If you had read the article, then you would have noticed that it said that the current 12 digit barcode is running out of room, and that they are having to move to a 14 digit barcode system in the next year. It also said this new system would take around a decade to catch-on, because obviously the cost of printing a bar code on an already existing bit of paper on the product is a lot less than creating a little microchip/transmitter/thingy.
The 89W figure for Opteron is the maximum for the 130nm node - i.e., probably at 2.4 GHz.
At current speeds the Opteron is consuming under 70W.
The P4 and the Itanium 2 both draw more power than AMD processors though. The AMD is hot joke went south when Intel dropped the cooler PIII processors.
The extra length of instructions in 64-bit mode is apparently offset by having less instructions to perform the same thing, and the extra registers reduce memory accesses as well, so the extra accesses due to the 64-bit instruction prefix is roughly cancelled out in the end.
I have an Opteron myself, so when I get the 1U heatsink I'll have a look at compiling 32-bit vs. 64-bit code.
Maybe they need to learn about caching so as to reduce the load on MySQL. The rest of the server is running fine, it is let down by a poor content presentation system. Why do all these sites have to generate every page from the database anyway?
I don't call a computer system 64-bit when the OS it is running is 32-bit.
Sure, the CPU is 64-bit, but it looks like the only 64-bit OS that will be running on those PowerMacs in the near future will be Linux.:D
The really useful thing about the Opteron isn't the 64-bit aspect, but the fact that in 64-bit mode you get a lot more registers, etc, to play with. This in turn means that code compiled for the 64-bit mode will run faster than the code compiled for the 32-bit mode.
Also the on-die memory controller means that memory latency is much lower, which in turn means things run faster.
I'd buy a dual Opteron machine over a dual Xeon machine anyday.
Easiest ever installation of a web browser on Linux:) Untar and run, nice.
It is quicker than Mozilla by far, and the rendering looks to be equally good as you would hope. I haven't used it for long, so I don't know about stability, but it can't be that much worse than Mozilla 1.1 which I have been using exclusively for the past month or so.
Now how do I enable anti-aliased text? And how do I import my Mozilla bookmarks...?
Hmmm, I can't get that SSH working in Konqueror 3.0.2, is it a 3.1 thing?
All it does is try to do a realname lookup on a Google search...(????!?!??) doesn't recognise fish:// as a protocol I imagine, not ssh:// either. Shame.
Well a third party motherboard will require a non-Apple chipset.
MAI currently make reasonably up to date (compared with the old IBM 710 northbridge anyway) G3/G4 chipsets such as the Artica-S. These are used on the bPlan Pegasos (MATX), Eyetech AmigaONE (ATX) and Birdie (ATX server) motherboards.
Hopefully IBM or MAI will make a reasonably priced chipset to go with the PPC970 processor... hence allowing generic motherboards using that processor to be made.
Try loading the navigator chrome inside a browser tab to get an idea how it works. (chrome://navigator/content/navigator.xul) Mozilla isn't an app with a skin. It is the skin.
AAEIEIIE!!!!!
Hmmm, I could nest multiple browsers in tabs, each with their own tabs...
except I can't get the embedded browser to open its own tabs. dammit!
Yes, I am a redhead and I ran for my school in sprinting, although I needed more training than I received. I can still outrun anybody at short distances without a problem. But long distances are bad for me, but that is just because I am unfit I am sure!:D
I am the same. I have red hair, tonnes of freckles and skin that came straight from a vampire.
I don't feel pain as much as other people apparently do either.
Maybe we aren't more sensitive to pain. Maybe we just get rid of anaesthetics quicker and more efficiently thanks to our evolutionary enhancements....:)
And I can drink a tonne of drink and be fine. And then one drink more and I am waking up the next day with a blank memory! Also I have zero tolerance for weed, but that is another matter.
Yes, the extra $50 for that Clie is certainly worth it for 8MB of memory and the 320x320 greyscale screen. And the memory slot. And the extra software.
Unless of course the new Zire becomes available for $79 in stores pretty quickly after introduction... that is a better price in my opinion for the Zire.
