Why would Intel be embarassed or whatever to "follow in AMD's footsteps"?
Mostly because they've been telling investors that Itanium is sure to take over all 64-bit enterprise computing any day now-- that's how they can justify the $12 billion (or whatever) they've dumped into it so far.
Nice! Those layered images are pretty damn cool, but they haven't been featured on the marsrovers front page that I know of. Is that because the people analyzing the photos haven't agreed on how to characterize the photo yet?
Boredom is inevitable, at least until the 3D IMAX movie comes out.
The last time we were roving around on another planet and looking at rocks during Apollo 17, the world responded with a collective yawn. Better to bring your golf club like Alan Shepard. Now that's exciting! You can hit a one-handed seven iron like 1000 yards...
I know nothing about microbiology, yet I know from NPR that only the structure of the receptor has been determined, not the entire gene sequence of the virus. Granted, I'm not sure if the receptor is what made it so virulent and deadly, but the rest of the virus is still unknown.
I'm somewhat of the opinion that women just take awhile to come to their senses, and the geek men just don't change at all. Women spend all those years going out "to have fun" and dance and "spend time with friends" and the all of a sudden one day that biological starts ticking louder and louder, and suddenly the hilarious well-coordinated pub-crawling metrosexuals just don't seem like the guys they're looking for anymore.
Computer science degrees may also have significantly less math/physics, and can even be BA degrees.
The distinction in some schools is nebulous, though. From what I've heard, at Cornell you can get either a CS BA or a CS BS. The difference being the BA is from the College of Arts while the BS is from the Engineering school and requires more natural science and calculus.
What he should want is China to let their currency (the yuan, I think) float, rather than fixing its value to the US dollar. Goods from the rest of the world have gotten more expensive in the US and US prices and wages relatively more competitive in foreign markets, except in China, because the value of the yuan is artificially pegged to the value of the dollar.
That's hurting more than any existing tariffs. While China's taking advantage of free markets, they're not playing by the rules. I'm all for free trade and I hate protectionism, but China's currency policy needs to go.
I can't see a correllation between pins and die size.
Smaller die would loosely correlate to less power, with fewer power and ground pins (most of the pins on a processor). But certainly you can design a processor that sucks amps and a DRAM of the same die size that break the correlation.
In and around the fab, there's a huge range of skills necessary, from babysitting machines to trying to figure out quantum mechanics.
To work in a bunny suit on the production floor? A high school diploma is often enough. To work in test/yield improvement? An EE degree, perhaps. To actually develop the bleeding edge processes? A PhD in physics.
There's far more to it than that, of course. And the actual chip designers could be across the parking lot or around the world.
I guess focus could certainly be a problem, but as far as wafer sized masks go, if you're creating a mask that costs many thousands of dollars, you're far less likely to have a defect in the mask if the mask is only the size needed for one die, and not the entire wafer. And since certain masks are not 1:1 masks but 2:1 or 4:1 masks, you'd might need a 1200mm mask for 4x a 300mm wafer. A 1.2 meter mask. See a problem?
I agree. Even given a perfect mask, you can still blow the chemistry (implants, trenches, diffusion, whatever) for a given process step pretty easily. It also doesn't seem to mention the chemical-mechanical polishing needed to smooth the wafers after certain steps-- that's easy to screw up also.
But as far as an article targeted at a total layperson goes, it's okay. Not that most laypeople don't quickly lose interest when you start talking about wafers, masks, reticles, photoresist, process steps. You always have to start with the broader concepts and see when their eyes glaze over:
What do you do?
I work at a place that makes computer chips
Oh really? What kinds?
All kinds. I work in the ASICS group.
ASICS? Like the sneakers?
Slashdot Mirror
Although it doesn't quite fit since this is technically a commentary or opinion piece, in which case, "ignorant fool," would suffice.
MIPS r0 is also always zero. I suspect a register that is always zero is a pretty standard architectural feature.
I like pie, too!
I thought that was Auschwitz/Oswiecim in Poland.
Do you hear that Mr. Gates? That is the sound of inevitability.
What makes you think the Webb will be in LEO and servicible by astronauts at all?
Nice! Those layered images are pretty damn cool, but they haven't been featured on the marsrovers front page that I know of. Is that because the people analyzing the photos haven't agreed on how to characterize the photo yet?
The last time we were roving around on another planet and looking at rocks during Apollo 17, the world responded with a collective yawn. Better to bring your golf club like Alan Shepard. Now that's exciting! You can hit a one-handed seven iron like 1000 yards...
I know nothing about microbiology, yet I know from NPR that only the structure of the receptor has been determined, not the entire gene sequence of the virus. Granted, I'm not sure if the receptor is what made it so virulent and deadly, but the rest of the virus is still unknown.
YMMV, but I definitely was not thinking about high school. Who ever had a sensical high school experience? Not me.
I'm somewhat of the opinion that women just take awhile to come to their senses, and the geek men just don't change at all. Women spend all those years going out "to have fun" and dance and "spend time with friends" and the all of a sudden one day that biological starts ticking louder and louder, and suddenly the hilarious well-coordinated pub-crawling metrosexuals just don't seem like the guys they're looking for anymore.
Obviously don't take this post too seriously.
And, of course, Groklaw has a summary of today's court action. Basically SCO ends up looking stupid again.
The distinction in some schools is nebulous, though. From what I've heard, at Cornell you can get either a CS BA or a CS BS. The difference being the BA is from the College of Arts while the BS is from the Engineering school and requires more natural science and calculus.
That's hurting more than any existing tariffs. While China's taking advantage of free markets, they're not playing by the rules. I'm all for free trade and I hate protectionism, but China's currency policy needs to go.
If that made any sense at all, the yellow pages of the phone book would already be regulated.
Two words: VDD pins.
Smaller die would loosely correlate to less power, with fewer power and ground pins (most of the pins on a processor). But certainly you can design a processor that sucks amps and a DRAM of the same die size that break the correlation.
To work in a bunny suit on the production floor? A high school diploma is often enough. To work in test/yield improvement? An EE degree, perhaps. To actually develop the bleeding edge processes? A PhD in physics.
There's far more to it than that, of course. And the actual chip designers could be across the parking lot or around the world.
I guess focus could certainly be a problem, but as far as wafer sized masks go, if you're creating a mask that costs many thousands of dollars, you're far less likely to have a defect in the mask if the mask is only the size needed for one die, and not the entire wafer. And since certain masks are not 1:1 masks but 2:1 or 4:1 masks, you'd might need a 1200mm mask for 4x a 300mm wafer. A 1.2 meter mask. See a problem?
Smaller dies can also mean a much cheaper package with less pins.
But as far as an article targeted at a total layperson goes, it's okay. Not that most laypeople don't quickly lose interest when you start talking about wafers, masks, reticles, photoresist, process steps. You always have to start with the broader concepts and see when their eyes glaze over:
What do you do?
I work at a place that makes computer chips
Oh really? What kinds?
All kinds. I work in the ASICS group.
ASICS? Like the sneakers?
Actually, Spirit's problems began when one of the NASA engineers created a file named "-rf" in his home directory.