Computer CPUs

See also:

• computer motherboards
• computer building main page.

CPUs:

• 2010-Apr-11: Intel has constructed a single chip with 48 processors on it, this is going to be made available to universities for research purposes. [9073]
• 2010-Mar-09: Slashdot discusses the difficulty of selecting CPUs and GPUs due to the strange naming and numbering systems that are used these days. For comparison purposes the site: CPUBenchmark.net has a number of good performance charts that span a wide range of CPUs, as well the companion site VideoCardBenchmark.net compares GPUs. [9001]
• 2010-Jan-16: A presentation from the JVM Languages Summit 2009 that talks about how modern CPUs function. [8926]
• 2009-Sep-01: How many cores will our CPUs get in the future, and why don't we already have 1024 core based machines. This article blames the lack of applications that can use multiple cores. [8441]
• 2009-May-08: Not all of Intel's modern CPUs have support for VT virtualization mode, though it appears that most of AMD's CPUs do. This could be of particular annoyance to users of Windows 7 that want to use the XP mode. Discussed here on Slashdot. [7951] [1]
• 2009-Mar-06: NVidia has built a set of single-chip computer system devices it calls the Tegra processors, these are based on an ARM processor core integrated with all necessary additional support circuits. One logical application of these would be to the netbook market allowing the production of lower cost, smaller and most significantly, low power consumption devices. [7692] [1]
• 2008-Dec-16: Slashdot discusses an ExtremeTech article which presents a performance study of Intel's current crop of quad processor CPUs (including the old Q6600 and the newest Core i7 chips). Looks like about 30% is the improvement you could get by spending 2 to 3 times as much as the $200 a Q6600 goes for. And if you are looking for faster video transcoding its probably still better to wait for a good GPU implementation to appear. [7354]
• 2008-Aug-17: The AMD Athlon 64 2000+ appears to outperform the Intel Atom and consumes less power. This also has the advantage that it can be run on any AM2 or AM2+ socket motherboard. It also appears that the AMD solution may have a more efficient supporting chip set, giving it a significantly lower system power consumption (not to mention more features). The Celeron 220 is apparently about 29% faster than the Atom, which also makes it faster than the 2000+ chip - but it consumes more power. [6697]
• 2008-Jul-20: Slashdot discusses liquid metal based CPU heat sinks which will probably be the next fad in CPU cooling. Perhaps these are using alloys based on gallium, some of which melt near room temperature. Bismuth and indium can also be used in these low melting point alloys. [6549]
• 2008-May-21: Intel's Atom processor may not be offering a big performance boost to the low-power market. [6204]
• 2008-May-01: The Tile64, a 64 processor CPU appeared in 2008, along with a PCIExpress development board and a Linux-based development kit. They claim one of these chips can outperform a dual-core Xeon by a factor of 10. Might be just the thing for some fast ray tracing. Though with the development cards hosting a pair of 10Gbit ethernet ports the initial applications are probably going to be in the internet packet sniffing and routing fields. [6012]
• 2008-Feb-05: While not a CPU, the Curta was probably the first hand-held calculating devices capable of long multiplication. It was also a pretty neat device that had a wonderful feeling to it, rather like using a Nikon F1. [5047]
• 2007-Dec-28: The AMD Phenom is supposed to be compatible with AM2 motherboards (perhaps after a BIOS upgrade) but Tom's Hardware tested 10 boards and found this to be true of only 2. [4530]
• 2007-Oct-09: AMD has introduced some new 45-watt processors, which would be useful in lower power appliance (i.e. such as DVR) computers that don't need super-fast processors but do get a lot of run time. [3046]
• In Sept'07 Toshiba announced their SpurEngine video processing chip, this is based on the Sony Cell processor technology used in the PS3, it looks like they are going to integrate this into some of their future laptops to give them a boost in the video editing (trans-coding) department. This could be a significant advancement, I wonder if anyone is going to make a PCI card to allow a video processing accelerator to be plugged into existing systems. This could also help with power consumption, as its possible that one of these chips could consume less energy that a general purpose CPU to do the same overall task, which would be good for laptops. LeadTek's HPVC1100 puts a SpursEngine in a small external enclosure for connection to a laptop (or perhaps some other computer). [2796]
• In Aug'07 Tilera announced their new 64 core processor the TILE64. While this is a RISC chip (rather than an x86 processor) it may make its way to the desktop by some Linux variant. [2795]
