OK. I just RTFA. The FLASH uses a slightly smaller geometry. But I am still surprised by the large (fourfold) increase in the FLASH size comapred to the DRAM.
Can someone explain why the FLASH memory is sooooo much larger than the DRAM chip? DRAM is just one cap and one transistor per bit, while the flash uses a MUCH more complicated structure for each bit. It involves at least two transistors per bit, one with a floating gate.
For the same size die, I would expect that the DRAM would hold a little more than the FLASH. Either the FLASH die is huge compared to the DRAM die in this case, or I am missing something.
Well yea. The AMD has more and bigger numbers. Its got to be gooder.
Yeah, right!
A64: 3 + 5 + 0 + 0 = 8 P4: 5 + 6 + 0 = 11 So, clearly the P4 is 37.5% faster than the Athlon. Duh! Oh, wait. What is the numerical value of the plus "+" in the Athlon model number?
But then again, when comparing the A64 to the P4, 64 is a LOT bigger than 4, so the A64 must be MUCH better, right?
Thisis a FILE SYSTEM. Such thing use integer math only. The LAST THING that you would want is a floating-point number in a file system. Such numbers are rounded when adding very small numbers to very large numbers, and it would be a disaster if the sector number of a piece of data was approximated.
The article did not mention needing a 128-bit processor. AFAIK, no 128-bit processors exist! Bit if the did, then you can ask this question about that processor. I do not even know of an IEEE standard for 128-bit floating-point numbers.
Not quite that easy. 2^32 is indeed a 10-digit number, but the first digit is a "4". So unless the prime in question is approximately 4.2 billion or lower, 32-bit integer arithmetic will not help. You will either have to go a larger integer size (assuming that you have an Athon 64), or find a library which handles arbitrary-precision math (or write your own library, no fun).
It is vastly quieter in the default CPU cooling situation. I have an Antec Sonata and P-4 2.8GHz Socket-T, and when it's not doing 3D acceleration, it's damn near quiet.
The average/.er does not stick with stock HSFs. Quiet solutions exist for the Athlon 64 as well. Athlons produce less heat than the latest P4s.
Hyperthreading is cool. Without having to spend the money on two physical items, I get some of the performance benifits of dual-procs. My system is more responsive while doing background tasks, like printing or burning a DVD - I can comfortably surf the web with no slowdown.
This IS one area where Intel can legitimately crow. AMD should do this.
Origionally, I was going to buy the AMD Athlon 64 3200+, but after I started looking at it, I realized that the socket is at a dead end - if I ever wanted to upgrade, it would mean new motherboard.
Not if you go for the socket 939. But even the older socket is still OK. The new sempron line will also be advancing. If you are not a "latest and greatest" type of guy, in two years you should be able to get a nice speed bump for well under $200 using the older socket 734, even if it cannot keep up with the Athlon-128 12000+.
Also, no AMD boards that I'm aware of have PCI Express.
You say that like it is a bad thing;) Seriously, the only thing right now that needs that kind of bandwidth is gigabit ethernet (which is already built into the mobo anyways), and video (for which AGP is already doing just fine). In maybe two or three years it might be hard to find an AGP card, but the short-term outlook for AGP is just fine. Right now, the average computer user (even gamers) do not really need PCI Express.
And since the Memory controller is on the processor die, you're tied in to DDR memory forever with the chip.
Darn. I can't pay more for the same performance. I am heartbroken. DDR2 promises higher clock speeds in the future. OK. There is some darn fast DDR2 out right now, but I sure cannot afford it. That stuff is expensive.
But if you are talking about replacing the processor (as mentioned above) and getting faster DDR2, then getting a new mobo is really not much extra cost compared with what you are already planning to spend.
My new setup has DDR2 and PCI-express, so it's much more future proof than what I was looking at from the AMD camp.
So how much extra did you pay? I bet that if you had built an Athlon 64 system, not only could you run 64-bit software, you could pocket the difference and use it to do some serious upgrades in a year or two.
