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I'd hazard to venture that modern microprocessor improvements "seem" less for two reasons. 1) A lot of the "a ha" magic really has been figured out in micropro
by ethbro 8y ago
I'd hazard to venture that modern microprocessor improvements "seem" less for two reasons.
1) A lot of the "a ha" magic really has been figured out in microprocessor arch (e.g. pipelining, superscalar, multi-level caching).
Previously, we were reaping the benefits of process shrinks AND microarch epiphanies. Now, only a slower former and less powerful versions of the latter (e.g. branch predictor tweaks).
2) We're discounting the "performance" that has instead been allocated to power. Up until the P4, we had the benefit of just saying "more power!" in pursuit of performance.
Now, not only do we have a power budget to stay within, but we're actively trying to decrease power draw for the same workload in mobile parts.
So instead of getting something twice as fast, we get something that has battery twice is long (or however the math works out).
- Sohcahtoa82 8y ago> So instead of getting something twice as fast, we get something that has battery twice is long (or however the math works out). We've essentially changed the metric of performance from "calculations per second" to "calculations per watt", which can be useful for mobile (battery life) and data centers (reducing heat and the need for massive air conditioners, plus the electric bill), but less useful for gamers that often need more single-core performance.