• In Feb'07 AMD showed their new Barcelona quad-core CPU, the unique thing about this is that each core also has a vector math processor. [2794]
• The Kentsfield CPU from Intel will contain 4 cores on a single chip and ship in Nov'06, this will run in existing 775 socket motherboards and looks like it will bring quad-CPU functionality to the desktop. Here is a preview of the performance that can be expected. The Core 2 Quad got launched in early Jan'07. [2793]
• Overclocking has returned as some of the current (June'06) generation of CPUs can be clocked at up to 4GHz [2792]
• In Jun'06 Intel started showing their new Conroe CPU, this looks like it could bring a 10-25% increase in performance [2791]
• in Jun'06 AMD announced their 4x4 chips, which really will be dual processor, dual core motherboards - so a 4 CPU "consumer" workstation will soon be possible. These are being targeted at gamers as they will support a pair of dual GPU graphics cards (for 4 times the rendering power). I wonder what size of power supply you'll need to run a high end system? [2790]
• Intel's hyperthreading system may actually reduce the performance of heavily threaded applications [2789]
• A thermosyphon based CPU cooling system. [2788]
• Overclocking the Athlon 64 [2787]
• Benchmarking Intel's new (Mar'05) 64-bit Pentium 6xx chip [2786]
• Later in 2005 we should see the first dual-core processors from AMD [2785]
• This article (Jan'05) discusses Sony's new "Cell" architecture, which may be a strong competitor to x86 chips some day. [2784]
• THG compares the performance of all Pentium-style CPUs [2783]
• In Oct'04 VIA announced plans to get into the 64bit processor race. Plus their first dual processor VIA chip motherboard. [2782]
• And it looks (Sept'04) that the end is in sight for the Itanium, maybe it'll die out before HP stops making the Alpha chip, now that would be fitting. [2781]
• The end of the road has been announced for the DEC Alpha processor [2780]
• New roadmaps (Aug 2004) for both Intel and AMD are discussed [2779]
• AMD and Intel are both planning to introduce dual-CPU on a chip processors in 2005. I love working on dual processor boxes, so this should make quad processor boxes affordable... [2778]
• Building a quiet gaming system, discussed on Slashdot, this used an Antec Sonata II case and lined it with a pre-cut acoustic foam solution from AcoustiPack. AcoustiPack also makes quiet rack mount cases. [2777]
• More on eliminating fan noise [2776]
• An article on reducing PC noise discussed on Slashdot [2775]
• Cancelling out CPU fan noise [2774]
• In case you are confused by Intel's recent entry against AMD's 64 bit processor, it appears that Intel has finally copied what AMD did, so the two processors will be able to run the same software. [2773]
• Tom's Hardware has a comparative CPU performance review that spans the 100MHz to 3GHz CPU era [2772]
• Information on the AMD hammer/opteron chips [2771]
• Here is an integrated computer-on-a-chip, including CPU, memory and ethernet interface, designed to power appliances [2770]
• Low noise cooling fans for the high speed Athlon chips [2769]
• PowerLeap makes some socket adapters that can allow you to use a newer generation processor chip on an older generation motherboard. They now have a Canadian site, so shipping should be easier. [2768]
• Newisys is making a 1U server based on AMD's Opteron chips [2767]
• How does the VIA C3 (socket 370 compatible) chip stack up against the Celeron and Duron? Apparently not very well. [2766]
• For comparing different computer architectures the SPECmark is quite useful, its also helpful for comparing old systems to new systems. [2765]
• Oct'01: AMD has released multi-processor versions of their new 1800+ Athlon, this review compares it to the original 1200MHz version. And is there any real difference between the Athlon and Athlon-MP chips? [2764]
• now that the 2GHz Pentium 4 is out Intel seems to have regained the lead over AMD, according to this article at least. Where the Athlon 1.4GHz seems to be lagging the most is in CODEC type applications, which this article talks about a lot. [2763]
• Here is a 1U high RACK mount server based on the Tyan Dual Athlon motherboard for high density rack mount applications (you can fit up to 42 of these in a single standard rack). [2762]
• Performance info on AMD's Opteron (19-Oct-02) [2761]
• comparision of Dual Xeon and Dual Athlon CPU systems under Linux [2760]
• more on the current Intel and AMD processor road maps (4-July-01) [2759]
• Smart Fans from ANTEC include thermal sensors and vary their speed appropriatly. [2758]
• A large review of the various after-market CPU cooling fans that are available [2757]
• Xeon roadmap into 2002, up to 2.4GHz. And more life yet for Celeron and Pentium III. An early review of a dual processor Pentium IV Xeon motherboard. This is all Intel is currently saying. [2756]
• This review shows how the Athlon, P3, P4 and Itanium compare. [2755]