The Return of Intel's Pentium MMX

[beerzombie]

[citation][nom]kami3k[/nom]If what the guy said about flops is true then it already has failed. Later on this year Nvidia is planning on releasing yet another set of cards, so even more power. Wonder how much Intel paid Dreamworks to use this crap. I'm sure Nvidia's GTX 260 with CUDA would of been more then enough.[/citation]
Kami3k, there is a crucial difference between flops and performance. Efficiency is a large part of the equation, as is being able to suitibly saturate the processor. It's kind of like comparing Ghz to Ghz, it's just not a proper metric.

 

[beerzombie]

In addendum, we just don't know how they're going to measure up until they are released, and it's certainly too soon for anyone to say it's the new sliced bread or that it's already dead. If anything the only thing we can say is that it's bringing some fresh blood into the marketspace, and if that just means it lights a fire under the red and green teams, and they squash the blue, great, but if that means the blue team becomes a contender, all the better.

 

[ZootyGray]

AMD's 4800 vid cards are already doing this thru their use of parallel stream processors. I don't know. That is what I see. My view is based on Anandtech's review of 48xx - they have these nice diagrams showing a series of stream processors - and it is indicated that the number of them will probably increase in future. In my semi-literate words, it's like bandwidth on demand. This is the major diff between what AMD and nvidiot are doing - and probably why AMD is tearing them off their laurels.

I really appreciate what "I Overclocked Myself" is saying - and I have been seeing through ntel and nvidiot for years.

My view for future potential goes to AMD also. Think this: AMD is a cpu maker. AMD is a gpu maker. Combine the two and you get the potential to create quad-gpu, quad-cpu - and where does it go after that. Quad to the 4th power? That's a number= 256. I only see this as potential! And just a few bugs to work out to get there (O yeh) - but we are talking StarTrek potential -
"Computer, run Crysis and toy with all opponents using algorithm omega-alpha; let them think they are winning then crush them like bugs, in the final minutes."

Thx to iocedmyself for the waltz in tekky terms - I just feel the concepts, can talk some of it. But what I am trying to say here, was simply and naturally revealed as I read the anand article on 48xx.

What ntel is trying to piece together - so the marketing machine can make you want it (!) - has already been done better!!!! The marketing hype has been abusing people for years - I spose that's biznez. The trickle of supposedly wow technology - and nvidiot has been trickling for years too. We have been fed crumbs; very expensive crumbs.

 

[joefriday]

I'm not sure where you guys got your facts, but the P5C core, aka Pentium MMX, was launched January 1997. The only things out in 1995 were your regular old Pentiums. Also, to the people in here talking about a 75MHz MMX Pentium, there was no such thing. Slowest MMX was at 166MHz.

 

[beerzombie]

[citation]Combine the two and you get the potential to create quad-gpu, quad-cpu - and where does it go after that. Quad to the 4th power? That's a number= 256.[/citation]
... Really? I'd expect a better understand of how this hardware works out of a TH reader, you're just taking numbers and multiplying them and you're somehow impressed by it?

Every one of these companies involved (and even some not mentioned... IBM being a big one) are poised for the next generational step. This seems to be focused on increasing parallel processing capability along with maintaining branch performance. Both of these processes rely on processor saturation, that is having the data and instructions ready for the processors when they are free, having a million core machine calculate the fibonacci series would be a waste.

I think the problem is that people without good understanding of the technology (and I'm by no means saying I'm an expert) are making wild postulations based on marketting material (Flops, Ghz, SPs).

 

[antilycus]

Until you get some CPU controller to control the 32 cores, you are still stuck with one process per cycle. a million cores wont change that. You still have to wait for core1 to finish before core2 can do its job. I think this is just clever marketing to try and boost stock price. Compilers write to the cpu, they dotn write to individual cores. Thats why the cell (and I am not a huge fan of the cell) has an SPE controller. to control the other cores/cpu requests.

 

[jimmysmitty]

IOCEDMYself, you really are a fanboy aren't ya?

And joefriday, I apologize but I mixed that one up with my Pentium I have as well. I alos have a Pentium Pro, a 386, a 486 and a Cyrix 486DXS and numerous Pentium IIs and so on. I need to look at my Pentium w/MMX to see what speed it is at.

Oh and to let you know, one guy calculated it having a thoroghput of about 2 TFlops. Thats just an estimate.

Antilycus, did you not see Intels Terascale? 80 core CPU that easily did the same job as 130 CPUs in less time and ran at 2.5GHz each only consuming 62w. I think that that shows Intel knows what it is doing with 32 cores.

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]jimmysmitty[/nom]I have a old Pentium w/MMX sitting on my desk. Its a reminder of where we used to be (75 whole MHz YAY!!!!)[/citation]

I'm a champion for the truth, so even though your comment appears inocuous I'd just like to point out to anyone who cares that it's a fib. There were no 75 MHz Pentium MMX processors.

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]klarkmdb[/nom]Pentium MMX 75mhz, i had that before until i sold it to a student who wants to use if for school and study (of course in our place). Imagine that until now it's working and running! with a windows 98! We're nearing the age where technology posted on fictional movies are coming to life![/citation]

Wow, you have an interesting imagination. Unfortunately I've had to deal with people like you. People who make up perfect sounding stories with holes in them, whos stories sound so perfect that those who don't know any better feel compeled to believe them. The problem is, I had to deal with them in a legal capacity. Fortunately, most of them are dead now. Unfortunately, most of the ones who still live are lawyers.