But I will admit that if you are the type of guy who is buying new hardware every month, then you probably made the right decision. For most people, though, the Athlon 64 makes more sense.
A big dog does the job, and provides faithful companionship as well.
And pees on your carpet until you train him. And chews your furniture. And costs a small fortune in vet bills. And there is also the time commitment in owning a dog. Plus, apartment dwellers will likely find their rent going up.
I like dogs. But am not a big enough dog lover to want to put up with the responsibilities and headaches that comes with owning one. I am terrible at housebreaking (I have tried).
If you like dogs, good for you. But they are not for everybody. If you work 80 hours a week, then you should probably get an attack cat instead...
It is not total power, but total power per unit of area. In this area, lasers excel because the energy does not spread. This is why a 100 watt light bulb is easily considered safe, while a 0.1 watt laser (1000 times less energy) is a definite eye hazard.
OK. I know that light bulbs are incredibly inefficient. But you get the idea.
No, it can't. The laser under the MX1000 has no visible light.
I did not see any mention of laser color in the article, but I doubt that they would use and IR laser.
First, ALL laser products have those little yellow warning stickers on them. And the troulbe with infra-red lasers is that they can burn your eye without you even knowing it. With a visible (red) laser, at least you know when it is pointing at you.
I can just imagine some kid holding the thing up to his eye. The ONLY way for this to use IR and still be safe is if the thing has an extremely low power, and uses a lens to spread out the beam.
The idea of "correctly targeted" is an interesting one.
In my opinion, there are two types of advertising.
1) Informational ads which inform you of a new product, or interesting features of an existing product that you might not have known about. These can be geniunely useful. "Hey! Look at that! I have never seen one of those before! I want one!" These tend to work on the left side of the brain.
2) "Persuesion" ads where they try to convince you that a product is "cool" or "must have." "WOW. My true love, Brittney Bimbo drinks soda. Maybe if I drink HER soda, she will love me forever!" Give me a break! These tend to focus on the right side of the brain.
Now, guess what type of advertising we will see in games.
Because it is a waste of money? Even including a distro is a waste of a CD.
Look at it this way... A person who would buy a Linux keyboard probably is already a kernel hacker. A Windows user (who is the one needing a "starter kit") would probably never know that this keyboard even exists, much less buy one.
Of course, I could be wrong (it has happened before).
Perhaps, but I still wonder why it should be necessary...
It is not WHO you are, but what you take on the plane with you. Even if Osama himself is on the plane, what is he going to do if he cannot even get his hands on a knitting needle?
You have to make a choice: Reduce your chance of dying by 0.000000000001% vs a 100% chance of loosing some liberties.
And how in the world are you supposed to know what copy protection they have? It's not like they advertise what copy protection methods they use on the box.
Well, HERE is a good starting point. Isn't the internet wolderful?
The last game that I purchased (that did not come bundled with hardware) was Knights of the Old Republic. And to LucasArts credit, it said in big red letters on the bottom that it used technology to prevent copying. I am very much looking forward to KOTOR2, but if they use StarForce, then either I will pass, or I will wait until a crack exists before purchasing the game.
You can have California. I lived there for three months a few years ago. Yuck!
Informing the consumer is a good thing, but when EVERY SINGLE STORE IN EXISTENCE there has signs up warning about carcinogens, it looses its effetiveness. "Gee, we just purchased a bottle of typing correction fluid for the secretary. Now we need to add a carcinogen warning to our front door."
That law now requires every business to cry wolf, which means that you are more likely to ignore real threats.
BTW: Where I worked, alkaline AA batteries were considered hazardous waste, and could not be thrown in the trash can. I had to take them home to throw them away!
Of course, if we honestly ask ourselves how many purely legitimate users of those utilities (Alcohol, etc.) there are, odds are probably that deep down inside we have to admit "not many"
This is a complete load of bull. Here is my story:
I have a "server" case with a LOCKED DOOR in front of the drive bays. I have two toddlers running around the house, so I HAVE to have my computer locked down from little hands. So it is a PAIN to swap discs. So I use Alcohol 120%. This also allows me to keep all discs locked away in the garage so that I do not have to have a stack of discs (or a disc case) sitting on my desk. It helps keep the clutter down.
