The K6 supports no SMP configuration at all. You're thinking of the K5, which did support OPIC, but was also completely unsupported by chipset makers.
I think it was a poor design decision on AMD's part to pull OPIC from the K6 -- I suspect there would be enough user demand to get chipset folks like VIA to support it as a cost-effective alternative to P6 SMP.
but what consumer format can hold a candle to the beauty that is DVD?
LD. Picture quality is equivalent within 5%, DD is a pretty-much standard feature with new titles, and it offers something DVD can't hope to achieve: an enormous library of back titles. That's the very reason I own a LD player, actually. The existance of old media that aren't physically decaying.
I'll probably spring for DVD myself, one of these days... just as soon as something I desperately want isn't available on LD. So far, new LD releases are becoming a little thin, but there hasn't been a must-have title on DVD only yet.
Was that Linux was being compared to Big Iron and found lacking. Linux logging is no worse (and often better) than most commercial Unices, but the only place I've seen absurd levels of multi-processor and system logging are in the "Real Computer" world.
I think the writer's opinion seems somewhat biased (surprise, surprise) but he brings out some reasonable questions: just how far can a single Linux box scale, and for what tasks?
Now we should get out there and improve all the little things that need improvement to help Linux, and *nixes in general, reach these entrenched Heavy Hardware markets.
Complete aside: I believe the reason mainframes need massive CPU power has nothing to do with capacity and everything to do with the tremendous overhead of the monitoring, accounting, tracking, logging, and process/resource management features of most Real OSes (e.g. OS/360).
K6-2 - it's the best thing since sex! it'll rock all over intel.
But I think everyone knew the K63D was going to be a dud -- it was pretty well known that nothing had really changed in the core except for the addition of some new instructions and official support for 100MHz FSB.
The K7 is actually a new product, not a warmed-over K6. Unfortunately, there's those yield problems everyone is so sick of hearing about (ever notice that AMD hasn't had the lead in raw CPU clock -- a clumsy measure of fab yield & quality -- since the 386/40 days?).
Intel is throwing production technology at the problem of increasing CPU performance: crank up the clock speed and hope nobody notices it's really not all that much faster.
AMD has been steadily improving the design of their processor (with the exception of the K6-2, which I don't consider terribly impressive), and is applying what they learned from that to the K7.
If AMD can ship a K7 at a competitive clock speed [face it -- those numbers are what sell CPUs; just ask Intel] it will potentially stomp all over whatever it is Intel has lined up for the year.
[For that matter, does Intel have anything lined up for the year that isn't reheated P6 cores with uncountably various cache architectures and in strange and incompatible packages?]
But like everyone else, I'm tired of seeing problems, problems, problems from AMD. If I were a shareholder I would be very unhappy right now. Eventually Intel will actually learn something about x86 engineering from AMD, incorporate that knowledge into a near-generation product, apply their "Fab The Hell Out Of It" strategy, and moosh AMD back into their cage.
The Linux kernel is indisputably Linus' project, to which uncountable talented folks have contributed. From a leadership standpoint, Linus "owns" the codebase. Therefore, his position as a person of prominence is fairly natural.
ESR is, um, well, er... he talks about stuff. He volunteered to be a person who talks about stuff, and since that's a dirty job (which he more than alludes to) he deserves respect. But does he have to do this work? No. Does he "represent" anyone or anything? No, not really.
The problem here is that the Hacker Community overlaps with the Linux Community, but they are not equivalent. The "Open Source" and "Free Software" communities overlap even more tightly with the Linux Community, but again are not the same.
When people talk about ESR representing "Us," which "Us" is that? Open Source? The Hacker Community?
I raise these questions because I think they're valid -- not as attacks against Mr. Raymond. I'm glad of what he's doing, if I don't necessarily agree with every word he speaks. I certainly don't want to undertake the body of work he has already completed, but I do want to put it in a certain context. Nor do I begrudge him time with his family, away from the harsh spotlight.
