This was written in 2008 and so I'm surprised there's no mention of Patterson's power wall argument. Multi core wasn't some great idea. They were forced to do

This was written in 2008 and so I'm surprised there's no mention of Patterson's power wall argument. Multi core wasn't some great idea. They were forced to do it. Intel hit the power wall first and then went multicore. But around 2003, chipmakers found they could no longer reduce the operating voltage as sharply as they had in the past as they strived to make transistors smaller and faster. That in turn caused the amount of waste heat that had to be dissipated from each square milli­meter of silicon to go up. Eventually designers hit what they call the power wall, the limit on the amount of power a microprocessor chip could reasonably dissipate. After all, a laptop that burned your lap would be a tough sell. --David Patterson. A few power wall cites: https://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/bears/presentations/06/Patterson.ppt https://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/bears/presentations/06/Patter... http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/the-trouble-with-multicore http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/the-trouble-with... http://www.edwardbosworth.com/My5155_Slides/Chapter01/ThePowerWall.pdf http://www.edwardbosworth.com/My5155_Slides/Chapter01/ThePow... This article strikes me as revisionist history.