MikeDawg: "Hey, fellow coworkers I resigned today, gave 2 weeks notice." Coworker1: "Where are you going?" MikeDawg: "XYZ Corp. Awesome benefits, and they're giving me more responsibility!" Coworker1: "Wait, what if I want more responsibility?" MikeDawg: "Well, I think they've still got a similar req open in a different department..."
People who give 2 weeks notice are potentially security risks as well as sources who tell the rest of the sheep how green the grass is elsewhere. Don't fret.
Virtex4 keeps slipping, so it's not quite marvelous yet. It might be relatively big and might seem fast to someone used to working with embedded DSPs, but they're a PITA to engineers used to working with ASICs. The multi-million dollar NREs (for latest 90/65 nm technology) might push more of these engineers to work with FPGAs in the future, however.
Hand layout, of what? Niagara? Hell yes there's hand layout. IIRC Sun uses TI fabs, and they most likely go the foundry route where they present TI with GDSII files and TI starts making masks. Sun eats the yield problems. There's no pre-built blocks to substitute, unless Niagra uses some IP like SerDes or DRAM controllers. Sun's process probably looks like this: 1) Sun logic designers produce verilog which is verified to be functionally correct. 2) human-synthesis groups reduce blocks of verilog to whatever transistor optimized technology they've got (domino logic or what have you), which will have balanced clocks. human-synthesis groups use tools to measure static/dynamic timing, but if software were good enough to create the finished product at the size and clock rate they need they'd simply synthesize the verilog. Synthesis tools use tracks for routing nets/power/ground and sizing blocks. It's kind of like playing SimCity, but realizing that a good portion of the land in your city is reserved for roads. Synthesis tools are far from perfect. If you need speed, you have human-synthesis groups Sun, AMD, and Intell all have them. ASICs != 80%+-custom processors. 3) the transistor and verilog are run through FE tools to determine that they're the same. 4) Final place/route takes the transistor-optimized blocks of logic and adds global wiring. Some EDA tool extracts design to GDSII format. 5) Profit^H^H^H^H^H^H give away the source code for free
300 MHz in an FPGA is quite an accomplishment. It's fairly straightforward to get small sections (PHYs and what not) going at 400 MHz in Virtex parts, but across the entire design? Your LUT count will explode as it throws gates at it to solve troublesome paths.
I'm doubting that Sun synthesizes verilog to get a 2 GHz processor. Their CAD teams must create custom transistor designs and use formal equivalence with the verilog to prove correctness. Synthesizing the entire processor must require more than one Virtex4 or Stratix-II part, so I can't see people really doing anything with this other than proof-of-concept systems. You could possibly cannibilize parts of the design to make it fit in an embedded system (that's the only speed you'd be able to get out of it). I... dunno. There must be a reason.
The best part in my mind? Think of all of the processor design classes in upper-level EE courses that are going to get a whole lot easier!:-)
My revA iMacG5 got a new logic board 3 weeks ago after AppleCare sent me 2 replacement hard drives in a row (diag disc showed failing HD). When I was installing the 2nd I noticed all of the brown goo coming out of 50% of the caps, and noting that another 40% were bulged...
Local store had it done the following day. They had a line of 5 iMacs waiting for new boards, and Apple service sent them 6 boards. how nice...
3 months after I got an iPod (3G 15 GB) I bought an iMac G5 because I became an Apple Fanboy. 4 months after the iMac purchase I bought a 12" Powerbook. Once my wife's Compaq laptop takes a dive I hope I can talk her into an Intel iBook and stop worrying about yearly NAV purchases...
This isn't exactly a new concept. FlexLM, now a product of MacroVision, turns 95% of the EDA industry's software into a subscription. You can "buy" a software package, but pick and choose the features you want to pay for. Didn't buy feature X? You'll have 0 keys available for checkout, so don't even try to use it.
