Re: Remember "Bit-Slice" Chips ?

On 11/12/2024 10:08, D wrote:

  On Wed, 11 Dec 2024, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:
 

On 12/10/24 8:38 AM, D wrote:

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On Tue, 10 Dec 2024, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:
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On 12/9/24 8:25 PM, rbowman wrote:

On Mon, 9 Dec 2024 13:58:47 -0800, John Ames wrote:
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Any chance of this conversation returning to anything even *slightly*
more relevant to *nix, computers in general, or, like, *anything* else?
Maybe I should dig up some old Francis E. Dec rant for a more coherent/
relevant refresher course...

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Feel free to start a thread.

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 Ummmmm ... I just TRIED with the "Bit-Slice" topic.
 Jumped IMMEDIATELY back to 'non-OS/Computer stuff'  :-)
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 Was HOPING for discussion/insight into 'alternative'
 schemes for 'CPU's and such derived from older solutions.
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 Houston, we have a problem .............
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Your thread was perhaps not interesting enough? Try again! ;)

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 Awwww .... OUGHT to be an interesting topic, especially
 as we're bumping up against Moore's end-point. One or
 two more gens and we're literally at the atomic scale ;
 where to go from there ?

 Quantum computing of course! Otherwise, we'll just continue to scale out I assume.
 Is there an established Moores end point?

Yes. The equation relates power consumption, clock speed, and number of transitors to technology size.
Ass the fabrication limits dropped, the power use and to an extent the clock speed could go up and the number of transistors massively increase.
But the technology is approaching atomic scales, and the clock speed cannot get much higher as propagation delays across the chip make the clock a different beats on  different parts of the chip.
How long have Intel been struggling with 7nm?

 I would imagine once we hit that end point in terms of regular cpus, the only direction left would be purpose built cpus on other technologies for niche use cases such as biological computing, quantum computing, optical etc.
 

For some years the only improvement has been on chip cache and multiple cores..

Could regular cpu:s get some extended life by a change of materials or some other tweaks to the current design?
 

Not really.

 Better innovate SOMETHING, otherwise we're gonna see
 'peak computing' when it's become clear we need thousands
 of times that for the Really Cool Stuff.
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Well not peak computing, but a mature technology where chip types stabilise and do not evolve.
Many of the early analogue ICs are still in production today, for example.
We could still be using Z80s, as it only ceased production last year.
--
Those who want slavery should have the grace to name it by its proper name. They must face the full meaning of that which they are advocating or condoning; the full, exact, specific meaning of collectivism, of its logical implications, of the principles upon which it is based, and of the ultimate consequences to which these principles will lead. They must face it, then decide whether this is what they want or not.
Ayn Rand.