5 ms·

> I'm still a bit sad that the era of "general purpose computing" where CPU can do all workloads is coming to an end. You'd have to be extremely old to remembe

> I'm still a bit sad that the era of "general purpose computing" where CPU can do all workloads is coming to an end. You'd have to be extremely old to remember that era. Lots of stuff important to making computers work got split off into separate chips away from the CPU pretty early into mass computing, such as sound, graphics, and networking. We've also been sending a lot of compute from the CPU into the GPU as late for both graphics and ML purposes. Lately it seems like the trend has been taking these specialized peripheral chips and moving them back into SoC packages. Apple's approach here seems to be an evolutionary step on top of say, an Intel chip with integrated graphics, rather than a revolutionary step away from the era of general purpose computing.

growt 5y ago
Does an Intel 286 without coprocessor count? C64? I remember those, but I wouldn't say I'm extremely old (just regular old).
- musicale 5y ago
  The C64 was discontinued in 1994 but is technically still available in 2021 as the C64 Mini. ;-)
  - growt 5y ago
    The C64 mini runs on an ARM processor, so that doesn't count in this context. Also I just learned that the processor in the C64 had two coprocessors for sound and graphics (?). So maybe that also doesn't count.
- jinto36 5y ago
  The C64 had the famous SID chip (MOS 6581) for sound. Famous in the chiptune scene at any rate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOS_Technology_6581 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOS_Technology_6581
- WorldMaker 5y ago
  The IBM PC that debuted with the 286 was the PC/AT ("Advanced Technology", hah) that is best known for introducing the AT bus later called the ISA bus that led to the proliferation of video cards, sound cards, and other expansion cards that made the PC what it is today. I'm actually not sure there ever was a "true CPU computer age" where all processing was CPU-bound/CPU-based. Even the deservedly beloved MOS 6502 processor that powered everything for a hot decade or so was considered merely a "micro-controller" rather than a "micro-processor" and nearly every use of the MOS 6502 involved a lot of machine-specific video chips, memory management chips. The NES design lasted so long in part because toward then end cartridges would sometimes have entirely custom processing chips pulling work off the MOS 6502. Even the mainframe era term itself "Central Processing Unit" has always sort of implied it always works in tandem with other "processing units", it's just the most central. (In some mainframe designs I think this was even quite literal in floorplan.) Of course too, when your CPU is a massive tower full of boards that make up individual operations and very the opposite of an Integrated Circuit, it's quite tough to call those a "general purpose CPU" as we imagine them today.
hansel_der 5y ago
discrete floating point co-processors and vodoo graphics come to my mind
rahoulb 5y ago
All this talk of "media engines" and GPUs reminds me of the old SID chip in the Commodore 64 and the Amiga with Agnes and Fat Agnes.

growt 5y ago

Does an Intel 286 without coprocessor count? C64? I remember those, but I wouldn't say I'm extremely old (just regular old).

musicale 5y ago
The C64 was discontinued in 1994 but is technically still available in 2021 as the C64 Mini. ;-)
- growt 5y ago
  The C64 mini runs on an ARM processor, so that doesn't count in this context. Also I just learned that the processor in the C64 had two coprocessors for sound and graphics (?). So maybe that also doesn't count.
jinto36 5y ago
The C64 had the famous SID chip (MOS 6581) for sound. Famous in the chiptune scene at any rate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOS_Technology_6581 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOS_Technology_6581
WorldMaker 5y ago
The IBM PC that debuted with the 286 was the PC/AT ("Advanced Technology", hah) that is best known for introducing the AT bus later called the ISA bus that led to the proliferation of video cards, sound cards, and other expansion cards that made the PC what it is today. I'm actually not sure there ever was a "true CPU computer age" where all processing was CPU-bound/CPU-based. Even the deservedly beloved MOS 6502 processor that powered everything for a hot decade or so was considered merely a "micro-controller" rather than a "micro-processor" and nearly every use of the MOS 6502 involved a lot of machine-specific video chips, memory management chips. The NES design lasted so long in part because toward then end cartridges would sometimes have entirely custom processing chips pulling work off the MOS 6502. Even the mainframe era term itself "Central Processing Unit" has always sort of implied it always works in tandem with other "processing units", it's just the most central. (In some mainframe designs I think this was even quite literal in floorplan.) Of course too, when your CPU is a massive tower full of boards that make up individual operations and very the opposite of an Integrated Circuit, it's quite tough to call those a "general purpose CPU" as we imagine them today.

hansel_der 5y ago

discrete floating point co-processors and vodoo graphics come to my mind

rahoulb 5y ago

All this talk of "media engines" and GPUs reminds me of the old SID chip in the Commodore 64 and the Amiga with Agnes and Fat Agnes.