I'm torn on the whole concept. I've been known to use old software because I don't need to upgrade as it works just fine for me. Pricing of the subscription would be key. An Office package from Microsoft could still be very usable well into its 5th year (based on my experience), while tax software is only good for 4 months. If I could pay, say, 1/2 the sticker price of the package in subscription rates before the new version came out, it's probably a win if you're always tempted to upgrade. If subscription rates meant I could have owned it outright before the new version came out, it's useless because software upgrade innovation has slowed down recently. There's probably a balance in there that makes sense.
Synopsys, Cadence, and Magma do not make Windows software, it's all for Linux/Solaris. As a Desktop machine, Mac OS X seemlessly integrates into that kind of an environment where you need X11, Terminals, and your favorite text editor (vi/emacs).
I'd like to consider myself very technically astute given my educational background and career as an electrical engineer, and after buying an iMac G5 (first mac unless you count my folks' IIe clone back in the Elementary school days) I loved it so much I replaced my Compaq notebook with a Powerbook a few months later. Let's not confuse ease of use with power, especially considering under Apple's pretty face lies a powerful Unix subsystem. I'll say it again: OS X is what Linux on the Desktop aspires to be.
This is quite the breakthrough, and these things seem to happen out of technology we already have but just haven't used it in the right way. Personally, I'd settle for a cure for cancer being found on a Windows box if it meant saving lives.:(
It was my understanding that when Apple re-released the single-processor PMac 1.8, they used the iMac G5s in that it had a 1/3-speed FSB. (1.8 GHz = 600 FSB) whereas historically PMac's have had 1/2-speed FSBs.
Intel probably sees the Mac Mini for what it is: a simple, practically disposable personal computer that'll keep a *large* percentage of the population happy for 3 years until they buy another one. You lose iLife going to XP/P-M, but there's Picasa 2, Windows Movie Maker, and various DVD burning programs out there to kluge together to get someone an "equivalent" experience. I "switched" to the iMac G5 when it was released for 2 reasons: iLife, and the fact that most of the "gaming" I do these days is less FPS and more plastic trucks with my 18-month old son. Never underestimate the extreme amount of digital pictures and MiniDV footage you'll accumulate when your first child is born.
I guess eventually people reach the point where they begin to treat their computers more as appliances and less as sandboxes to play in; upgrading video cards, hard drives, and processors whenever the latest hot game is released. When I use a computer these days, I'm either modifying content I've created (pictures, movies), browsing the web, or logging into a shell at work to catch up on my tasks. I don't need a GeForce 6800 GT and a 4 GHz hyper-pipelined processor to do that.
When I'm at work, I use a Dell PC running Windows XP to open my VNC sessions on the linux grid to write new simulators as well as check on the progress of currently executing ones, as well as pulling up my VNC terminal from my iMacG5 at home to peruse personal email.
Many companies know what you do on your computer when you're at work, but if you work at a company that catalogs the ENTIRE INTERNET then it should be a safe bet that you can't hide anywhere!
Doing things in hardware was, is, and will always be faster than doing things in software. Early CPUs had software division math, and it stunk. Having 2 processors running 1 thread each is faster than having 1 processor running 2 threads.
It's like Risk, but targeted for adults and mature teenagers. You still vie for control of Europe, but there's no dice, you have to sign secret (or not so secret) pacts with your opponents, and there's no battles. Moving into an unoccupied territory makes it yours, but if the territory has a supply depot you could increase your armies (and decrease the armies of the opponent who was just on that square). During the moving phase if 2 armies attempt to occupy the same land they bounce. I could go on and on. Oh, and reserve 4-5 hours to complete a game.
I purchased Jon Stewart's America (the book) (the audiobook) from iTMS but it's the same as you'd get from audible.com (I assume that anyway as it starts with a brief audible.com msg).
Slashdot Mirror
I think you mean 7% shareholder of a company with a $45 Billion market cap. ( http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=DIS )
Considering Steve Jobs paid $10M for the CG division of Lucasfilm Ltd and renamed them Pixar... not bad.
