🚀 go-pugleaf

Bob Supnik (supnik@human.enet.dec.com) wrote:

: The ingenuity of processor designers (and semiconductor technologists) being
: far from exhausted, I believe this performance growth can continue for the
: rest of this decade.  There are some limiting factors:

: - Process technology evolution appears to be slowing somewhat, due to
:   lengthening development time (and cost) for new generations of semiconductor
:   processing equipment.

Is this a long term trend?

: - Increases in performance have been accompanied by increases in power
:   consumption, in opposition to rising requirements for 'green' technology.

Are you talking about the CPU chip or the whole system?  The top of the line
CPU chips are using more power, but the system requirements are going down
dramatically.  During the same period that the microprocessor went from a
few hundred milliwatts to 30 watts, disk drives went from a few hundred watts
to a few watts.  There are usually more disks in a system than CPUs.  Likewise
almost everything else in the system uses less power.

--
Paul Haas, work: paulh@ox.com, (313) 930-1888. home: paulh@hamjudo.mi.org