I also have my old computer set aside for running educational games. So, I use Alcohol 120% on that one so that my three-year-old son does not have to come to mommy asking to change a disc or (even worse) try to change the disc himself.
Anot note that I am NOT into warez at all. If I want a game, I buy it. I still have not even played all of the games that came bundled with my sound and video cards (quite a lot of games, too).
I would also like to throw out one more secnario: A traveler who wants to play games on the go. First, carrying discs means more weight, and second, spinning up a disc uses more battery power than reading an ISO off of a hard drive.
I have absolutely NO problems with copy protection which checks the disc upon install, but why does it have to check EVERY TIME the game loads. As a legitimate user, I find it annoying that these companies are almost begging me to go to warez sites so that I can play the game that I PAID FOR the way that I want to.
As for me, I will NEVER buy a StarForce game. Yup, that's right. I hope that the game producers are reading this. I am a professional engineer -- the type of guy with enough money to buy the games that tickle my fancy -- and I am incredibly honest. And in your quest to stop the people who probably would not buy your games in the first place, you are driving legitimate customers away. Smart business plan.
Note that it is one thing to design a game that will not work with Alcohol. I can accept that. But to have your game cripple Alcohol even when your game is not even running is unacceptable. Have fun in the wellfare lines, boys...
If it is possible for YOU to make this change, then it is possible for an exploit to make this same change. In other words, if they allow it, then it only means a couple more lines of code for the latest trojan/worm/virus/spyware.
Also, to use a stick you would need control systems, fully powered hydraulic steering, this would be prone to faults and in the event of a system failure you would lose steering. Currently cars have power assisted steering but standard steering still functions in the event of a fluid leak etc.
And yet cars are going to be doing this soon anyways. I suspect that in 20 years, all cars will be "drive by wire," and you could install either a stick or a wheel.
Does anybody remember in MIB2 where Will Smith drove his car with a PS2 controller? Kind of stupid, but the same idea.
I have been looking at this for a couple of years. About a year ago, I chalked it off as vaporware. But now it is almost out, and they now have my credit card info.
I hope that they actually make it. Part of me refuses to believe until I have a box in my hand.
Slashdot Mirror
I believe that KCl is popular for people on low-Na diets.
Well, you said "On average." In a nebula, isn't the average density of gas a *LOT* higher?
I am not an expert on this, but nebulas can be readily seen, so their density should be orders of magnitude more.
OK. I just RTFA. The FLASH uses a slightly smaller geometry. But I am still surprised by the large (fourfold) increase in the FLASH size comapred to the DRAM.
Can someone explain why the FLASH memory is sooooo much larger than the DRAM chip? DRAM is just one cap and one transistor per bit, while the flash uses a MUCH more complicated structure for each bit. It involves at least two transistors per bit, one with a floating gate.
For the same size die, I would expect that the DRAM would hold a little more than the FLASH. Either the FLASH die is huge compared to the DRAM die in this case, or I am missing something.
Can anybody clue me in?
Yeah, right!
A64: 3 + 5 + 0 + 0 = 8
P4: 5 + 6 + 0 = 11
So, clearly the P4 is 37.5% faster than the Athlon. Duh!
Oh, wait. What is the numerical value of the plus "+" in the Athlon model number?
But then again, when comparing the A64 to the P4, 64 is a LOT bigger than 4, so the A64 must be MUCH better, right?
Floating point???
Thisis a FILE SYSTEM. Such thing use integer math only. The LAST THING that you would want is a floating-point number in a file system. Such numbers are rounded when adding very small numbers to very large numbers, and it would be a disaster if the sector number of a piece of data was approximated.
