[rescue] Compaq Proliant 8000

[Dave McGuire]

On Apr 29, 2004, at 3:31 PM, Andrew Weiss wrote:
>>   The PC design was started in the late 70s but it shipped in 1981.
>>
> And unfortunately for you it's probably going to survive a whole lot 
> longer.

   It's not unfortunate for me.  I'm smart enough not to use them. :)

> Witness the low power consumption and redesign with the Pentium M core 
> in Israel.  They finally managed to do a bit of PowerPC style magic 
> (low Wattage, high Megahertz) by redesigning most of the chip. Bye bye 
> up against the wall 3.6Ghz Prescott... hello more x86 ISA Pentium M 
> chips.
>
> Maybe x86-64 extensions on a Xeon M core will slowly morph into 
> something that kills IA-32 enough for satisfaction, but I don't know.

   IA-32 is a self-limiting thing.  As I've pointed out elsewhere, 
they've already long past the point (with the P4) where they have to 
remove functionality to increase the clock rate.  Now they're 
backpedalling on the whole "clock speed is everything" marketing push 
(which created the "megahertz myth") by removing the clock speed 
designations from their processors' names.  The brick wall of physics 
that will prevent them from making smaller transistors and staving off 
thermal buildup will stop that ancient design in its tracks.

   It's only a matter of time.

          -Dave

--
Dave McGuire          "PC users only know two 'solutions'...
Cape Coral, FL          reboot and upgrade."    -Jonathan Patschke