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chipguy - thanks
The potential huge advantage in SNR and bandwidth per Watt as well as near immunity from EMI/EMR issues is what keeps interest in optical interconnect alive.
I'd skipped over most of the semantics and physics posts on this topic because I didn't know what relevance it could/does have. Thanks for clearing that up,
neye
Paul - to build on chipguy's post
Monte Carlo analysis is most useful in situations where you don't have a well-defined statistical distribution to work with - you're instead essentially bootstrapping your data into an empirical statistical distribution
Example - you know that factors a,b,c,...,z are all factors in a complex formula, where the terms might even be dependent on one another. Instead of trying to figure out a (possibly impossible) statistical approximation for such a curve, you program the formula to be run 10K times, using the known distribution of each factor (a, b, etc) as the inputs. Now chart the distribution of those 10,000 trials, and you have a pretty good idea of the distribution without having to have gone through some exceedingly complicated math, which might not even have been possible in the first place (not all stats distributions are nice and neat).
neye
sgolds - I'm way behind on posts...
... but just wanted to say thanks for the valuation post. It was presented in a very clear, and I consider objective, manner.
neye
WL//D - why is that?
i'd be even more comfortable with the strategy if it was linux rather than *bsd under the hood, but this'll do.
I can see a couple possible reasons, but spell it out for me - what are you thinking here?
neye
lango - your shiny new machine
Working on an HP box containing the new .90µ process 3.0 Ghz P4 e-series chip has been an eye-opener for me. It is an order of magnitude quieter than my G4 box and quieter even than the G5 I've spent a couple weeks working on.
considering that prescott processors (the "e-series" as you call them) are both hotter and slower than even the predecessors (northwood P4s) at the same Mhz rating, you've actually picked a somewhat charitable situation for Apple for the comparison.
FWIW, I really loved the G5 I used at the apple store, but perhaps I didn't notice the heat/noise because of it being in a mall environment.
neye
FYI - IBM 90 nm rumor: not too good
yanked from another ihub board. of course, the appleinsider site is a rumor site, and problems with the PPC970 may not be related to any problems with the K8s, but just thought I'd throw it out there:
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=2847705
Apple engineers have reportedly resolved the sensor issue, though sources say that low processor supplies may have acted to compounded the delays. Reportedly, IBM's Power PC G5 970FX chip has failed to yield even the baseline 2.0 GHz mark on a consistent basis, preventing Apple from introducing faster machines.
neye
@BUGGI - good catch - that's crazy! (eom)
OT: ok joe, you asked for it
I was a math "minor" and our professor kept promissing to tell us some jokes about Topologists, but he never did. I still feel cheated...
directly topologial:
what swims in the oceans and is non-orientable?
Mobius Dick
other:
what's yellow and equivalent to the axiom of choice?
Xorn's lemon
what's purple and commutes?
a belian grape <-- my favorite
That's all I remember off hand...
neye
sgolds - speaking of that...
I'm not in technology anymore (got out about 4 years ago)....
any idea what happened to sdwalks?
neye
chipguy, anything is possible...
in the summer of the 17-year-cicada
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-03-12-cicadas_x.htm
I was in 6th grade last time it happend here in VA. twas crazy... apparently it won't be as bad this time.
<em>Maybe El nino will return this year and prompt Dell to introduce Opteron based gear.</em>
neye
VERY OT: Paul - vacation was good, got some ink
Vacation was bikeweek in Daytona. I usually don't post personal stuff, but I'm pretty proud of my new tatoo, so here's a link:
http://www14.brinkster.com/sirlizzard/josiah/tatoo.html
it's address to my friend josiah, hence the "hola jo" in the title. Haven't heard of anyone else with a similar tatoo, and neither had the tatooists - spoke with about 10 of them - the guy that actually did it I met online playing an MMORPG so my GF and I flew to Daytona to see him and his wife while he was working there, and to tour the Orlando aread which neither my GF nor I had done as an "adult" till now.
It was amusing to go back to the tatoo shop and hearing them talking about it over the next couple days "but what do the dots *mean*???" "I've got something for that guy to measure!" (the dots, starting with the one closest to the foot, are spaced relative to that base dot at distances of 1cm, 1", 10cm, 6", 20cm, 12". So, I have a built in ruler on a part of my body that will probably stretch very little until I get osteoperosis, god willing I live long enough for that to happen, and at that point I can probably just apply a linear transformation anyway.
