4 ms·

Because they still sell like hotcakes even with the crazy price tag.

radicaldreamer 3y ago
Why though? Is there something about the instruction set that is much faster for some kinds of processing (altivec?) or people just need to run old software thats hard to rewrite?
- rus20376 3y ago
  At least part of the reason is not technical, but philosophical. See the third item in the FAQ https://secure.raptorcs.com/content/base/faq.html https://secure.raptorcs.com/content/base/faq.html These CPUs are completely open and "free". In addition to the libre philosophy this guarantees a level of security unobtainable with any other CPU. The same rationale is behind the powerpc laptop project https://www.powerpc-notebook.org/en/ https://www.powerpc-notebook.org/en/
- pram 3y ago
  Yes a lot of stuff historically that was built with IBM XL for AIX. A lot of Fortran software, a lot of bank related shit. This kind of stuff is simultaneously extremely critical and also just cruising on intertia.
  - wmf 3y ago
    Nobody runs that software on Raptor though.
- numpad0 3y ago
  Maybe military? There were always $10-20k laptops in near-nonsensical architectures like POWER5, UltraSPARC, dual socket Pentium 4, and such. Maybe they run military radar tools and/or "gas/oil" workloads. Maybe it makes sense for somebody.
  - RedShift1 3y ago
    Dual socket pentium 4? I don't think that existed. Dual xeon sure, lots of those.
    - OmarAssadi 3y ago
      I haven't found a system with multiple Pentium 4s (but I think NetBurst Xeons were literally pretty much Pentium 4s without disabled SMP?). That said, who knows, I almost wouldn't be surprised; there's been loads of weird unique systems. Compaq SystemPro had custom SMP support to allow for dual 386s, which IIRC is even supported by Windows NT 3.1 officially. I think IBM x445s had some custom crazy interconnect for 32-way Xeon MPs, etc.
    - the-dude 3y ago
      Sure they did, the AsRock P4 Combo for example ( didn't find any in laptop form-factor though ).
      - RedShift1 3y ago
        You can't use both CPUs at the same time with that one. If you install both either something will explode, nothing will happen, or it'll just use one of them (probably configured using a jumper)
        the-dude 3y ago
        Ah, oh. I suppose you are right. I just pulled that one out of zhe Google because I remember having a dual socket P4 motherboard, with just one CPU fitted though. This was in 2001, maybe I am misremembering and it was P3?
        formerly_proven 3y ago
        >probably configured using a jumper That's a lot of jumpers https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/P4%20Combo/ https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/P4%20Combo/ Also the two memory slots just somewhere in-between the PCI slots. Some PCIe 1.0 (maybe also 2.0) boards did similar stuff to allow choosing between PCIe x16 and x8+x8.

Why though? Is there something about the instruction set that is much faster for some kinds of processing (altivec?) or people just need to run old software thats hard to rewrite?

rus20376 3y ago
At least part of the reason is not technical, but philosophical. See the third item in the FAQ https://secure.raptorcs.com/content/base/faq.html https://secure.raptorcs.com/content/base/faq.html These CPUs are completely open and "free". In addition to the libre philosophy this guarantees a level of security unobtainable with any other CPU. The same rationale is behind the powerpc laptop project https://www.powerpc-notebook.org/en/ https://www.powerpc-notebook.org/en/
pram 3y ago
Yes a lot of stuff historically that was built with IBM XL for AIX. A lot of Fortran software, a lot of bank related shit. This kind of stuff is simultaneously extremely critical and also just cruising on intertia.
- wmf 3y ago
  Nobody runs that software on Raptor though.
numpad0 3y ago
Maybe military? There were always $10-20k laptops in near-nonsensical architectures like POWER5, UltraSPARC, dual socket Pentium 4, and such. Maybe they run military radar tools and/or "gas/oil" workloads. Maybe it makes sense for somebody.
- RedShift1 3y ago
  Dual socket pentium 4? I don't think that existed. Dual xeon sure, lots of those.
  - OmarAssadi 3y ago
    I haven't found a system with multiple Pentium 4s (but I think NetBurst Xeons were literally pretty much Pentium 4s without disabled SMP?). That said, who knows, I almost wouldn't be surprised; there's been loads of weird unique systems. Compaq SystemPro had custom SMP support to allow for dual 386s, which IIRC is even supported by Windows NT 3.1 officially. I think IBM x445s had some custom crazy interconnect for 32-way Xeon MPs, etc.
  - the-dude 3y ago
    Sure they did, the AsRock P4 Combo for example ( didn't find any in laptop form-factor though ).
    - RedShift1 3y ago
      You can't use both CPUs at the same time with that one. If you install both either something will explode, nothing will happen, or it'll just use one of them (probably configured using a jumper)
      - the-dude 3y ago
        Ah, oh. I suppose you are right. I just pulled that one out of zhe Google because I remember having a dual socket P4 motherboard, with just one CPU fitted though. This was in 2001, maybe I am misremembering and it was P3?
      - formerly_proven 3y ago
        >probably configured using a jumper That's a lot of jumpers https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/P4%20Combo/ https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/P4%20Combo/ Also the two memory slots just somewhere in-between the PCI slots. Some PCIe 1.0 (maybe also 2.0) boards did similar stuff to allow choosing between PCIe x16 and x8+x8.