I'd like to remind both critics and supporters (and everyone in between) of ESR that unlike Linus, whose celebrity grew naturally around him, that Mr. Raymond's prominence and value as an authority and speaker is something he has had to work very hard for of itself.
n 1995 a download from the USA during business hours came at about 3k/sec. Today the same distance now comes in at about 300 bytes/sec during business hours.
Funny, in 1995, a download for me (from, for example, walnut creek cdrom) came at about 2.2k/sec.
This morning, I moved a big chunk of data from the same point into my house at about 148k/sec. And I have to tell you, I'm happy about that.
DSL has killed the "last mile" problem for anyone with a telco wise enough to offer it. Backbones aren't the problem, nor is the last mile (within 18 months, you'll have DSL or cable. If you have neither after that point, you probably will never have it) The problem is that peering points are saturated. The MAEs and PBNAP are the major bottlenecks, not counting the existance of alter.net, which is just plain poor.
But all of this, of course, is the raving of a fool.
... but every single windows desktop I've seen my users and friends use is using, not surprisingly, standard widget appearances, despite the availablity of third-party theming packs. usually they are set to some garish neon-shaded color theme like pink or pastel green...
Third party theming packs for Windows are atrocious in terms of system resources or stability. And given that Windows itself ships with only rudimentary widget color and size controls, it's unsurprising that a large number of nontechnical end-users do simple, ugly things for theming.
Unlike for example WindowBlinds, Kalidescope actually works as advertised. The problem with Windows theming utilities -- at least those which aren't some color-and-wallpaper variation of the Plus! pack -- is that they are badly broken.
Sounds highly desirable. I'm glad to see newer Alphas getting into the market. If what you're describing is a trend, I imagine my next box will be an Alpha.
Mostly what I do (image manipulation, some rudementary data analysis, and development) uses flat-out integer and small matrix performance 80 or 90% of the time, and is more or less I/O bound over CPU for the majority of tasks.
Yes, the tool-fit is vastly more important that overall performance, and at least in my (fairly common) case, x86 is a win. Don't get me wrong, I'll be excited to see the Alpha descend into the mass market, but it's certainly not there yet.
I've always known code as a collective noun: "Our code is poorly commented, but it sure is fast." But I have seen the term codes used occasionally in a way that appears awkward to me, as in this quote.
I would have said "We know our code runs about..." and thought it more natural. Where does this usage of codes stem from? One generally associates the term "codes" with, for example, a series of cryptographic codes; and "code" as program code.
When I can get the kind of price/performance out of an Alpha that I can get out of a Celeron 300A at 500MHz, I'll sign up.
So far, the only cheap Alphas I see going around are those old clunky "It's almost as fast as my near-dead P100" things... possibly a neat way to explore the architecture for cheap, but not quite in the same league in terms of bang:buck ratio as what's out there in the x86 world now.
I'm no fan of the PC platform -- hell, I'm getting mighty tired of it, having used PCs since 1981 -- but you can't beat the kind of volume that the x86 moves for creating good honest market pressure. Commodity hardware is a good thing.
All you MediaOne people...
on
Saving MST3K
·
· Score: 1
Quit yer complaining. At least you *have* cable modems... the rest of us have to wait another 20 or so years for Viacom to modernize...
Sorry. If I want something that moves, I'm perfectly happy to use less annoying tools than animated GIF. MNG looks promising-ish, but I still don't see a lot of uses for it apart from Yet More Badly Made Banner Ads.
I bump up against the 1 meg line on a regular basis with docs and PIM data alone. Never mind the various > 300K z-code games for Frotz, the PalmMap databases (a few of which could strain a 2 or 4 meg device), the odd image here or there for reference or personalization...
Seriously, I could make extensive use of at least 4 meg, and with some carelessness, 8. People who use their Pilots use them *hard*.
Funny, that Phase5 sure looks an awful lot like an accelerator card, not a nice crispy box.
