AMD unveils line of energy-efficiency chips

TalkBack 10 of 10:

« Previous

• Thread View
• Flat View

Intel AMD competition good for us bad for Microsoft

By the end of next year all busines PCs and mobile computers will be multi-core. The power savings, performance and price break has been proven on servers and mainframes and it means that developers targeting product for desktops, primarily Microsoft and Microsoft partners, will have to significantly retool.

The tooling is along the lines of what mainframe developers require. They require tools that generate or support things like Fortan and Java rather than C, C #, and C ++. The reason is threading.

Fortan and Java in particular thread well and this allows mangement software (hypervisors) to load ballance between multiple processors on the same and other chips as well as in multiple cores. The CPUs run at slower clock speeds which is why they take less power. But the main lesson is for developers. Developers will need to think in terms of threads.

Intel has provided tools for fixing C programs but most of the code libraries likely are curently unsafe for threading. I am suggesting that the C programs be rewritten in Java.

IBM's websphere product, which is currently proving its worth on a large Department of Corrections project in Washington State (Recently audited owing to thugs from Microsoft I suspect) runs on the mainframe. It also runs on PCs of course and it eclipses development tools from both Oracle and I suspect Microsoft.

The eclipsing is from the use of open source. That is also the reason Linux is more secure than Microsoft OS products. Intel is a major contributor to open source and that is because the X86 processors have insufficiant security built into hardware. This means hackers can fault their way to wiping out a hard drive unless the OS is patched to stop that. Linux has been so patched. Microsoft OS products because the patching must be done at the binary level rather than source code level are hopelessly behind.

The combination of factors is a perfect storm for Microsoft but one it can weather if it just asks for and accepts help. The arrogance of managment is the only thing preventing both AMD and Intel and scores of others from assisting at resonable fees. I suspect benchmarks of Sun's free OpenOffice on the new Intel and AMD dual processor chips better Microsoft Office because Microsoft Office can not take advantage of the hardware and because the CPUs are clocked slower than older models.

Now here is an interesting observation. Typically if you clocked up the AMD CPU to its max design speed and it failed that chip would be considered defective. Now - if I get the article, that failed chip (assuming it is a low power user) might be advantagous. Very odd.

Frank L. Mighetto CDP

Posted by: mighetto   Posted on: 05/16/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

Alert moderator to an offensive message

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads

• The True Costs of Virtual Server Solutions VMware In an economic environment that is repeatedly heralding the message "do ... Download Now
• Five Steps to Determine When to Virtualize YourServers VMware Server virtualization isn't just for big companies. Entry-level ... Download Now
• VMware Infrastructure: A Guide to Bottom-Line Benefits VMware Frustrated by the costs of maintain ever larger data centers?or building ... Download Now