CPU ramblings (was: Photos of you guys)

[salil_bhagurkar]

@Solar: Where are the intel manuals? Don't spoil your son..

[Solar]

@Solar: Where are the intel manuals?

On my bookshelf.

Don't spoil your son..

Well, I try to keep him away from my laptop for now, at least until he stops drooling on the touchpad.

There's a slim hope that, by the time he gets into the proper age, IA32 will be history, and something else but x86_64 ruling the market. I don't know what it should be, my hopes of the PPC making it big have been dashed, but the Intel architecture simply is no fun.

[earlz]

@Solar: Where are the intel manuals?

On my bookshelf.

Don't spoil your son..

Well, I try to keep him away from my laptop for now, at least until he stops drooling on the touchpad.

There's a slim hope that, by the time he gets into the proper age, IA32 will be history, and something else but x86_64 ruling the market. I don't know what it should be, my hopes of the PPC making it big have been dashed, but the Intel architecture simply is no fun.

Well ARM doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon, and I heard there are ARM netbooks in progress.. so maybe he can mess with that lol

OT:
Will there ever be/is there a 64bit ARM CPU?

[Solar]

Will there ever be/is there a 64bit ARM CPU?

I doubt it. About the only processor family (that I know of) that has evolved through multiple bus sizes is the x86 one. All others stick with what they've been designed to be, and leave the next iteration to new designs.

[Coty]

I think the 32-bit ARM CPU is fine, since mainly it is used in tiny system's eg: cell phones, digital cameras, etc. You don't really need 64bits for that.

[jal]

I doubt it. About the only processor family (that I know of) that has evolved through multiple bus sizes is the x86 one. All others stick with what they've been designed to be, and leave the next iteration to new designs.

MIPS has a 64-bit version as well, iirc. PowerPC has both 32 and 64-bit versions.


JAL

[earlz]

I think the 32-bit ARM CPU is fine, since mainly it is used in tiny system's eg: cell phones, digital cameras, etc. You don't really need 64bits for that.

It's fine right now, but in a year or two we may be approaching the limits of 32bit as fast as things are developing...

[Coty]

Yes, that may be true, but as I see it my phone itself seems to be using 16 bit colors and has only a few meg of RAM, Samsung is probably thinking that they wont have to add more to anything as long as people keep buying what they already have

And, ARM is saying the same thing, so we could keep using the same 32bit for years, it is all based on demand.

[jal]

It's fine right now, but in a year or two we may be approaching the limits of 32bit as fast as things are developing...

There is no approaching the 32-bit limit for said devices. Not even for a desktop OS, imho. Servers are a different beast, but ARM is not into that.


JAL

[earlz]

It's fine right now, but in a year or two we may be approaching the limits of 32bit as fast as things are developing...

There is no approaching the 32-bit limit for said devices. Not even for a desktop OS, imho. Servers are a different beast, but ARM is not into that.


JAL

ARM wasn't designed for it.. but have you looked around recently? nearly every new computer comes with 2GB.... DEFAULT! Another year and it's 4GB, the limit of true 32bit(yea there is that hack called PAE, but still) so I definitely say Desktops need 64bit, and servers have needed 64bit since the 686 came out practically..

I'm ready to see a portable gaming system that is 64bit..

[madeofstaples]

It's fine right now, but in a year or two we may be approaching the limits of 32bit as fast as things are developing...

There is no approaching the 32-bit limit for said devices. Not even for a desktop OS, imho. Servers are a different beast, but ARM is not into that.


JAL

ARM wasn't designed for it.. but have you looked around recently? nearly every new computer comes with 2GB.... DEFAULT! Another year and it's 4GB, the limit of true 32bit(yea there is that hack called PAE, but still) so I definitely say Desktops need 64bit, and servers have needed 64bit since the 686 came out practically..

I'm ready to see a portable gaming system that is 64bit..

32- or 64-bit doesn't imply width of the address lines; PAE isn't appropriately referred to as "a hack." 32-bit processors suit portable electronics well when considering restraints such as power usage.

Considering the netbook trend, that would be a reasonable place to move to 64-bit processors, but not until several other supporting technologies are developed farther themselves; e.g, the Atoms with 64-bit support are intended for desktops.

[jal]

nearly every new computer comes with 2GB.... DEFAULT! Another year and it's 4GB, the limit of true 32bit

So? The fact that RAM is so incredibly cheap that you can get 4GB without a thought doesn't mean you actually need it, right? And PAE is not a 'hack', as madeofstaples already pointed out.


JAL

[Thor]

How did a topic about Real-Life photos of the forum members turn into a discussion about RAM?

[Combuster]

Way ahead of you

[Malevol3nt]

Ed: Funny, I tried to reply but someone must of changed the topic.

Anyway..

I bought some 3 gigs of ram along with a new mobo & CPU a year ago. And you know what? I almost never use more then 1GB of ram at a given time. Now when I look back, I think I could of saved some money by buying a set of 1GB ram + some 500MB extra just in case. I'm not even pushing my CPU all that hard either, it's an AMD x2 5600 (2.8Ghz) and it still hasn't let me down with any new apps or games.