
How to Make Multicore Chips Faster, More Efficient - jonbaer
http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/semiconductors/design/how-to-make-multicore-chips-faster-more-efficient
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pjmic
This just reminds me a bit of how programmers could fiddle with memory in the
Cell Processor for the PS3. IIRC memory was managed by the programmer and it
only made it harder to program for.

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Kurtz79
On the other hand, once they learned to program it, the benefits were
apparent.

The PS3 aged more gracefully than the X360, with programmers being able to
squeeze more performace over time as they came to terms with the architecture
(the same had happened with most consoles historically).

I feel that this won't happen with the current generation, since both PS4 nad
XBONE are basically PCs in a box, and improvement in graphics will probably be
much more limited over the years (due to programmers having a good grasp of
the architecture from day one, and not because the architecture is inherently
bad).

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theandrewbailey
I wager that the PS4 and XBONE will benefit PCs more than previous consoles
benefited PCs, specifically because they are slightly slower 8 core CPUs. Most
games these days are optimized for quad cores at best, so to get more
performance, additional threading is required. Due to everything being x86 and
the prevalence of widely used game engines, everyone's performance goes up.
Personally, I would like better AI.

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runewell
I feel like we are unfortunately sitting on the tail end of the integrated
circuit S-curve and are now waiting for the emergence of the next processing
medium.

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wbsun
Actually I think both the processing capability and communication capability
are almost reaching their limits regarding the sequential performance, I bet
that's why multicore and bandwidth are what producers advocate, and also
people are working hard to utilize the parallelism. Missing the good old days
when 'faster' truly meant the sequential performance for CPU and latency for
networking, and you could always get 'faster' by simply increasing the
frequency...

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Gurkenmaster
I'm still waiting for a proper 8 core consumer x86 CPU. AMD's chips don't
count because they perform worse than the ones from intel.

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Roritharr
What is the consumer application for an 8 core CPU?

I can't think of one, as of 2015, that i'd not call a commercial application.

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DanWaterworth
You're only saying that because most programs are incapable of taking
advantage of multiple cores, but if 8 core CPUs were the norm, I guarantee
programs (where performance matters) would change.

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Kurtz79
If 4 cores are the norm now, and most programs cannot take advantage of them,
what it the rationale for which things would change in the case of 8 cores ?

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DanWaterworth
4 cores aren't quite the norm. The computer I'm currently at is a Dell XPS 13,
the CPU is an i7-4510U, which is dual core. Regardless, in most circumstances,
4 cores are only just above break even point for parallel code, so the pay off
isn't big enough.

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shaurz
I've thought for a while that the hardware should manage threads and
scheduling, not the operating system.