I'm thinking that the next tat I will get is to have smallish lines jut out from some of the dots at predefined interesting angles (10, 30, 45, 90 degrees) relative to the imaginary line on which they reside - what use is a ruler without a protractor
Nice to be back though. Finding that more and more games are indeed happy on the A64 laptop I recently got. Even neverwinter nights runs very well, so I guess that ATI Mobility 9600 really is up to snuff.
Aburner - good luck - you back in post earnings maybe? (eom)
Tex, dilleet, xserver disks
well, the online flamewars still go on with respect to apple's choice of IDE v. SCSI. I'm kinda partial to SCSI myself due to the reliability, speed of available drives, and some other features. Now, some of the SCSI advantages are mitigated by the independent controllers Tex mentioned, and somewhat by SATA characteristics, but for myself, I'd stick with SCSI for truly critical data. YMMV of course, and you pay extra $$$ for SCSI drives and pay an extra time cost in the configuration thereof. Here's a neat article if you're really interested in reading more about it:
http://arstechnica.com/paedia/s/scsi-1.html
neye
PS - edit - I had one of the earlier macs to go with IDE as opposed to the then standard SCSI, as I understand it. I'm not too sure about it, but my dad was really into macs and was surprised in 1994 when he found out that my newly purchased Performa 636 came with an IDE drive. No real point to this comment, just something I remembered.
dileet - that's the laptop I recently bought (M6805)
pretty good so far. I like the features and the price, and I'm hoping that the reality of emachines turning the corner for the better (reliability of machines, etc) is as much a fact as the recent PC-mags and industry surveys indicate.
neye
LKJ - movielink downloads
Linda - a while back I said I'd try an online movie rental and post. I forgot to post after doing so, so here's the report. I went to http://www.movielink.com (not mac friendly yet, I think, but maybe).
My g/f and I perused the catalog and settled on "married to the mob". I filled in a little info to register and pay. It took perhaps 2 minutes. I then clicked to watch the movie. It automatically updated my viewing software, and after about 2 additional minutes it had buffered enough of the movie to start watching it.
So.... my g/f and I were using a laptop (my new Athlon 64 laptop), and watched the movie. FFWD, Rewind, pause, etc, worked as if it were in a vcr/dvd player. No hiccoughs in downloading. Video was great, sound in stereo was fine. All in all, it was a remarkable experience only because it was a completely unremarkable experience
Cost to download - $2.99 Movies are priced according to how new they are. Some are $1.99, some are $4.99. Not a very big selection. Perhaps 150 or 200 movies, I'd guess. But, it seems to work fine. If they had a bigger selection, I don't think I'd feel the need to go to the video rental store again, unless I really wanted a DVD's special features, or something along those lines.
neye
chiming in on the mini
well, I don't think I ever publicly said anything about the mini, but if I had, it would have been something along the lines of "meh".
To tell the truth, I still don't get it. I don't get the regular ipod either, or any of the competition for that matter. I guess I just don't need music to go, or something like that.
In any case, like lots of other phenomena I don't get, it sounds like this one's raking in some serious $$$. Glad that apple is able to make lotsa people happy and themselves a lot of money.
neye
grrr... cheap NB HSFs
After struggling with one for a while that was actually forcing me to significantly underclock my machine, I finally said heck with it and took the HSF off the NB.
Prior to removal, with the Abit-OEM HSF, temp at idle hung 58 to 60 C (with memory running at 100 DDR = 200Mhz instead of the 133/266 that it should be running at. Now that the HSF is completely off, and I wiped some of the goop away that they'd caked on there, it's currently running at 64C (having *just* stopped playing an online fps game).
So, the stock HSF is worth a measly 5 degrees C? That's awful. Anyway, I ordered a zalman passive cooler that, with shipping, is $10. I'll let you know if it makes any difference. Kinda weird having a cpu that's cooled just fine, and a Northbridge that will crash my system because of temperature if I don't underclock my memory speeds
Edit - I just put the side back on the case, and the temperature is down another 4 degrees Celsius (assumedly because now the Case fan is actively sucking the hot air from the nearby northbridge out instead of letting it sit there). So, 60 degrees and holding steady. booooooo on ABIT - they should be ashamed of themselves. Is this standard fare? I've never had to stress about northbridge cooling before this mobo (KD7A)...
neye
chipguy - sorry for the delay...
was on vacation, just got back. You asked:
Posting from my new 64bit laptop
Congratulations. How much memory do you have installed
in it and what is the maximum that is supported today?