Of course, the Zire is meant to be cheap and small. Choose any two of cheap, small, features:D At least it looks reasonably good.
The new Zaurus looks really good, from the pictures I have seen from other links in the comments.
But it would have been nice to have a widescreen display instead of a standard VGA display. There is certainly room in the case for this. Then with a Firewire/USB external DVD drive, you could have watched DVD movies on the move in full widescreen amongst other benefits. The resolution would have been around 800x450 instead of 640x480.
Also the keyboard looks pretty dire - it doesn't look as nice as the keyboard on the old Psion 5s and Psion Revos.
The screen clarity is excellent though - it must be around 200dpi though.
It also looks a bit chunky, but with a full PCMCIA slot (it looks like it anyway), SD slots and other slots, plus keyboard and screen I suppose that is to be expected:D
I thought the real issue was that RedHat had basically removed the KDE software options from the menus. So you didn't get the choice to run KMail, it was always Evolution, and so on.
The issue wasn't about changing the look of the desktops. The issue was making KDE just another interface for loading Gnome applications.
RedHat has always been pro-Gnome. Why don't they just ship Gnome only and leave KDE out of the default installation - that would create a single unified desktop.
So they are expected to review the CD's through headphones from a walkman?
Doesn't that just strike people as being stupid? How will they get a subjective review of the audio quality? Are the music companies trying to hide poor audio quality from the reviewers by making them review the music through sub-optimal equipment?
This is just a sad example of how paranoid the music companies have become...
I finally managed to get my cheap-ass USB Lexmark Z33 to work with Linux. This would have been simpler had CUPS not been running, as the Lexmark provided Linux drivers are for LPD only... it wasn't the simplest thing ever. The Lexmark GUI tool looks good though.
However, the printer is ass. The sheet feeder puts a dent in the paper at the bottom, and the paper goes in at an angle, and it only works one sheet at a time.
Never again will I listen to the wife when it comes to buying a printer. I wanted a black and white laser with a network connector. She was like "but that is expensive when you could get this one"...
The screenshots look more complicated to me - just a horrible GUI interface with a single giant tree list. How horrible.
The sad thing is that you should need to recompile the kernel to add support for various bits of hardware. What is wrong with using drivers that are not compiled into the kernel, and being able to add them at runtime?
I can understand recompiling the kernel for certain reasons:
1) Want to compile for your architecture to get the best performance
2) Want to make use of a kernel patch, or non-standard kernel feature
The monolithism of the Linux kernel is primitive. It should be fully modular - a small kernel core with additional services for various aspects of the kernel, and with full runtime driver addition and removal, etc. This will become even more necessary with systems that need 99.99% uptime using hot-swap PCI and the like.
The kernel configuration should basically be an automated process - check how many processors you have, optimise for that processor type, etc. Compile all hardware support as drivers/modules. Install.
It is called an AGP tunnel because "tunnel" is a HT term for a device which has an upstream HT connection, and a downstream HT connection.
The FSB has traditionally carried CPU signals to the device that has the memory controller. As the memory controller is on the die of the Hammer, there is no FSB off the chip, just a high speed interconnect to connect up further processors or I/O devices.
The Hammer core does have a FSB. It runs at core speed and connects to the on-die switch that connects up the core, HT links and memory controllers.
HyperTransport is a point-to-point link, not a bus. Maybe you could call it a Front Side Interconnect, or how about Processor Interconnect, because Opteron's will have 3 HT links - and 3 FSB's on a processor sounds a bit silly...
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I think that there would be problems encoding more than 10 or so bar patterns to deal with the extra characters, however.
Admittedly you could have more bars to compensate.
If you had read the article, then you would have noticed that it said that the current 12 digit barcode is running out of room, and that they are having to move to a 14 digit barcode system in the next year. It also said this new system would take around a decade to catch-on, because obviously the cost of printing a bar code on an already existing bit of paper on the product is a lot less than creating a little microchip/transmitter/thingy.