MikeDawg: "Hey, fellow coworkers I resigned today, gave 2 weeks notice."
Coworker1: "Where are you going?"
MikeDawg: "XYZ Corp. Awesome benefits, and they're giving me more responsibility!"
Coworker1: "Wait, what if I want more responsibility?"
MikeDawg: "Well, I think they've still got a similar req open in a different department..."
People who give 2 weeks notice are potentially security risks as well as sources who tell the rest of the sheep how green the grass is elsewhere. Don't fret.
Virtex4 keeps slipping, so it's not quite marvelous yet. It might be relatively big and might seem fast to someone used to working with embedded DSPs, but they're a PITA to engineers used to working with ASICs. The multi-million dollar NREs (for latest 90/65 nm technology) might push more of these engineers to work with FPGAs in the future, however.
Hand layout, of what? Niagara? Hell yes there's hand layout. IIRC Sun uses TI fabs, and they most likely go the foundry route where they present TI with GDSII files and TI starts making masks. Sun eats the yield problems. There's no pre-built blocks to substitute, unless Niagra uses some IP like SerDes or DRAM controllers. Sun's process probably looks like this:
1) Sun logic designers produce verilog which is verified to be functionally correct.
2) human-synthesis groups reduce blocks of verilog to whatever transistor optimized technology they've got (domino logic or what have you), which will have balanced clocks. human-synthesis groups use tools to measure static/dynamic timing, but if software were good enough to create the finished product at the size and clock rate they need they'd simply synthesize the verilog. Synthesis tools use tracks for routing nets/power/ground and sizing blocks. It's kind of like playing SimCity, but realizing that a good portion of the land in your city is reserved for roads. Synthesis tools are far from perfect. If you need speed, you have human-synthesis groups Sun, AMD, and Intell all have them. ASICs != 80%+-custom processors.
3) the transistor and verilog are run through FE tools to determine that they're the same.
4) Final place/route takes the transistor-optimized blocks of logic and adds global wiring. Some EDA tool extracts design to GDSII format.
5) Profit^H^H^H^H^H^H give away the source code for free
300 MHz in an FPGA is quite an accomplishment. It's fairly straightforward to get small sections (PHYs and what not) going at 400 MHz in Virtex parts, but across the entire design? Your LUT count will explode as it throws gates at it to solve troublesome paths.
I'm doubting that Sun synthesizes verilog to get a 2 GHz processor. Their CAD teams must create custom transistor designs and use formal equivalence with the verilog to prove correctness. Synthesizing the entire processor must require more than one Virtex4 or Stratix-II part, so I can't see people really doing anything with this other than proof-of-concept systems. You could possibly cannibilize parts of the design to make it fit in an embedded system (that's the only speed you'd be able to get out of it). I... dunno. There must be a reason.
:-)
The best part in my mind? Think of all of the processor design classes in upper-level EE courses that are going to get a whole lot easier!
My revA iMacG5 got a new logic board 3 weeks ago after AppleCare sent me 2 replacement hard drives in a row (diag disc showed failing HD). When I was installing the 2nd I noticed all of the brown goo coming out of 50% of the caps, and noting that another 40% were bulged...
Local store had it done the following day. They had a line of 5 iMacs waiting for new boards, and Apple service sent them 6 boards. how nice...
3 months after I got an iPod (3G 15 GB) I bought an iMac G5 because I became an Apple Fanboy. 4 months after the iMac purchase I bought a 12" Powerbook. Once my wife's Compaq laptop takes a dive I hope I can talk her into an Intel iBook and stop worrying about yearly NAV purchases...
This isn't exactly a new concept. FlexLM, now a product of MacroVision, turns 95% of the EDA industry's software into a subscription. You can "buy" a software package, but pick and choose the features you want to pay for. Didn't buy feature X? You'll have 0 keys available for checkout, so don't even try to use it.
