[rescue] Perverse Question

[Frank Van Damme]

On Monday 16 June 2003 00:09, Dave McGuire wrote:

>    Are you serious?  Motherboards are actually breaking due to the
> weight of the heatsinks?  I didn't know that.  That's frightening.

Something new to add to your "why x86 sucks" list :-)

What do you expect? A mobo is maybe 2 mm thick or so, there are heatsinks of
450 grammes and more. Lift them ( think lan-party), put them down too
roughly, after a while there's a chance little cracks will appear.

>    I've seen HP9000 (PA-RISC) heat sinks that were a two-hand lift.
> THEY didn't break their boards.  Maybe the PC industry needs to learn
> something about systems design.

I rather suspect HP counters mass with mass :-)

>    Hmm, maybe that's what I've been saying all along! ;)

Yeah, maybe :p

> > Isn't it actually just a problem of mass? The bigger the chip the more
> > power
> > it draws... make it smaller, make it cooler... or am I talking out of
> > my neck
> > again? :)
>
>    That's the biggest problem.  To get more density, you need smaller
> wires, and the wires are now so small they can barely carry the
> [miniscule] current.  Further, it's very difficult to get the heat out
> of the chip as fast as it's being produced.  They keep lowering core
> voltages, but there needs to be *some* discernible difference (meaning
> wide enough to get past the noise) so that's nearing the end of the
> rope as well.



>    The poor (and *ancient*...people say VAX is old?  It's newer than
> x86!) architecture has backed them into a very dark corner in which the
> only performance gains can be had by increasing the clock rate...which
> is nearing the end of its rope.

Hehe... that's funny :)

>    Thermal migration of materials (diffusion) within the chip is also an
> issue, but PC hardware isn't [generally] designed for longevity so
> that's not really a big deal.

If you want longevity, get an ss2. They'll survive the next 2 or 3 world wars
:-)

--
Frank Van Damme    http://www.openstandaarden.be
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Je pense, donc je suis breveti."