The 89W figure for Opteron is the maximum for the 130nm node - i.e., probably at 2.4 GHz.
At current speeds the Opteron is consuming under 70W.
The P4 and the Itanium 2 both draw more power than AMD processors though. The AMD is hot joke went south when Intel dropped the cooler PIII processors.
Good points.
The extra length of instructions in 64-bit mode is apparently offset by having less instructions to perform the same thing, and the extra registers reduce memory accesses as well, so the extra accesses due to the 64-bit instruction prefix is roughly cancelled out in the end.
I have an Opteron myself, so when I get the 1U heatsink I'll have a look at compiling 32-bit vs. 64-bit code.
I got a single processor Tyan TomCat K8S from Scan.co.uk a couple of weeks ago, and they have some dual processor motherboards available as well.
Why not have more lights in the room instead of trying to light everything with a single vast bulb?
Maybe they need to learn about caching so as to reduce the load on MySQL. The rest of the server is running fine, it is let down by a poor content presentation system. Why do all these sites have to generate every page from the database anyway?
I don't call a computer system 64-bit when the OS it is running is 32-bit. Sure, the CPU is 64-bit, but it looks like the only 64-bit OS that will be running on those PowerMacs in the near future will be Linux. :D
The really useful thing about the Opteron isn't the 64-bit aspect, but the fact that in 64-bit mode you get a lot more registers, etc, to play with. This in turn means that code compiled for the 64-bit mode will run faster than the code compiled for the 32-bit mode. Also the on-die memory controller means that memory latency is much lower, which in turn means things run faster. I'd buy a dual Opteron machine over a dual Xeon machine anyday.
I've been following gnumeric for a few years now, and I think that it is one of the best OSS projects available currently.
OTOH, OpenOffice spreadsheet works perfectly fine for me for what I use it for
It is quicker than Mozilla by far, and the rendering looks to be equally good as you would hope. I haven't used it for long, so I don't know about stability, but it can't be that much worse than Mozilla 1.1 which I have been using exclusively for the past month or so.
Now how do I enable anti-aliased text? And how do I import my Mozilla bookmarks...?
I will be keeping my eye on this one for sure.
Hmmm, I can't get that SSH working in Konqueror 3.0.2, is it a 3.1 thing?
All it does is try to do a realname lookup on a Google search...(????!?!??) doesn't recognise fish:// as a protocol I imagine, not ssh:// either. Shame.
Mozilla - new new Emacs of applications! All it needs is a good text editor written in XUL...
Well a third party motherboard will require a non-Apple chipset.
MAI currently make reasonably up to date (compared with the old IBM 710 northbridge anyway) G3/G4 chipsets such as the Artica-S. These are used on the bPlan Pegasos (MATX), Eyetech AmigaONE (ATX) and Birdie (ATX server) motherboards.
Hopefully IBM or MAI will make a reasonably priced chipset to go with the PPC970 processor... hence allowing generic motherboards using that processor to be made.
Hmmm, I could nest multiple browsers in tabs, each with their own tabs...
except I can't get the embedded browser to open its own tabs. dammit!
Yes, I am a redhead and I ran for my school in sprinting, although I needed more training than I received. I can still outrun anybody at short distances without a problem. But long distances are bad for me, but that is just because I am unfit I am sure! :D
I am the same. I have red hair, tonnes of freckles and skin that came straight from a vampire.
:)
I don't feel pain as much as other people apparently do either.
Maybe we aren't more sensitive to pain. Maybe we just get rid of anaesthetics quicker and more efficiently thanks to our evolutionary enhancements....
And I can drink a tonne of drink and be fine. And then one drink more and I am waking up the next day with a blank memory! Also I have zero tolerance for weed, but that is another matter.
Yes, the extra $50 for that Clie is certainly worth it for 8MB of memory and the 320x320 greyscale screen. And the memory slot. And the extra software.
:D At least it looks reasonably good.
Unless of course the new Zire becomes available for $79 in stores pretty quickly after introduction... that is a better price in my opinion for the Zire.