512 installed, could take out the current 512 single chip and put in 2 1GB chips.
neye
PS - Bikeweek in daytona was *great* had a blast.
Klaus - the laptop
emachnines 6805. same as the 6807 but only cd-rw instead of dvd r/w (I already have a dvd burner in another machine, so I don't really need a portable one).
I haven't heard the fan yet, so I don't know if it's on or not, but I've been in an office with people talking, so maybe it's on but just lost in the background noise?
Display is pretty darn nice. Not quite as nice as my desktop 17" tft, but still really nice. Native is 1280 x 800, 15" diagonal.
OS = xp home. Will eventually put on xp prof, but I don't really need it.
Just checking the boards after playing a long set of UT2K4 matches. I absolutely forgot that I was playing on a laptop, despite the fact that it is *in my lap*. That's how cool it's running - it's definitely warmer than air, but not hot to the point of discomfort by any stretch (I'm wearing pants, so those absorb some heat I'm sure). The point is, on my old laptop, doing even just websurfing was too hot for comfort. I can blast the cpu on this thing for an extended length of time and the heat is such that I even forget about it.
I'm sure centrinos and other mobile laptops are similarly cool, but I'm just amazed because 1) I'm used to something so much worse. and 2) because it's so cool given how much raw computational power it has.
neye
Posting from my new 64bit laptop
--- fyi, this is from a post I just made at a mac forum, my home on the web, so to speak, so it will have some info that you already know ---
Well, I took the plunge. No 64 bit OS installed yet, but the 32-bit mode is sweet, and I can play unreal tournament 2004 with most of the pretty stuff on in 1280 x 800 resolution with absolutely no stuttering (me and 5 bots)!!!
There are a couple things I don't like about the laptop - the positition of the alt and control keys is mind-bogglingly stupid. Also, the power connector takes a bit of getting used to. But all in all, I really like it. I'm still at work, so I haven't been able to test the wireless aspect yet. Hopefully it's at least as good as the pcmcia card I have in my other laptop (duron 1Ghz in that one, this is a 1.6 Ghz Athlon 64 3000+).
One of the cool things this laptop has is 6 different input slots for digital media (e.g. compact flash, secure digital, etc). Other specs... 1 firewire, 4 usb, 15" widescreen tft, 512 RAM, 60GB HD, DVD/CD-RW combo. Also nice is that the heat isn't nearly as bad as in my Duron laptop, which could mean that either this is good, the Duron was bad, or somewhere in between those two. Not sure on battery life yet, will test next week when I'm back from vacation.
Whoops! forgot to mention the price - this was $1,599. Has a $100 rebate, but I don't really trust them, so I am just considering it to be a $1,600 laptop unless some miracle occurs and I actually get the check in the mail
So.... that's about it,
neye
ABurner - just got in recently too.
Obviously, your timing is better than my own, given the past few days...
Hey UT2k4 demo is out - you been playing any? Too bad Jason's not running a server for us
neye
Tenchu - 1 terabyte of DRAM
$120,000
- if you don't mind SDRAM 100
How much does one terabyte of DRAM cost on PriceWatch.com?
neye
Blue - about the MS and Apple websites
Just for fun, I took the two webarchives, viewsource/character count, then compared the number of characters (sans spaces) to the present day incarnation of the sites:
Apple 1996: 14944 chars
Apple 2004: 14388
MS 1996: 9937 chars
MS 2004: 36710
It doesn't really mean much in terms of good or bad, I just thought it was interesting. MS's page stayed with mostly text from then till now, just adding more of it and nice menus, whereas apple reduced the text clutter and front page size, and went heavier on the images.
neye
@BUGGI - thanks very much for the info! (eom)
sgolds - appreciate the comments (eom)
UpNDown, sgolds, et all re: being happy
I guess I sort of got my answer to "is anyone happier this week than last". Thanks for the comments. a couple issues I'll address.
