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2005 May 09

Dual-core CPU Duels

Via Scott M. Fulton, III, through Jeff's pointer to Dueling Multicores- Intel and AMD Fight For the Future (Hardware):

Thanks for bringing attention to the dual-core article on Tom's Hardware Guide. You wanted to know why I didn't take apart Pat Gelsinger's comment about multiplying performance by a factor of 10 over 4 years. The reason is because any attempt to do so on my part might be construed as opinion, and I didn't want the reader's own opinion on this topic (yours) to become obstructed.
You think it's a vague formula? It may very well be because it _is_ vague. A lot has to happen in order to enable a ten-tupling of performance. Both Longhorn and future Linux must evolve substantially; otherwise, application performance could conceivably _decrease_ with the addition of new processing cores beyond the second one. The multithreading scheme of choice must evolve; in the update to the article, Intel finally admits that hyperthreading will evolve, and that's a significant statement on their part. But Gelsinger did manage to set a very high bar without detailing how that bar can be reached, especially with the performance curve not increasing along with Moore's Law. A lot of this absence of detail is self-evident…and you caught right onto it.
Again, my thanks for providing Lockergnome with a link, and I hope you'll stay tuned to Tom's for more news that Lockergnome can share.

Maybe a few weeks before Longhorn gets released, I'll update my primary system with all the latest bells and whistles.

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Dealing with Death

As Ponzi had noted a few days ago, her family has recently experienced a great loss. She's been helping her loved ones through this tough time, and has decided to stay with them a few days longer. She's run herself ragged, and I can hear it in her hoarse voice. The puppies and I miss having her here, but we understand that she has a lot of love to share. On Wednesday morning, she'll have returned to Seattle. Maybe I'll go with her when she heads back home to North Carolina after Gnomedex – with a layover in Des Moines? We'll see. I haven't met the greater part of her “Southern” family yet, and we both thought that this week would have been the wrong time to go.
As a child, the first deaths I ever had to deal with happened in the same year; my mother's grandmother passed away (if I remember correctly) in 1982, as did my father's father. I realize that death is a necessary part of life, but that doesn't make it any easier to face. May I have the strength of Ponzi when I have to face it again. My sincerest condolences to her father for losing his loving wife, and to her sister and brothers for losing their loving mother.

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