Of course, the Zire is meant to be cheap and small. Choose any two of cheap, small, features
The new Zaurus looks really good, from the pictures I have seen from other links in the comments.
:D
But it would have been nice to have a widescreen display instead of a standard VGA display. There is certainly room in the case for this. Then with a Firewire/USB external DVD drive, you could have watched DVD movies on the move in full widescreen amongst other benefits. The resolution would have been around 800x450 instead of 640x480.
Also the keyboard looks pretty dire - it doesn't look as nice as the keyboard on the old Psion 5s and Psion Revos.
The screen clarity is excellent though - it must be around 200dpi though.
It also looks a bit chunky, but with a full PCMCIA slot (it looks like it anyway), SD slots and other slots, plus keyboard and screen I suppose that is to be expected
I thought the real issue was that RedHat had basically removed the KDE software options from the menus. So you didn't get the choice to run KMail, it was always Evolution, and so on.
The issue wasn't about changing the look of the desktops. The issue was making KDE just another interface for loading Gnome applications.
RedHat has always been pro-Gnome. Why don't they just ship Gnome only and leave KDE out of the default installation - that would create a single unified desktop.
So they are expected to review the CD's through headphones from a walkman?
Doesn't that just strike people as being stupid? How will they get a subjective review of the audio quality? Are the music companies trying to hide poor audio quality from the reviewers by making them review the music through sub-optimal equipment?
This is just a sad example of how paranoid the music companies have become...
I finally managed to get my cheap-ass USB Lexmark Z33 to work with Linux. This would have been simpler had CUPS not been running, as the Lexmark provided Linux drivers are for LPD only... it wasn't the simplest thing ever. The Lexmark GUI tool looks good though.
However, the printer is ass. The sheet feeder puts a dent in the paper at the bottom, and the paper goes in at an angle, and it only works one sheet at a time.
Never again will I listen to the wife when it comes to buying a printer. I wanted a black and white laser with a network connector. She was like "but that is expensive when you could get this one"...
The screenshots look more complicated to me - just a horrible GUI interface with a single giant tree list. How horrible.
The sad thing is that you should need to recompile the kernel to add support for various bits of hardware. What is wrong with using drivers that are not compiled into the kernel, and being able to add them at runtime?
I can understand recompiling the kernel for certain reasons:
1) Want to compile for your architecture to get the best performance
2) Want to make use of a kernel patch, or non-standard kernel feature
The monolithism of the Linux kernel is primitive. It should be fully modular - a small kernel core with additional services for various aspects of the kernel, and with full runtime driver addition and removal, etc. This will become even more necessary with systems that need 99.99% uptime using hot-swap PCI and the like.
The kernel configuration should basically be an automated process - check how many processors you have, optimise for that processor type, etc. Compile all hardware support as drivers/modules. Install.
The nVidia Hammer chipset is a single chip design. On-board AGP controller, PCI controller, all the USB, Firewire, IDE and other gizmos as well.
Some SiS Athlon chipsets are single chip as well. Pretty stable as well and well featured, and cheap.
A HT device that only has a HT uplink is known as a "HT Cave".
Old southbridges used to be PCI devices. E.g., VIA 686A/686B as used on the KT133, etc.
1000 pins doesn't seem to be a real problem for BGA devices like chipsets at the moment. AMDs 8131 is around 800-900 pins IIRC.
It is called an AGP tunnel because "tunnel" is a HT term for a device which has an upstream HT connection, and a downstream HT connection.
The FSB has traditionally carried CPU signals to the device that has the memory controller. As the memory controller is on the die of the Hammer, there is no FSB off the chip, just a high speed interconnect to connect up further processors or I/O devices.
The Hammer core does have a FSB. It runs at core speed and connects to the on-die switch that connects up the core, HT links and memory controllers.
HyperTransport is a point-to-point link, not a bus. Maybe you could call it a Front Side Interconnect, or how about Processor Interconnect, because Opteron's will have 3 HT links - and 3 FSB's on a processor sounds a bit silly...