1) It seems that many of us agree that it would have been nice for INTC to keep playing the Ostrich, and push the X64s back even further. but, no sense in crying over spilled milk.
2) It's good indeed that INTC validated the architecture.
3) I agree with many of the statements here that, all other things remaining equal, the hammers will often provide a better performance solution.
What I'm not as convinced of is that the platform in toto will get as much favorable funding. Things that make servers reliable - the type that Newisys built in their designs. If server manufacturers are doing this for opteron-based designs, that's great. If this gets the short end of the stick compared to X64s, however, I'd say that brand name and platform robustness could overwhelm the performance delta. But who knows - I've never been in the market for such a system, and personally don't know any people that are, so i'm kinda shooting blind on my thoughts here.
Also, sgolds - you are correct - it doesn't make much sense to compare today's K8s with 2007's Itaniums. However, the infrastructure needs to be built for K8s and X64 systems if they are to be Itanium replacements. As long as Itanium survives in any niche and development continues, it is possible that it will work its way out of a niche. Not assured, of course, but possible. In order for Itanium not to continue, it must be run out of both the HPC and Big Iron space. While hammer is probably suited to do ok in HPC (have we actually seen benchies from an Hammer HPC system?), it would need OEM support to thrive in the Big Iron space, and a general presence which it currently does not have, as I understand it.
Also, I'm wondering if anyone had any thoughts on the managed code aspect of things. aren't all the .Net languages using or moving to managed code, where most of the performance comes by choosing the right compiler for the target architecture, as opposed to hand-tuned assemply or the like? the IA-64 compiler teams would be primarily responsible for the performance increases on the software side, whereas developers wouldn't have to hand tune as much?If so, does this not reduce the progamming cost of developing for the IA-64 platform, if it's truly a "write once, review a little, target many" process? If I'm misunderstanding this, I'd welcome a correction.
BUGGI - tell us about the SIS boards?
Asrock delivered low End SIS board, the same goes to ECS and Gigabyte seems to ship now again large volume with VIA and Nvidia for very good prices.
I've seen one review of an ECS 755-A2, and it was pretty positive. However, I'm *still* gun-shy on ECS from the early 735 boards. If I replace a system, I'd likely go a relatively low-cost route, maybe a 3000+ A64 with the 755. I *don't*, however, want to have to mess around with it or not find it reliable as with a couple of the K7S5A boards I bought :-
I'll certainly wait to see what Socket 939 pricing is like, but it's likely to be too high for my tastes.
Thanks!
neye
Any longs actually pleased about IA-32e?
As an investor again, finally, I can't really convince myself to be happy about this. Yeah, it legitimizes the platform, but with INTC apparently having a decent plan in place, do any of the AMD longs in here actually think of this as a good thing?
FYI - I'm gonna use X64 as my abbreviation from here on for Xeon 64-bit
short term (pre X64 availability) - I don't see why HP and/or Dell wouldn't just wait for Intel's X64. Sure, HP might have an Opteron system or two to placate the current customer demand, but roll out the "big guns" of the X64s when they're available. I'm sure INTC will put plenty of $ behind validation and testing to help HP out. Of course for Dell, we don't even need to discuss them anymore. Also, I'm not thinking that many companies who are in this market would think that the special-tax-year implications of a purchase now would override the benefit of waiting for the tried-and-true INTC solution (regardless of how *not* tried-and-true it may be - it's INTC, which carries a lot of psychological weight still)
medium term (X64s available) - Stocks and markets hate uncertainty. We have no idea how well these chips will or won't perform. We don't know how the market will react to the chips, or how fast drivers for AMD64 will be developed. So, this doesn't look particularly pleasing either. I also think that brand loyalty is more important than benchmarks to most companies.
long term (3 years +) - I actually agree wbmw's sentiments about there being a cost and performance cross over between Itanium and X64s (I think it was wbmw that wrote it). As porting to 64 bit gets more common, and managed code gets more common, there will be fewer and fewer ties to the past. If I understand correctly, Itanium solutions are pretty impressive when coded for properly. Compilers will also continue to get better of the next few years, assumedly.
