No... This is just a case of paranoia. Someone who has less than charitable thoughts about Intel takes practically routine patch and spread it about like its the new Pentium float bug (which was a croak in itself). Now their is blood in the water and slashdot is running for the hills while frantically crafting tin foil hats. In reality, can anyone produce a single instance of an exploited machine, much less an actual attack? It is funny how motivated people become by some distant threat they don't understand made "real" by a demagogue or a politician. Beware those who tell you to be afraid, for in their heart they deem themselves your master.
You are refering to the drift velocity, which is exactly that, the speed of the drift. The electrons are still traveling near the speed of light, they are just moving in all directions. The net drift is, as you say, very slow. Sorry if I was unclear on that. However, none of that changes the fact that the propogation of the signal is not limited by the speed of light, but by the RC delay.
Actually the speed of light has very little to do with it. It is true that the individual electron's travel near the speed of light, but the actual signal is limited by the RC delay. The speed of light is just the therotical maximun, but on silicon it is never truely approached. However wire delay, while notable, isn't the bottle neck. Just like others stated, the real bottle neck is the speed of the components. Making more transistors isn't going to speed up the chip, it will just add more functionality. Making FASTER transistors that drive smaller loads is what speeds things up.
Slashdot Mirror
No... This is just a case of paranoia. Someone who has less than charitable thoughts about Intel takes practically routine patch and spread it about like its the new Pentium float bug (which was a croak in itself). Now their is blood in the water and slashdot is running for the hills while frantically crafting tin foil hats. In reality, can anyone produce a single instance of an exploited machine, much less an actual attack? It is funny how motivated people become by some distant threat they don't understand made "real" by a demagogue or a politician. Beware those who tell you to be afraid, for in their heart they deem themselves your master.
You are refering to the drift velocity, which is exactly that, the speed of the drift. The electrons are still traveling near the speed of light, they are just moving in all directions. The net drift is, as you say, very slow. Sorry if I was unclear on that. However, none of that changes the fact that the propogation of the signal is not limited by the speed of light, but by the RC delay.
Actually the speed of light has very little to do with it. It is true that the individual electron's travel near the speed of light, but the actual signal is limited by the RC delay. The speed of light is just the therotical maximun, but on silicon it is never truely approached. However wire delay, while notable, isn't the bottle neck. Just like others stated, the real bottle neck is the speed of the components. Making more transistors isn't going to speed up the chip, it will just add more functionality. Making FASTER transistors that drive smaller loads is what speeds things up.
Studies showing correlations between violent video games and hostility:
0 1.pdf
t _storage_01/0000000b/80/0d/ba/44.pdf
A nderson%202002.pdf
One by the University of Oklahoma Medical School:
http://www.lionlamb.org/research_articles/study%2
One by the University of Minnesota Institute of Child Development:
http://eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2/conten
Here is an interesting study that challenges the correlation vs. causation argument. It basically states violent video games induce violent tendencies (not necessarily behavior).
http://bama.ua.edu/~sprentic/672%20Bushman%20&%20