3D integration schemes, which IBM and Intel are both pursuing, help deal with this problem. As you noted, you can't put enough pins on a chip with traditional packaging to achieve a sufficient memory bandwidth. But with 3D integration, the memory chips are connected directly to the CPUs with "through-chip vias". You can have tens of thousands of these vias, and as a bonus, the distance to the memory is extremely short, so latency is reduced.
- Trevor - [[self-construction]]: The autotherapeutic diary of a crazy geek's journey back to mental health
First, I agree that many textbooks are outrageously expensive. But is their expense really "inspiring" (i.e. justifying) p2p downloading? Or is it just that textbooks are now widely available in downloadable form? My guess is that the rate of piracy would not significantly diminish even if the price was reduced by 50% or even 75%. See, for example, the many computer-related ebooks you can find on the torrent sites. Most of those books have a fairly reasonable retail price but they are subject to widespread piracy.
Has there been any study of P2P networks that shows an increasing rate of piracy a given piece of media vs its price? (Comparisons would be difficult because popularity also plays a role).
- Trevor - [[self-construction]]: The autotherapeutic diary of a crazy geek's journey back to mental health
But even if all of the Avogadro Project's research teams arrive at the same number of silicon atoms in each sphere, it's far from clear that the International Committee for Weights and Measures will take up their definition.
That's because some metrologists believe the Avogadro Project's precision spheres may simply replace one ailing physical standard with another. They support a competing approach called the watt balance, which would redefine the kilogram in terms of magnetic fields and electrical forces.
The problem with defining the kilogram as the mass some arbitrary physical object is that all the measurement equipment in the world has to be calibrated and traceable to that object. If a non-physical standard could be developed, we could one day have extremely accurate balances that self-calibrate using that standard.
A loooong time ago--we are talking early 90's here--I had a PC that came with a buckling spring keyboards. At the time I didn't think much of it because they were still fairly common. I had seen the membrane style keyboards that were becoming increasingly popular (or at least widespread) and didn't like their feel.
Then I went off to college and got shoved into a 120 sq. ft. dorm room that I had to share with a somewhat temperamental roommate.
I thought my roommate and I were getting along pretty well until I happened to spy a note he was writing to a friend about me... He basically said I was driving him crazy because I "typed like there was no tomorrow, i.e. loudly". I never considered myself a loud typist (and compared to other buckling spring keyboards I was pretty quiet) but my roommate was apparently unfamiliar with mechanical keyboards and thus assumed I was blasting away on a regular one! I can't say that our relationship improved very much after I bought a new keyboard, but I quickly learned that buckling spring keyboards are to be enjoyed in private:)
- Trevor - [[self-construction]]: The autotherapeutic diary of a crazy geek's journey back to mental health
Slashdot Mirror
3D integration schemes, which IBM and Intel are both pursuing, help deal with this problem. As you noted, you can't put enough pins on a chip with traditional packaging to achieve a sufficient memory bandwidth. But with 3D integration, the memory chips are connected directly to the CPUs with "through-chip vias". You can have tens of thousands of these vias, and as a bonus, the distance to the memory is extremely short, so latency is reduced.
- Trevor -
[[self-construction]]: The autotherapeutic diary of a crazy geek's journey back to mental health
First, I agree that many textbooks are outrageously expensive. But is their expense really "inspiring" (i.e. justifying) p2p downloading? Or is it just that textbooks are now widely available in downloadable form? My guess is that the rate of piracy would not significantly diminish even if the price was reduced by 50% or even 75%. See, for example, the many computer-related ebooks you can find on the torrent sites. Most of those books have a fairly reasonable retail price but they are subject to widespread piracy.
Has there been any study of P2P networks that shows an increasing rate of piracy a given piece of media vs its price? (Comparisons would be difficult because popularity also plays a role).
- Trevor -
[[self-construction]]: The autotherapeutic diary of a crazy geek's journey back to mental health
From the article:
The problem with defining the kilogram as the mass some arbitrary physical object is that all the measurement equipment in the world has to be calibrated and traceable to that object. If a non-physical standard could be developed, we could one day have extremely accurate balances that self-calibrate using that standard.
A loooong time ago--we are talking early 90's here--I had a PC that came with a buckling spring keyboards. At the time I didn't think much of it because they were still fairly common. I had seen the membrane style keyboards that were becoming increasingly popular (or at least widespread) and didn't like their feel.
Then I went off to college and got shoved into a 120 sq. ft. dorm room that I had to share with a somewhat temperamental roommate.
I thought my roommate and I were getting along pretty well until I happened to spy a note he was writing to a friend about me... He basically said I was driving him crazy because I "typed like there was no tomorrow, i.e. loudly". I never considered myself a loud typist (and compared to other buckling spring keyboards I was pretty quiet) but my roommate was apparently unfamiliar with mechanical keyboards and thus assumed I was blasting away on a regular one! I can't say that our relationship improved very much after I bought a new keyboard, but I quickly learned that buckling spring keyboards are to be enjoyed in private :)
- Trevor -
[[self-construction]]: The autotherapeutic diary of a crazy geek's journey back to mental health