The article did not mention needing a 128-bit processor. AFAIK, no 128-bit processors exist! Bit if the did, then you can ask this question about that processor. I do not even know of an IEEE standard for 128-bit floating-point numbers.
Perhaps, but then you have to start adding restrooms, chars, elevators, etc. Soon, the whole thing gets out of hand.
;)
And, unless you put male and female chinese on different floors, soon you will have a lot more than a billion
About the size of my student loan...
Not quite that easy. 2^32 is indeed a 10-digit number, but the first digit is a "4". So unless the prime in question is approximately 4.2 billion or lower, 32-bit integer arithmetic will not help. You will either have to go a larger integer size (assuming that you have an Athon 64), or find a library which handles arbitrary-precision math (or write your own library, no fun).
The average
This IS one area where Intel can legitimately crow. AMD should do this.
Not if you go for the socket 939. But even the older socket is still OK. The new sempron line will also be advancing. If you are not a "latest and greatest" type of guy, in two years you should be able to get a nice speed bump for well under $200 using the older socket 734, even if it cannot keep up with the Athlon-128 12000+.
You say that like it is a bad thing
Seriously, the only thing right now that needs that kind of bandwidth is gigabit ethernet (which is already built into the mobo anyways), and video (for which AGP is already doing just fine). In maybe two or three years it might be hard to find an AGP card, but the short-term outlook for AGP is just fine. Right now, the average computer user (even gamers) do not really need PCI Express.
Darn. I can't pay more for the same performance. I am heartbroken. DDR2 promises higher clock speeds in the future. OK. There is some darn fast DDR2 out right now, but I sure cannot afford it. That stuff is expensive.
But if you are talking about replacing the processor (as mentioned above) and getting faster DDR2, then getting a new mobo is really not much extra cost compared with what you are already planning to spend.
So how much extra did you pay? I bet that if you had built an Athlon 64 system, not only could you run 64-bit software, you could pocket the difference and use it to do some serious upgrades in a year or two.
But I will admit that if you are the type of guy who is buying new hardware every month, then you probably made the right decision. For most people, though, the Athlon 64 makes more sense.
And pees on your carpet until you train him. And chews your furniture. And costs a small fortune in vet bills. And there is also the time commitment in owning a dog. Plus, apartment dwellers will likely find their rent going up.
I like dogs. But am not a big enough dog lover to want to put up with the responsibilities and headaches that comes with owning one. I am terrible at housebreaking (I have tried).
If you like dogs, good for you. But they are not for everybody. If you work 80 hours a week, then you should probably get an attack cat instead...
It is not total power, but total power per unit of area. In this area, lasers excel because the energy does not spread. This is why a 100 watt light bulb is easily considered safe, while a 0.1 watt laser (1000 times less energy) is a definite eye hazard.
OK. I know that light bulbs are incredibly inefficient. But you get the idea.
Please tell me of a legitimate legal use of this service...
And, NO! Pranks are not a legitimate use.
I can't thing of any reason to have this that benefits the average person, and lots of reasons not to have it.
I did not see any mention of laser color in the article, but I doubt that they would use and IR laser.
First, ALL laser products have those little yellow warning stickers on them. And the troulbe with infra-red lasers is that they can burn your eye without you even knowing it. With a visible (red) laser, at least you know when it is pointing at you.
I can just imagine some kid holding the thing up to his eye. The ONLY way for this to use IR and still be safe is if the thing has an extremely low power, and uses a lens to spread out the beam.
Does anybody know for sure what is going on here?
The idea of "correctly targeted" is an interesting one.
In my opinion, there are two types of advertising.
1) Informational ads which inform you of a new product, or interesting features of an existing product that you might not have known about. These can be geniunely useful. "Hey! Look at that! I have never seen one of those before! I want one!" These tend to work on the left side of the brain.
2) "Persuesion" ads where they try to convince you that a product is "cool" or "must have." "WOW. My true love, Brittney Bimbo drinks soda. Maybe if I drink HER soda, she will love me forever!" Give me a break! These tend to focus on the right side of the brain.
