Every time a FET switches, it requires a certain number of electrons to move to or from the gate to create an electric field in the substrate to open or close a conducting pathway. This is a current flowing through a reistance and it dissipates power as heat. Assuming that the leakage current on the gate is very small compared to the switching current, the energy required to switch the FET (call it Es) is constant regardless of the clock speed. So the power dissipated by each FET (call it Pf) is:
Pf = Es x fc
where fc is the clock frequency in Hertz.
Why do you suppose that frequency scaling is an effective way of saving power?
The law of diminishing returns applies
on
Is Overclocking Over?
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· Score: 4, Insightful
Ten years ago, CPU and RAM speed were really big factors in how fast your PC felt. We've spent the last ten years optimising hell out of them, while still using 7200RPM spinning disks (if you're lucky). So, surprise surprise, today disk IO is what limits your PC's performance. Why overclock your RAM? It makes (almost) not difference to your IO speed.
I got a new laptop just over three years ago. It had a 2.4GHz processor. I got my next new laptop a few weeks ago. It has a... 2.5GHz processor. Clock speeds have become almost irrelevant. What makes the new sucker fly is the SSD. Unfortunately, there is no BIOS setting, however risky, to change from disk to SSD.
You are an idiot. What the devil do you think a "member state" is? I'll say it slowly so you don't miss it: A member state of the EU is a state which is a member of the EU. As opposed to all the other states, which are not members of the EU.
To summarise the broader debate, the term state, when referring to a political entity, can have several meanings:
A sovereign state within a federation. This is the American use of the term, though whether it is de facto a true description of the USA is wide open for debate.
A sovereign state in general. Hence the terms head of state, affairs of state, state banquet, statehood etc. This usage can be subdivied into nation-state, city-state and so on, though this is more of historical interest than current interest.
A non-sovereign state within a federation. This is the Australian use of the term.
Published in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Can't see any agenda there...
She doesn't exactly cover herself in glory for facts, either. She doesn't appear to know what neodynium is used for (why, exactly, would you want magnets in a gearbox?). She (quite deliberately, I think) confuses consumable fuels with non-consumable equipment - a turbine may need 800 pounds of neodynium, but after 20 years of operation you've still got 800 pounds of neodynium. In fact the whole magnet is reusable as is. Today's largest wind machines are 10MW (in construction, anyway). 4.5 million of them would (on average, not peak capacity) provide the entire world's energy use - not sure where her need for an additional ~2 billion devices comes from.
Of course it's not infinite - nothing is (probably) but that's not really the claim, is it? The only sensible point made is that renewable sources require materials that are finite, but I think we knew that already.
Physics can be scaled up, but topography can't. The only feasible way we have of converting electricity to stored energy and back again for more than an hour with anything like 90% efficiency is pumped hydro - and we already use all of the feasible sites in the UK.
There are lots of other good ideas floating around, but no-one quite knows how to make them work well. So, yes, if you come up with a way to store 1GWh of electricity for a week at 90% efficiency, a Nobel prize in physics is very likely to be on the cards. Molten salts are the only thing that looks even close, and even then it's fairly short-term storage. I'm unsure of curent operating efficiencies, but doubt that it's at 90%.
Electricity from 100% renewables is only cheaper than non-renewable sources at the retail point because people buying non-renewable energy subsidise it through the renewables obligation.
One of the things I like about both Unity and Windows 7 is that I can start just about anything by pushing the super/windows key, typing four or five characters from the name and hitting enter. Suddenly it's easier to start applications from the keyboard than with the mouse again. I don't have to remember if Spotify is an Internet application or a Sound & Video application - I just '[super]spot[enter]' and it Just Works.
I hear that the first Unity (with Ubuntu 11.04) was a bit of a dog performance-wise, so I skipped it. I'm running 11.10 on an old-ish laptop (3 years) and it's slick.
The deal is that, contrary to your view of the world, not everyone has English as a native language. For some people, they don't even speak it at all! I know, I know; how do we let such things happen in this day and age?
His name is Arabic, spelt like this: . There is only one spelling of his name. How you render that name in ISO-8859-1 (Latin-1 code page) depends on which university you learnt Arabic at.
How many times can it succeed? Here in the UK every major supermarket chain has online-order-and-deliver models and they work out just fine.
Whether it makes sense for Amazon is less clear. As others have pointed out, books can be posted from a central warehouse while groceries need a local distribution infrastructure - hence why Amazon has only trialled this in Seattle instead of nation-wide. The supermarket chains have an established distribution network, and all it needs is a website and local delivery vehicles. Amazon also needs to put in place a whole new system of sourcing and distribution, and I can't see how they can compete with supermarkets on that.
Slashdot Mirror
500MB/s? I just... wow. How? How do you get 1/2 GB/s per drone from the other side of the world? Presumably they don't care about latency!
1 in 10 accounts uses one of the top 10 passwords. It's still better than iPhone users.
Your logic is wrong.
Every time a FET switches, it requires a certain number of electrons to move to or from the gate to create an electric field in the substrate to open or close a conducting pathway. This is a current flowing through a reistance and it dissipates power as heat. Assuming that the leakage current on the gate is very small compared to the switching current, the energy required to switch the FET (call it Es) is constant regardless of the clock speed. So the power dissipated by each FET (call it Pf) is:
Pf = Es x fc
where fc is the clock frequency in Hertz.