The money's there, just waiting for me to not have to send it to 4 or 5 different shady-looking places in some dreadful second-world country to get a usable box out of it.
Every single node in a network is a center from which both attack and defense can originate.
Wow. Thanks for that keen insight.
Can I put this guy in the KatzFilter now? I've got pretty much the same criticisms for him: Too verbose, too repetititititive, seemingly written towards a layperson.
I'd like Katz if he paid attention to the audience; but do we really need a second featured columnist?
I vote "ditch" because I'm personally not interested in what this person has to say.
Apple is basically saying, ``We want to get lots of good press for opensourcing stuff we stole...
Now, now. They didn't steal what was legally free for the taking. Don't forget that the whole point of a BSDish license is that it's exploitable for profit. Remember SunOS?
I dislike the flavor of what Apple is doing, too, but they aren't "stealing," and it's misleading to say so.
I'd certainly hesitate to call it an Amiga if it's just some black box on top of a TV. Those can still be found. Try looking on ebay.
The beauty of the Amiga was how simple and stable it was to go in and fuss with the guts. The user had a high degree of control over the OS, and the hardware had handy features that still aren't available today (like splitting the screen between multiple resolutions).
RTG and RTS were excellent architectures that still aren't well matched in the mainstream world.
The OS had hooks all over the place, it was incredibly straightforward to alter aspects of behavior with legal, sanctioned hooks. This kind of flexibility is only paralleled (badly) by the X model.
A set-top box, without the AmigaOS, isn't exactly something I'd be interested in calling an Amiga, or paying money for.
Bring out one of them PPC based desktops, though, and I'll plunk down cold hard cash.
Slashdot Mirror
The K6 supports no SMP configuration at all. You're thinking of the K5, which did support OPIC, but was also completely unsupported by chipset makers.
I think it was a poor design decision on AMD's part to pull OPIC from the K6 -- I suspect there would be enough user demand to get chipset folks like VIA to support it as a cost-effective alternative to P6 SMP.
but what consumer format can hold a candle to the beauty that is DVD?
LD. Picture quality is equivalent within 5%, DD is a pretty-much standard feature with new titles, and it offers something DVD can't hope to achieve: an enormous library of back titles. That's the very reason I own a LD player, actually. The existance of old media that aren't physically decaying.
I'll probably spring for DVD myself, one of these days... just as soon as something I desperately want isn't available on LD. So far, new LD releases are becoming a little thin, but there hasn't been a must-have title on DVD only yet.
Was that Linux was being compared to Big Iron and found lacking. Linux logging is no worse (and often better) than most commercial Unices, but the only place I've seen absurd levels of multi-processor and system logging are in the "Real Computer" world.
I think the writer's opinion seems somewhat biased (surprise, surprise) but he brings out some reasonable questions: just how far can a single Linux box scale, and for what tasks?
Now we should get out there and improve all the little things that need improvement to help Linux, and *nixes in general, reach these entrenched Heavy Hardware markets.
Complete aside: I believe the reason mainframes need massive CPU power has nothing to do with capacity and everything to do with the tremendous overhead of the monitoring, accounting, tracking, logging, and process/resource management features of most Real OSes (e.g. OS/360).
I think there's a big deterrent to the vast majority of folks who would run this: it'll hurt their d.net stats!
There are now several worthy causes to donate idle CPU to. I hope soon there will be more. I want to be bewildered by choices!
K6-2 - it's the best thing since sex! it'll rock all over intel.
But I think everyone knew the K63D was going to be a dud -- it was pretty well known that nothing had really changed in the core except for the addition of some new instructions and official support for 100MHz FSB.
The K7 is actually a new product, not a warmed-over K6. Unfortunately, there's those yield problems everyone is so sick of hearing about (ever notice that AMD hasn't had the lead in raw CPU clock -- a clumsy measure of fab yield & quality -- since the 386/40 days?).
Intel is throwing production technology at the problem of increasing CPU performance: crank up the clock speed and hope nobody notices it's really not all that much faster.