I'm torn on the whole concept. I've been known to use old software because I don't need to upgrade as it works just fine for me. Pricing of the subscription would be key. An Office package from Microsoft could still be very usable well into its 5th year (based on my experience), while tax software is only good for 4 months. If I could pay, say, 1/2 the sticker price of the package in subscription rates before the new version came out, it's probably a win if you're always tempted to upgrade. If subscription rates meant I could have owned it outright before the new version came out, it's useless because software upgrade innovation has slowed down recently. There's probably a balance in there that makes sense.
Synopsys, Cadence, and Magma do not make Windows software, it's all for Linux/Solaris. As a Desktop machine, Mac OS X seemlessly integrates into that kind of an environment where you need X11, Terminals, and your favorite text editor (vi/emacs).
I'd like to consider myself very technically astute given my educational background and career as an electrical engineer, and after buying an iMac G5 (first mac unless you count my folks' IIe clone back in the Elementary school days) I loved it so much I replaced my Compaq notebook with a Powerbook a few months later. Let's not confuse ease of use with power, especially considering under Apple's pretty face lies a powerful Unix subsystem. I'll say it again: OS X is what Linux on the Desktop aspires to be.
This is quite the breakthrough, and these things seem to happen out of technology we already have but just haven't used it in the right way. Personally, I'd settle for a cure for cancer being found on a Windows box if it meant saving lives. :(
passwird is nothing but an Amazon link referral service. Quality was good a year ago, now it's nothing but random stuff linked on Amazon.
I'd recommend www.slickdeals.net and www.xpbargains.com
It was my understanding that when Apple re-released the single-processor PMac 1.8, they used the iMac G5s in that it had a 1/3-speed FSB. (1.8 GHz = 600 FSB) whereas historically PMac's have had 1/2-speed FSBs.
Or what features work and which don't.
"Rev 1 silicon: you must not enable performance features 1 and 6 lest you want silent data corruption."
It just looks bad.
Intel probably sees the Mac Mini for what it is: a simple, practically disposable personal computer that'll keep a *large* percentage of the population happy for 3 years until they buy another one. You lose iLife going to XP/P-M, but there's Picasa 2, Windows Movie Maker, and various DVD burning programs out there to kluge together to get someone an "equivalent" experience. I "switched" to the iMac G5 when it was released for 2 reasons: iLife, and the fact that most of the "gaming" I do these days is less FPS and more plastic trucks with my 18-month old son. Never underestimate the extreme amount of digital pictures and MiniDV footage you'll accumulate when your first child is born.
I guess eventually people reach the point where they begin to treat their computers more as appliances and less as sandboxes to play in; upgrading video cards, hard drives, and processors whenever the latest hot game is released. When I use a computer these days, I'm either modifying content I've created (pictures, movies), browsing the web, or logging into a shell at work to catch up on my tasks. I don't need a GeForce 6800 GT and a 4 GHz hyper-pipelined processor to do that.
Mike Marty?
When I'm at work, I use a Dell PC running Windows XP to open my VNC sessions on the linux grid to write new simulators as well as check on the progress of currently executing ones, as well as pulling up my VNC terminal from my iMacG5 at home to peruse personal email.
Do I get to meet Bill now?
...and the PS2.
Many companies know what you do on your computer when you're at work, but if you work at a company that catalogs the ENTIRE INTERNET then it should be a safe bet that you can't hide anywhere!
Not much bang for the buck, so they'll move along.
Doing things in hardware was, is, and will always be faster than doing things in software. Early CPUs had software division math, and it stunk. Having 2 processors running 1 thread each is faster than having 1 processor running 2 threads.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q= diplomacy+board+game&btnG=Search
I purchased Jon Stewart's America (the book) (the audiobook) from iTMS but it's the same as you'd get from audible.com (I assume that anyway as it starts with a brief audible.com msg).
and for sure it's not a Field Programmable Gate Array!