CPU stuff

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by zxspectrum, May 30, 2007.

  1. zxspectrum

    zxspectrum Terabyte Poster Forum Leader Gold Member

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    OK ill try and be as detailed as i can on this

    A friend of mine has an intel dual core processor, running at 1.68 ghz etc. He says the amd equivalent is 6300 ??, and also claims that his processoer , is running at 6300 mhz , which i fiond hard to believe. Another thiing he claims it that because his processor is 1.68 x2 then the processor itself runs at 3.2 ghz.

    I dont think that his is true, i just think that they both run at 1.6 at the best of times with added improvement due to the fact that two processors are better than one. That would be like saying i have a set of speaker that are 50w and another that are 50w, this in turn wont give me 100 watts in total will it.

    He also claimed that it was because of the architecture of the processors which is why he could get these so called speeds. I pointed out the amd equivalent, 6300 is just a model numer etc.

    Can anyone shed any info on this

    Eddie
     
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  2. Tinus1959

    Tinus1959 Gigabyte Poster

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    Well, I think the best way to find an answer is to go to Intel:
    http://www.intel.com/products/processor/core2duo/index.htm
     
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  3. Modey

    Modey Terabyte Poster

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    The quick answer is that your friend is talking complete nonsense.

    The current set of AMD and Intel dual core processors are not directly comparible really. You can only properly compare chips based on the same architecture.

    That said, the current Core2Duo design is a very efficient one from a processing power and also power consumption point of view.

    My laptop has the 2.0ghz C2D chip in it, but I don't for a second consider it to be running at 4Ghz. It's got 2 cores and each one is running at 2Ghz.
     
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  4. dmarsh
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    dmarsh Petabyte Poster

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    As far as i know no x86 processors currently operate above 3.2 GHz, there maybe some overclocking. 6 GHz sounds very improbable for a complex desktop PC processor.

    The main thing to affect processor speed is heat, a high clock speed will generate alot of heat and melt the processor. Temperature affects the properties of semiconductors making them somewhat random or just conductors ! ;)

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiconductor

    This is a good book on physics behind computation :-
    http://www.amazon.com/Feynman-Lectures-Computation-Richard-Phillips/dp/0738202967

    Processor speed is basically work done over time, this can be thought of as instructions over time. You can look at benchmarks see www.tomshardware.com, benchmarks also have their issues. The clock speed will affect this as typically instructions take a number of cycles to complete, however there are other variables.

    The other main factor is architecture of the computer and processor. Read up on superscalar architecture. There are many subsystems like CPU, hard disk, IO processors, memory bus, cache, GPU etc or ALU, FPU, pipeline etc in case of processor.
    The various subsystems in both cases can vary in performance and latency. This is why we have pipelines and caches, which of course can be empty, flushed or suffer cache misses.

    This was reccomended reading when I was at uni :-
    http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Architecture-Quantitative-Approach-Kaufmann/dp/1558605967
    Its a pretty dry read however....

    The processor is a parallel design, speedup is generally not linear for most algorithms so 2 cores != 2x faster. Programs with multiple processes or threads will benefit most.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_computing
    http://cache-www.intel.com/cd/00/00/20/57/205707_205707.pdf

    Its quite refreshing that at last multi processor systems are affordable for the desktop, I envisioned this as a student in 1990...
    (Theres been a few desktop transputers released but they never really took off.)
     
  5. noelg24

    noelg24 Terabyte Poster

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    Right first off, AMD dont have a CPU model number of 6300 the highest in the 6K range is just that: 6000 for the AM2 X2 CPUs which run at 3.00GHz...so yeah he is talking out of his a$$ and should stick to his day job (dread to think what that is if he is so clued up on his CPUs lol) Intel and the Core Duo cannot be compared to AMD and the same said for the Core 2 Duo (these are quad core chips by the way)

    My AMD 4400 939 is overclocked from 2.2GHz to 2.4GHz but it dont mean I have a total speed of 4.8GHz just cos its dual core...so if he thinks he knows about CPUs he should read up on them first before blabbing his mouth like.

    Sorry for being a bit tense but I hate when so-called techhies think they know computers and they havent a clue what they are on about...does he work at PC World by any chance?
     