AMD has been steadily improving the design of their processor (with the exception of the K6-2, which I don't consider terribly impressive), and is applying what they learned from that to the K7.
If AMD can ship a K7 at a competitive clock speed [face it -- those numbers are what sell CPUs; just ask Intel] it will potentially stomp all over whatever it is Intel has lined up for the year.
[For that matter, does Intel have anything lined up for the year that isn't reheated P6 cores with uncountably various cache architectures and in strange and incompatible packages?]
But like everyone else, I'm tired of seeing problems, problems, problems from AMD. If I were a shareholder I would be very unhappy right now. Eventually Intel will actually learn something about x86 engineering from AMD, incorporate that knowledge into a near-generation product, apply their "Fab The Hell Out Of It" strategy, and moosh AMD back into their cage.
And on that day, I will feel sad.
(And other musings)
The Linux kernel is indisputably Linus' project, to which uncountable talented folks have contributed. From a leadership standpoint, Linus "owns" the codebase. Therefore, his position as a person of prominence is fairly natural.
ESR is, um, well, er... he talks about stuff. He volunteered to be a person who talks about stuff, and since that's a dirty job (which he more than alludes to) he deserves respect. But does he have to do this work? No. Does he "represent" anyone or anything? No, not really.
The problem here is that the Hacker Community overlaps with the Linux Community, but they are not equivalent. The "Open Source" and "Free Software" communities overlap even more tightly with the Linux Community, but again are not the same.
When people talk about ESR representing "Us," which "Us" is that? Open Source? The Hacker Community?
I raise these questions because I think they're valid -- not as attacks against Mr. Raymond. I'm glad of what he's doing, if I don't necessarily agree with every word he speaks. I certainly don't want to undertake the body of work he has already completed, but I do want to put it in a certain context. Nor do I begrudge him time with his family, away from the harsh spotlight.
I'd like to remind both critics and supporters (and everyone in between) of ESR that unlike Linus, whose celebrity grew naturally around him, that Mr. Raymond's prominence and value as an authority and speaker is something he has had to work very hard for of itself.
n 1995 a download from the USA during business hours came at about 3k/sec. Today the same distance now comes in at about 300 bytes/sec during business hours.
Funny, in 1995, a download for me (from, for example, walnut creek cdrom) came at about 2.2k/sec.
This morning, I moved a big chunk of data from the same point into my house at about 148k/sec. And I have to tell you, I'm happy about that.
DSL has killed the "last mile" problem for anyone with a telco wise enough to offer it. Backbones aren't the problem, nor is the last mile (within 18 months, you'll have DSL or cable. If you have neither after that point, you probably will never have it) The problem is that peering points are saturated. The MAEs and PBNAP are the major bottlenecks, not counting the existance of alter.net, which is just plain poor.
But all of this, of course, is the raving of a fool.
... but every single windows desktop I've seen my users and friends use is using, not surprisingly, standard widget appearances, despite the availablity of third-party theming packs. usually they are set to some garish neon-shaded color theme like pink or pastel green ...
Third party theming packs for Windows are atrocious in terms of system resources or stability. And given that Windows itself ships with only rudimentary widget color and size controls, it's unsurprising that a large number of nontechnical end-users do simple, ugly things for theming.
Unlike for example WindowBlinds, Kalidescope actually works as advertised. The problem with Windows theming utilities -- at least those which aren't some color-and-wallpaper variation of the Plus! pack -- is that they are badly broken.
Thanks, that's usable information! I've read the term often enough to get curious as to where it comes from.
Sounds highly desirable. I'm glad to see newer Alphas getting into the market. If what you're describing is a trend, I imagine my next box will be an Alpha.
Mostly what I do (image manipulation, some rudementary data analysis, and development) uses flat-out integer and small matrix performance 80 or 90% of the time, and is more or less I/O bound over CPU for the majority of tasks.