The kicker will be some quasi-magical software or hardware inflection point, probably, similar to Windows 2000. People that needed NT 4 used it, no one else had enough of a reason to move. Win2k acted as a catalyst in that it lowered the activation energy required on both the consumers and developers' plates, and the rest is history. If Itanium in hardware, or an emulator in software, can produce another such catalyst, I could see the world going that way in 5 or 10 years.
But, that's all just my Chicken Little side of things. There are also positive aspects, but I'm having a bit of trouble seeing them as clearly. So.... are there AMD longs out there that are happier this week than last?
neye
thanks for the transcript smallpops (eom)
calbiker - welcome...
haven't noticed you here before (apologies if I just missed other posts), just seen you at Aces'. In any case, hope ya stick around,
neye
Ok, I'm finally back in...
... so, given Murphy's law's unrelenting pursuit of me, I'd get your shorts in now
neye
Linda - downloadable movies
I have no idea if their company is doing well or not, but movielink has a rather large selection, including the big "just out on video" movies available for download.
http://www.movielink.com
Note: that url checks and sees if you have WMP 9 running. It may also check to see if you have windows running - I don't know.
They've been around for quite a while. I haven't used them before, but in checking the URL before posting, I noticed that they have underworld available. Maybe I'll give the service a try tonight and, if you're interested, let you know how it went.
neye
KVW - maybe Fred can go on a vacation...
... to *australia*
oh how the once vaunted fall
edit: I see you already brought up Australia in a later post - I had a couple RB posts bookmarked too from that time period
neye
wbmz - long live Sis 735!
don't know how many of us were wooed by the mobo, but there are a lot out there As the initial ones got cleaned up (lots of problems), they really turned into good boards.
neye
hola all - getting back in I think
long time no see. now that things are getting interesting again, I think I'm gonna get back into AMD. Probably Verizon too, but not sure about that one either yet.
glad to see some familiar faces here,
neye
comb - thanks...
first - cool that you remember I have a g/f as opposed to single or married I guess I am a human behind the keyboard and monitor <VBG>
The mobo has a power LED, and it lights up just fine. When I do mobo, cpu, cpu fan, and the speaker leads only, shorting the power-on with a screwdriver, the same stuff happens. So, it's either the cpu, the electrical system, or the mobo.
Also, for kicks I've played with the cmos jumper. If I put it on clear, the system wont even deliver power. If I put it back to normal, the same symptoms (power, but no boot) occur.
Thanks anyway, I really do appreciate the advice from all of you,
neye
sgolds, keith, thanks much
I appreciate it. Don't know what I'll do next. Perhaps just get another case and start from scratch. I might be able to find a repair place, but figure that for the cost of a case, and perhaps another cpu/mobo (urgh!), it's cheaper than what the pricing is like around these parts (I've notice $85 / hr for "general hardware trouble shooting").
neye
Thanks all for the help, but no luck
I just don't understand - brand new mobo, brand new cpu, mem, etc, and this is to fix a problem I had on my old one not booting.
I did the whole reseating, taking it out of the case and laying the mobo on a non-conductive mat with just the cpu and mem. Tried it without mem. Shorted the PS instead of using the lead from the case. I'm pretty disgusted with it right now :
I thought it wasn't the cpu, because when the machine died before, I was able to move it into another machine, which worked fine. So I thought it was the mobo. Now that I'm on my 2nd mobo, that doesn't look to be the case either. Case has been ruled out, PS ruled out... grrr.... I think I'm just not supposed to have this assembledge of parts called a computer.
neye
going crazy - any advice on AMD system?
My computer won't boot, no beeps, but the electricity is on. CD drive opens, power light is on, cpu fan spins up. I've replaced:
RAM / CPU / Memory / Motherboard / Powersupply / VidCard
so... WHAT THE HECK???
this has been very frustrating. Lots of power, but no beeps or video. Had this happen to me on a dell, once, and was frustrated then, too (never resolved), but with this one...??? Can the actual case make a difference some how? Could the reset or power buttons be stuck always on? I just don't get it. Any thoughts?
neye
Paul, fair enough, but...
neye_eve, it may not be nVidia's fault; may be more the fault of the MB technical writers.
That may be true, but if you see all of your distributors creating confusion for the customers about how to properly use the product, wouldn't you at least have a strong talk with them?
neye