Now, guess what type of advertising we will see in games.
Because it is a waste of money? Even including a distro is a waste of a CD.
Look at it this way... A person who would buy a Linux keyboard probably is already a kernel hacker. A Windows user (who is the one needing a "starter kit") would probably never know that this keyboard even exists, much less buy one.
Of course, I could be wrong (it has happened before).
Perhaps, but I still wonder why it should be necessary...
It is not WHO you are, but what you take on the plane with you. Even if Osama himself is on the plane, what is he going to do if he cannot even get his hands on a knitting needle?
You have to make a choice: Reduce your chance of dying by 0.000000000001% vs a 100% chance of loosing some liberties.
And your point is???????
Well, HERE is a good starting point. Isn't the internet wolderful?
The last game that I purchased (that did not come bundled with hardware) was Knights of the Old Republic. And to LucasArts credit, it said in big red letters on the bottom that it used technology to prevent copying. I am very much looking forward to KOTOR2, but if they use StarForce, then either I will pass, or I will wait until a crack exists before purchasing the game.
You can have California. I lived there for three months a few years ago. Yuck!
Informing the consumer is a good thing, but when EVERY SINGLE STORE IN EXISTENCE there has signs up warning about carcinogens, it looses its effetiveness. "Gee, we just purchased a bottle of typing correction fluid for the secretary. Now we need to add a carcinogen warning to our front door."
That law now requires every business to cry wolf, which means that you are more likely to ignore real threats.
BTW: Where I worked, alkaline AA batteries were considered hazardous waste, and could not be thrown in the trash can. I had to take them home to throw them away!
This is a complete load of bull. Here is my story:
I have a "server" case with a LOCKED DOOR in front of the drive bays. I have two toddlers running around the house, so I HAVE to have my computer locked down from little hands. So it is a PAIN to swap discs. So I use Alcohol 120%. This also allows me to keep all discs locked away in the garage so that I do not have to have a stack of discs (or a disc case) sitting on my desk. It helps keep the clutter down.
I also have my old computer set aside for running educational games. So, I use Alcohol 120% on that one so that my three-year-old son does not have to come to mommy asking to change a disc or (even worse) try to change the disc himself.
Anot note that I am NOT into warez at all. If I want a game, I buy it. I still have not even played all of the games that came bundled with my sound and video cards (quite a lot of games, too).
I would also like to throw out one more secnario: A traveler who wants to play games on the go. First, carrying discs means more weight, and second, spinning up a disc uses more battery power than reading an ISO off of a hard drive.
I have absolutely NO problems with copy protection which checks the disc upon install, but why does it have to check EVERY TIME the game loads. As a legitimate user, I find it annoying that these companies are almost begging me to go to warez sites so that I can play the game that I PAID FOR the way that I want to.
As for me, I will NEVER buy a StarForce game. Yup, that's right. I hope that the game producers are reading this. I am a professional engineer -- the type of guy with enough money to buy the games that tickle my fancy -- and I am incredibly honest. And in your quest to stop the people who probably would not buy your games in the first place, you are driving legitimate customers away. Smart business plan.
Note that it is one thing to design a game that will not work with Alcohol. I can accept that. But to have your game cripple Alcohol even when your game is not even running is unacceptable. Have fun in the wellfare lines, boys...
If it is possible for YOU to make this change, then it is possible for an exploit to make this same change. In other words, if they allow it, then it only means a couple more lines of code for the latest trojan/worm/virus/spyware.
And yet cars are going to be doing this soon anyways. I suspect that in 20 years, all cars will be "drive by wire," and you could install either a stick or a wheel.
Does anybody remember in MIB2 where Will Smith drove his car with a PS2 controller? Kind of stupid, but the same idea.
I have been looking at this for a couple of years. About a year ago, I chalked it off as vaporware. But now it is almost out, and they now have my credit card info.
I hope that they actually make it. Part of me refuses to believe until I have a box in my hand.