Yes, the tool-fit is vastly more important that overall performance, and at least in my (fairly common) case, x86 is a win. Don't get me wrong, I'll be excited to see the Alpha descend into the mass market, but it's certainly not there yet.
We know our codes run about 4 times faster ...
I've always known code as a collective noun: "Our code is poorly commented, but it sure is fast." But I have seen the term codes used occasionally in a way that appears awkward to me, as in this quote.
I would have said "We know our code runs about..." and thought it more natural. Where does this usage of codes stem from? One generally associates the term "codes" with, for example, a series of cryptographic codes; and "code" as program code.
When I can get the kind of price/performance out of an Alpha that I can get out of a Celeron 300A at 500MHz, I'll sign up.
So far, the only cheap Alphas I see going around are those old clunky "It's almost as fast as my near-dead P100" things... possibly a neat way to explore the architecture for cheap, but not quite in the same league in terms of bang:buck ratio as what's out there in the x86 world now.
I'm no fan of the PC platform -- hell, I'm getting mighty tired of it, having used PCs since 1981 -- but you can't beat the kind of volume that the x86 moves for creating good honest market pressure. Commodity hardware is a good thing.
Quit yer complaining. At least you *have* cable modems... the rest of us have to wait another 20 or so years for Viacom to modernize...
Sounds like a neat box. Was it rouhly equivalent to the C64 in gee-whiz special effects capabilities like graphics and sound?
That it ran CP/M makes it sound as though the target market was somewhat different.
And I want frame-animated bitmaps because...?
Sorry. If I want something that moves, I'm perfectly happy to use less annoying tools than animated GIF. MNG looks promising-ish, but I still don't see a lot of uses for it apart from Yet More Badly Made Banner Ads.
I bump up against the 1 meg line on a regular basis with docs and PIM data alone. Never mind the various > 300K z-code games for Frotz, the PalmMap databases (a few of which could strain a 2 or 4 meg device), the odd image here or there for reference or personalization...
Seriously, I could make extensive use of at least 4 meg, and with some carelessness, 8. People who use their Pilots use them *hard*.
Funny, that Phase5 sure looks an awful lot like an accelerator card, not a nice crispy box.
The money's there, just waiting for me to not have to send it to 4 or 5 different shady-looking places in some dreadful second-world country to get a usable box out of it.
Wot's an Amstrad?
Every single node in a network is a center from which both attack and defense can originate.
Wow. Thanks for that keen insight.
Can I put this guy in the KatzFilter now? I've got pretty much the same criticisms for him: Too verbose, too repetititititive, seemingly written towards a layperson.
I'd like Katz if he paid attention to the audience; but do we really need a second featured columnist?
I vote "ditch" because I'm personally not interested in what this person has to say.
Apple is basically saying, ``We want to get lots of good press for opensourcing stuff we stole...
Now, now. They didn't steal what was legally free for the taking. Don't forget that the whole point of a BSDish license is that it's exploitable for profit. Remember SunOS?
I dislike the flavor of what Apple is doing, too, but they aren't "stealing," and it's misleading to say so.
I'd certainly hesitate to call it an Amiga if it's just some black box on top of a TV. Those can still be found. Try looking on ebay.
The beauty of the Amiga was how simple and stable it was to go in and fuss with the guts. The user had a high degree of control over the OS, and the hardware had handy features that still aren't available today (like splitting the screen between multiple resolutions).
RTG and RTS were excellent architectures that still aren't well matched in the mainstream world.
The OS had hooks all over the place, it was incredibly straightforward to alter aspects of behavior with legal, sanctioned hooks. This kind of flexibility is only paralleled (badly) by the X model.
A set-top box, without the AmigaOS, isn't exactly something I'd be interested in calling an Amiga, or paying money for.
Bring out one of them PPC based desktops, though, and I'll plunk down cold hard cash.
Was there anything interesting on the page before it got slashdotted?
It was an Amiga game long before it was a PC/VGA game.