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  6. dmarsh
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    dmarsh Petabyte Poster

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    Not wishing to split hairs but he didn't say if it was Core 1 Duo or Core 2 Duo so not possible to know exact processor arch.

    He also said it was 'AMD equivalent' 6300, therefore hes not refering to an AMD processor just AMD's own marketing number scheme which we have already mentioned is largely irrelevant as both Intel and AMD will use whatever tricks/benchmarks they like to generate a funny number....
     
  7. stuPeas

    stuPeas Megabyte Poster

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    LOL. Thats Classic Mate. By the sounds of it, he knows tooo much to work there.
     
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  8. BosonMichael
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    BosonMichael Yottabyte Poster

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    3.73 GHz Intel Pentium 965 Extreme Edition

    There's also a similarly-clocked dual-core Xeon processor.
     
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  9. Modey

    Modey Terabyte Poster

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    Sorry mate, but you are wrong there. Core 2 Duo does not denote Quad Core at all.

    There are quad core chips available from Intel, namely the (Intel® Core™2 Extreme quad-core processor). And also Quad core Xeon's (we have a couple of these at work).

    Have a look here
     
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  10. noelg24

    noelg24 Terabyte Poster

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    Hmm perhaps I was mistaken, but I remember when I worked at Apple and they brought out their intel based macs with the Core Duo processors and these were labelled as dual core machines and when intel released the Core 2 Duo CPUs they were known as quad core especially in their Mac Pro range (formally known as the Power Macs) but I shall look into this further...

    Ok just looked at the Apple website and the new Mac Pro's now have 8 core CPUs in them :eek: I wonder if Michael Bay used these machines to make Transformers...I wouldnt be very angry if your average Joe bought one of these and just used it for the basics!!!

    8-core Xeon CPUs...wot couldnt u do with those?

    But looks like you are right about the C2Ds...they are dual core as opposed to quad cores unless its the Extreme range...
     
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  11. zxspectrum

    zxspectrum Terabyte Poster Forum Leader Gold Member

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    Cheers for all that guys, im glad im not losing the plot here. On the other hand the lad does know some good stuff, but now hes come out with that i think ill question him even more lol.

    Thanks
    Eddie
     
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  12. Bambino1506

    Bambino1506 Megabyte Poster

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    If i'm not mistaken both Intel and AMD stopped naming their CPU's in a way that reflected clock speed years ago.

    Also its not all about clock speed, its about the number of pipelines and their efficiency and cache etc too i believe.
     
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  13. Modey

    Modey Terabyte Poster

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    If clock speed had anything to do with it the C2D chips would be pants. They are incredibly efficient per clock cycle per core which is what makes them such great chips.
     
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  14. dmarsh
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    dmarsh Petabyte Poster

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  15. dmarsh
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    dmarsh Petabyte Poster

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    Slightly off topic but this is one thing that caught my interest when i started to think about what the silicon chips in my computer actually did...

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_hardening#Major_radiation_damage_sources

    read

    Single-event upsets (SEU) and Error correcting memory, explains one of the reasons expensive servers use ECC memory.

    Yep thats right theorectically our computers could go wrong due to being hit by cosmic rays !
     
  16. BosonMichael
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    BosonMichael Yottabyte Poster

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    Yes, theoretically. I could theoretically be hit by a lightning bolt every day, but it's not gonna happen.
     
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  17. dmarsh
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    dmarsh Petabyte Poster

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    It can and does happen, people have also been hit by lightening bolts...

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_error

    fortunately both are fairly rare...

    Risks can be increased for both, thats why they say don't walk around on hills with an umbrella in a thuderstorm ! It also why they sell ECC memory and radiation hardened devices...
     
  18. Modey

    Modey Terabyte Poster

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    So what are the chances of me being hit by cosmic rays and lightning and becoming a super hero? :) (or dead)
     
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  19. Kitkatninja
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    Hi Modey, I ain't stopping you wearing your underwear over your trousers and a cape at work am I?

    -Ken
     
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  20. stuPeas

    stuPeas Megabyte Poster

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    there was a storm in stretford yesterday. the local news had a story of an 14yr old boy who was in the local park not 5mins from me. He was struck by lightening and suffered 40% burns.
    He was probably under a tree as it was lashing it down. Poor Lad.
     
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