a map of a program.
I thought we consumers were supposed to buy things because they're novel and trendy, not because they're useful. Isn't that why everyone got rid of their radios and now listens to 8kbit AM quality streaming audio? Isn't that why everyone got rid of their TV's and now watches thumbnail video streams?
The real question is will TYAN see enough of a demand to justify the cost of mass producing these systems or will they just charge $1000 a part. They had dual Athlons since 1999 but manufacturing costs were far too high. Now with embedded systems the rage you'd think they'd never recover the cost of mass producing SMP boards.
Eventually there will be no computer monitor or keyboard. You'll hook your computer to a TV set, like the old days, except now there will be no window interface, command line, or multitasking.
It'll be pure menus, pointing and clicking for everything using a remote control. If you want a box with keyboard and monitor you'll have to go to Cray or something and pay through the nose.
It looks like when he says "TV out card" he's referrering to the RCA output on most VGA cards. There are lots of "TV out cards" but they use JPEG compression.
The problem with watching movies this way is you have to go from 24fps progressive to genlocked 29.97fps interlaced. Simply using a Microsoft media player on a TV would cause studdering because it wouldn't match the 29.97 interlacing exactly.
It's been rumored for a while that Intel was pulling back its efforts in number crunching power and focusing more on low power consumption and portability. It started when they discontinued SMP in the Pentium IV. Now it looks like they really are shifting to embedded systems.
We've seen the shift from desktop PC's to appliances and servers. You should either make a minimal LCD interface on a portable device or a web interface for a back room server but the idea that users should interact with the Linux interface directly is a failed experiment.
Microsoft makes as much difference in the larger scheme as Saddam Insane on oil prices. Every time Saddam gets an itch our gas prices double and now he's got hemorroids. Take the number of C#, DivX, and X-Box stories we've read and what do you get? Microsoft world domination.
The wrapper for Microsoft's DLL is open source. The actual DivX/MPEG-4/ASF algorithm is still licensed strictly to Microsoft and available only in Win32 DLL's, which make it useless in IA64.
Sure a buffer overflow in Flash is big news. It's bigger than the uninitialized variable of 1999. But I think the news item of the millenium is going to be the null pointer dereference in Netscape. Look out CNN. We've got a null pointer story.
First the IBM 4 way die. Then the 52 way die some guy was raising venture capitol to build. Now Compact's 8 way die. With Intel dropping out of SMP support and AMD never seriously moving SMP support out the door, it looks like everyone whose tried SMP has gotten so little interest as to focus on higher clockspeeds instead. Sounds like Compact is getting ready to unload some Alpha engineers and proposing SMP Alphas on a single die under the name "SMT" is their last attempt at career recovery.
I noticed the momentum to move Linux away from the user interface and into the background infrastructure of the internet and embedded systems. The trend was to get users as far away from the Linux interface as possible. Part of the problem is current users were brought up on the GUI and don't have the inherent thought process of past users who grew up on the command line. As fewer and fewer people are able to use the Linux interface it's going to be more important in background infrastructure.