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Some perspective on the P2 design difficulties — Parallax Forums

Some perspective on the P2 design difficulties

localrogerlocalroger Posts: 3,451
edited 2013-09-24 23:34 in General Discussion
A hilarious gonzo essay on the difficulties of designing state of the art CPU's:

https://www.usenix.org/system/files/1309_14-17_mickens.pdf

Comments

  • GadgetmanGadgetman Posts: 2,436
    edited 2013-09-24 05:51
    That should be required reading for anyone who does any chip design at all.
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2013-09-24 08:01
    Product development seems to always start out with "Yeah, we can do that. How hard can it be?"
    And then it evolves into "We will get this done any day now."
    But then after many affirmations of "Any day now," the product emerges.

    Overall, it is best not to quit your day job while creating a new product. Timelines tend to slip further and further out, supplies tend to be ellusive, and some aspects of engineering may reveal your over-confidence.

    I am looking forward to the Propeller 2, but am happy to be patient.
  • User NameUser Name Posts: 1,451
    edited 2013-09-24 10:49
    That was very entertaining, localroger. Is he a regular columnist or was this a one-time thing?

    I'm quick to point out, though, that under workstuff -> more workstuff all I have is Propeller code.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2013-09-24 11:08
    "voltage leak" ?
  • Mike GreenMike Green Posts: 23,101
    edited 2013-09-24 11:14
    Well, it's really current leak. As the structures get smaller, there's more tunneling of charge through barriers (reversed biased junctions and insulating layers).
  • localrogerlocalroger Posts: 3,451
    edited 2013-09-24 13:32
    User Name I don't think it's a regular column. It popped up on metafilter this morning and I thought folks here would appreciate it.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2013-09-24 13:40
    Mike,

    That's what I thought he meant.

    There is a lot of poetry in there but underneath it all there is a good point. Something about Moore's meet's quantum mechanics and thermodynamics.
  • User NameUser Name Posts: 1,451
    edited 2013-09-24 23:34
    localroger wrote: »
    It popped up on metafilter this morning and I thought folks here would appreciate it.

    For sure! I passed it on to a few friends and got overwhelmingly positive responses. Of course I don't agree with everything the author writes. Indeed I suspect he may be the very individual responsible for some of the mysterious slow-downs that annoy the Smile out of me but never appear as listed tasks in Task Manager. ;)
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