[rescue] This Just In: HP to buy Compaq

[Greg A. Woods]

[ On Saturday, September 15, 2001 at 18:05:05 (-0400), Kurt Huhn wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: [rescue] This Just In: HP to buy Compaq
>
> Well, performance-wise, they're not as great as some of the chips out these
> days.  However, the PPro is still an excellent and *very* viable chip for
> all sorts of CPU intensive stuff.  You won't get *incredible* performance,
> but you will get *solid* and *consistent* performance.

The technical reasons are simply because the PPro has its cache in the
same package and as a result runs at the same speed; and because, as has
already been mentioned, it's the first of the Intel iAPX86 line with the
P6 core.

> They run relatively cool (as far as intel processors go), don't require
> strange cooling fans (a heatsink and some measure of airflow through the
> case is usually fine),

That's not true at all.  Indeed the PPro was one of the first Intel
processors that really does require a fan.  Any model running at 200MHz
or more, particularly with more cache but even with just 256kb, is in
dire need of at least a honkin' big heat sink, and probably a fan too.

In fact I will not even try to power up a PPro without at least the heat
sink firmly attached.

Just look at the power requirements.  Even the little 150MHz/256kb
version draws nearly 30W of power.  That's certainly less than a
similar-powered DEC Alpha (my multia's CPU pulls 75W), but according to
Intel's own specifications (if I understand them correctly) you need at
least a 0.5" heat sink and a small fan providing 400 LFM airflow under
normal conditions.  (Why Intel engineers insist on being so obtuse with
their thermal specs, I'll never know.)

The one difference is that they generally run with a lower core voltage,
so can often go a lot faster than any similar chip running at a full 5v
without consuming quite so much current and thus generating quite so
much heat.

> they usually have a good amount of on-chip cache
> memory, the cache runs at core speed,

It's still much harder to find a 512kb PPro, and 1mb ones are very rare,
and they're still quite expensive, relatively speaking.  The 256kb
versions are common, but not all that terrific in CPU-intensive
single-tasking jobs, at least not unless the code has been explicitly
tuned to fit in 256kb.

-- 
							Greg A. Woods

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