3 ms·
My first Unix account was on a Sequent. I tried to put together a dual processor box in 1995 but they were having supply issues and it didn't work out. I think
by hinkley 2y ago
My first Unix account was on a Sequent. I tried to put together a dual processor box in 1995 but they were having supply issues and it didn't work out.
I think it is important to differentiate multi core from multiprocessor, but not so much for the context of that article.
- kragen 2y agoOh, maybe he was talking about having multiple CPUs on the same piece of silicon? That seems like a more plausible explanation for the dates (which are still somewhat wrong, as you point out), but its connection to software optimization strategies seems tenuous at best. The software can't really find out if the other CPU is on a separate die unless the hardware chooses to tell it.
- hinkley 2y agoHe’s careful to say cores but multiprocessor also means multiple cores, just not on the same silicon. And Sun had 32 thread machines not long after his timeline. IIRC they were so goddamned expensive as to be academic, but my customers only ran Sun hardware in their data centers (cellular carriers). Mid tier hardware mostly. Our target was 4 cores per server around 2008.
- kragen 2y agoWell, and Flynn's taxonomy is from 01966.