Intel Redesign May Produce TeraHertz Chips

[InnovaZero]

WoW! That's amazing, quite some power!

[lildude]

yes, it is quite impressive. too bad we have to wait 'til 2005 to see stuff like that.

[muaddib]

Why does the industry still refuse to go to a 64 bit architecture. If Intel and Microsoft would get together and decide to support 64 bit, that would increase capability, well by 2 to the 32. No matter how fast the chip, still takes two cycles to push a 64 bit number through (actually longer since the instruction itself takes up some bits as it passes through) Alpha, Sparc, and SGi have been doing this for a while. WHY DOES INTEL RESIST.

[lildude]

intel resists becuz they probly don't want to change their chip architechture. after years of having 32-bit chips, a change to 64 would be a BIG undertaking to say the least.

[zergboy5]

Intel is developing 64 bit chips with it's itanium chip. This chip is a complete departure from the old x86 architecture of it's current 32bit chips. The Itanium is curently selling for high-end servers and workstations now. There is even a 64bit version of windows xp avalible for it.

[lildude]

true, true. i stand corrected. intel is producing 64-bit chips. however, when r they gonna make a chip that is 64-bit and aimed at mainstream desktop and laptop users?

[broKen_ImpuLse]

risc based processors still 0wn cisc based processors. however, at some point in time moore's law will not be correct simply b/c of the laws of physics.

[philsykes]

Itel rezistz because they cant make Itanium work. They got alpha so they had some engineers who could do the job right, and they still cant get it going - just ask Compaq about the server fcukup!

Of course, they've had to develop this to match AMD's performance.... who needs 64bit when you can have dual XP1900's!

[muaddib]

I have dual Athlon 1800 MPs, but I still would rather have Quad Alphas.... that would be cool.... but there just isn't the software support for it, once Intel goes 64 bit the industry will follow. Think if the graphics you could pump out with that!

Quad Alphas....mmmmmm (Homer Simpson voice)

As to Itanium, they have the binary translation software for all the MS apps since all Microsoft only writes in 64 for the OS and then pumps the apps through a 32bit binary translation program (Like Alpha did) IT KILLS PERFORMANCE. Until there is some coordination between the chip makers and the software writers, the move to 64 bit for everyday users will be far off....but I still hope.

[zergboy5]

don't forget AMD's hammer chip. Full 64bit preformance with blazing 32bit preformance and compatabilaty.

[KOOL.G]

This is correct zergboy......you took the words right out of my mouth

[skywalkerjen]

I'm unsure - how a chip speed is measured:
If each transistor can switch off 1 trillion times a second does that mean the chip will run at multi-terrahertz? All the transistors running at that speed?

Or is the chip speed as fast as a single transistor?

[Bellbus]

And the average home user would use a Terrahertz processor, how?

I seriously doubt half the home buyers that don't play games are even putting any real stress on a Gigahertz processor.

[ballen]

Bellbus, have you ever compressed video? I get tired waiting for a DVD to compress down to a DiVX file, and I have a 1GHz bumped up to 1.2GHz.

Also remeber what Bill Gates said a few years back....

"Who will ever need more than 640K RAM?"

[SEALTEAMTHREE]

All Intel is concerned with is clockspeed. If they could produce a 10 GHz chip that preformed like a 1 GHz PIII, they'd probably do it because they would advertise it as the fastest chip ever made. Back in the old days of the 386's, Intel was the exact opposite; they made CPU's that were slower in clock speed but had far more throughput than AMD or Cyrix's 386's. Today, the situation is reversed; Intel is chasing the clockspeed while AMD (their only seroius competition) continues to slam them by making chips that crunch more data per clock cycle through better chip architecture, and therefore they preform the same as an Intel chip that is 100's of MHz faster. Besides which, a THz CPU will produce more heat than a standard HSF will be able to remove, and watercooling will become a requirement. How many non-preformance users (regular people) will be willing to put water into an expensive electronic appliance?