Why do you suppose that frequency scaling is an effective way of saving power?
Ten years ago, CPU and RAM speed were really big factors in how fast your PC felt. We've spent the last ten years optimising hell out of them, while still using 7200RPM spinning disks (if you're lucky). So, surprise surprise, today disk IO is what limits your PC's performance. Why overclock your RAM? It makes (almost) not difference to your IO speed.
I got a new laptop just over three years ago. It had a 2.4GHz processor. I got my next new laptop a few weeks ago. It has a... 2.5GHz processor. Clock speeds have become almost irrelevant. What makes the new sucker fly is the SSD. Unfortunately, there is no BIOS setting, however risky, to change from disk to SSD.
You are an idiot. What the devil do you think a "member state" is? I'll say it slowly so you don't miss it: A member state of the EU is a state which is a member of the EU. As opposed to all the other states, which are not members of the EU.
To summarise the broader debate, the term state, when referring to a political entity, can have several meanings:
I have modpoints, but I'm just at a loss to know what to call this. There is no 'bat-shit insane' mod response.
...couldn't you come up with some that are attractive? I'm not into fat chicks, but bones sticking out is not a good look. Curves, please!
Okay, I learnt something :-)
Still, 800 pounds? I think we all knew she meant in the generator.
Published in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Can't see any agenda there...
She doesn't exactly cover herself in glory for facts, either. She doesn't appear to know what neodynium is used for (why, exactly, would you want magnets in a gearbox?). She (quite deliberately, I think) confuses consumable fuels with non-consumable equipment - a turbine may need 800 pounds of neodynium, but after 20 years of operation you've still got 800 pounds of neodynium. In fact the whole magnet is reusable as is. Today's largest wind machines are 10MW (in construction, anyway). 4.5 million of them would (on average, not peak capacity) provide the entire world's energy use - not sure where her need for an additional ~2 billion devices comes from.
Of course it's not infinite - nothing is (probably) but that's not really the claim, is it? The only sensible point made is that renewable sources require materials that are finite, but I think we knew that already.
You, sir, get a gold star. I only wish I could make it mod points, but I see others have got there first.
Yeah, way to ignore facts.
Physics can be scaled up, but topography can't. The only feasible way we have of converting electricity to stored energy and back again for more than an hour with anything like 90% efficiency is pumped hydro - and we already use all of the feasible sites in the UK.
There are lots of other good ideas floating around, but no-one quite knows how to make them work well. So, yes, if you come up with a way to store 1GWh of electricity for a week at 90% efficiency, a Nobel prize in physics is very likely to be on the cards. Molten salts are the only thing that looks even close, and even then it's fairly short-term storage. I'm unsure of curent operating efficiencies, but doubt that it's at 90%.
Electricity from 100% renewables is only cheaper than non-renewable sources at the retail point because people buying non-renewable energy subsidise it through the renewables obligation.
Er, quite. We could efficiently throw them into the Solent all at once. The possibilities are endless.
And, before anyone complains about death threats, that's irony. I don't mean it.
They collect lots of idiots into conveniently concentrated groups, so we can efficiently ignore them all at once.
And most of the previous and current Chinese leadership are engineers. Aren't they wonderful?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generations_of_Chinese_leadership#Third_generation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generations_of_Chinese_leadership#Fourth_generation_.28current.29
I really like it.
One of the things I like about both Unity and Windows 7 is that I can start just about anything by pushing the super/windows key, typing four or five characters from the name and hitting enter. Suddenly it's easier to start applications from the keyboard than with the mouse again. I don't have to remember if Spotify is an Internet application or a Sound & Video application - I just '[super]spot[enter]' and it Just Works.
I hear that the first Unity (with Ubuntu 11.04) was a bit of a dog performance-wise, so I skipped it. I'm running 11.10 on an old-ish laptop (3 years) and it's slick.
Presumably that's where the Kinect comes in - you don't have to touch it.
And so on.
Sigh. So /. doesn't support unicode characters in comments. Makes my point about Americans, doesn't it?
The deal is that, contrary to your view of the world, not everyone has English as a native language. For some people, they don't even speak it at all! I know, I know; how do we let such things happen in this day and age?
His name is Arabic, spelt like this: . There is only one spelling of his name. How you render that name in ISO-8859-1 (Latin-1 code page) depends on which university you learnt Arabic at.
How about the British Labour Party? Up to their armpits in money, posts and doctorates when it comes to the Gaddafi family. Time for a boycott?
if they change the authentications they have to replace every friggin femto cell they've sold.
Yes, or they could remotely patch the firmware. Which they've done.
You get full marks for logic and grammar.
This is news for nerds. Stuff that matters. I thought /. abandoned this stuff ages ago...
How many times can it succeed? Here in the UK every major supermarket chain has online-order-and-deliver models and they work out just fine.
Whether it makes sense for Amazon is less clear. As others have pointed out, books can be posted from a central warehouse while groceries need a local distribution infrastructure - hence why Amazon has only trialled this in Seattle instead of nation-wide. The supermarket chains have an established distribution network, and all it needs is a website and local delivery vehicles. Amazon also needs to put in place a whole new system of sourcing and distribution, and I can't see how they can compete with supermarkets on that.
John Prescott.
God, please, let it be true.
Also depends on BT offering a decent price for access to existing underground cable routes. BT doing the right thing? Hmmmm...