Posts Tagged: ‘microprocessors’
The news is out — Intel has developed a three-dimensional approach to transistor design for microprocessors. This is an important step in microarchitecture design. Moore’s Law predicts that the number of transistors manufacturers can cram onto a one-inch silicon wafer doubles every 24 months or so. But that’s a finite amount of space and we may very well be reaching the smallest sizes possible for transistors without revolutionizing the entire classic computer model.
This week Nvidia announced its latest Tegra processor for Tablet computers and smartphones. The chip has 4 cores, which appears to be a first in this class of CPUs. This gives it unprecedented power, as demonstrated in this video: Here is what it means in real terms – the ability to drive 1440p displays: “We [...]
Blast from the Past – How Integrated Circuits (chips) Work
by Marshall Brain | January 24, 2011
The following video takes us back to Fairchild Semiconductors in 1967, as the age of integrated circuits is getting underway. It is talking about integrated circuits that contain 20 components (transistors, resistors, etc.), and therefore are far simpler than the billion-transistor chips we see today. It is also an era when the masks used to [...]
Blast from the past – reverse engineering the 6502 microprocessor
by Marshall Brain | January 3, 2011
Back in the early 1980s, the 6502 microprocessor dominated the microprocessor landscape. The 6502 powered everything from the Apple II to the Nintendo NES. It contained just a few thousand transistors (compared to microprocessors today that exceed a billion transistors), but at the time it was quite powerful. Fast forward to today, and there are [...]
Here is an outstanding video that explains how the world’s first transistor works, as well as all subsequent transistors. This invention made possible everything from portable radios to the microprocessors that power modern society: Far more detail on transistors can be found in this lecture: This video demonstrates how transistors are created on chips: For [...]
IBM has announced a mainframe that can act like 100,000 virtual machines, each acting as a web server, database engine, even a Windows machine, or whatever you need to build out the data center for a major corporation. It does that using the fastest chips available…
Mega Episode and Video Games – TechStuff Podcast Roundup
by Jonathan Strickland | August 28, 2009
Hey there! This week was an eventful one for me and Chris at HowStuffWorks.com. On top of the podcasting, blogging, social networking and article writing, Chris and I tested a new project: TechStuff Live! Starting next Tuesday, we will be streaming a live show at 1:00 p.m. Eastern once a week. The show will cover tech news, sites and products that have landed on our radar and a few other fun segments. Plus it’s video! You’ll be able to watch as I say things that inspire Chris to hide behind his computer. We’ll have more details about the show on Monday, so stay tuned.
The episodes this week were inspired by listeners. On Monday, our goal was to demystify the terms megabits, megabytes and megahertz. Of course, we didn’t just focus on the mega range — we also talked about everything from kilobytes to yottabytes. But if you’ve ever wondered how many bytes are in a kilobyte (hint: it’s not 1,000), you should listen to this show. We also explain how you can calculate how long it will take you to download a file assuming your Internet connection is as fast as advertised.
On Wednesday, we talk about the current video game consoles on the market. Chris and I first did an episode about video game consoles more than a year ago. But that show was only five minutes long and didn’t have much detail. This time we give the subject a bit more time and explain why we don’t cover video game news as often as some listeners would like. We recorded the show the day that Sony announced price cuts in the PS3 but before Microsoft announced the cuts to the Xbox 360. With the cheaper 360, I think I may have found my next game console.
R. Colin Johnson at EE Times wrote that Moore’s Law is once again being predicted at the end of its life — but this time, the word is coming from an IBM Fellow named Carl Anderson.
Anderson, who’s involved Big Blue’s server products, spoke at the International Symposium on Physical Design 2009 conference, and said just like the railroad, car and aircraft industries, the computer chip industry will see an end to its exponential growth. Multicore processors may carry on for a while, but designers are starting to realize that they don’t need super-high-end processors in their machines, especially with the cost of research and design into the latest microprocessor chips.
Moore’s Law isn’t really a law at all. It’s an observation made and published by Intel cofounder Gordon Moore. He noticed that the transistors on microprocessors halved in size every 18 months (or so) and speed doubled. He’s revised the timeframe to about every two years, but microprocessor manufacturers have turned his observation into a self-fulfilling prophecy, pushing newer, faster chips out the door at pretty regular intervals.
When the global economy began to falter, the Tech sector seemed untouchable. A few months later, the Tech industry began to see the effects from the downturn. Even companies like Microsoft and Google began to lay off employees. But could the economic downturn provide the foundation for cloud computing?
Recent Postings by Category
BrainStuff
- Thank You and Best Wishes to Marshall Brain
- Contest – Design a $300 house and win $25,000
- How the Philtrum works – the place under your nose where your face comes together
The Coolest Stuff on the Planet
- Sailing, Takes Me Away…To The Seychelles
- Cute Animal Tuesday: Black Vulture
- Traveling on the Orient Express
Keep Asking
- Why can a 5 foot 8 inch man dunk a basketball on a 10 foot rim while some people of taller stature can’t?
- What happens to our sun once it runs out of fuel?
- How do we know the age of the universe?
Stuff Mom Never Told You
- Who invented the Christmas card?
- How the Kinsey Report Fueled Whiskey Sales
- How to Get Your Wedding Announcement into The New York Times
Stuff to Blow Your Mind
- The Seven Deadlies: Pride Cometh Before the Brain
- Warhammer 40K: 25 Years of Orks in Space
- A Visit to the Tellus Science Museum
Stuff You Should Know
- The Southern Death Cult, the Maya and Georgia
- Deformed Baby Spider Brains
- Amazing Medical Conditions: Maple Syrup Urine Disorder
The Stuff of Genius
CarStuff
- Was Chrysler’s “It’s Halftime in America” Super Bowl commercial a little too political?
- Why is NASA studying car safety?
- Tips for in-car Navigation Systems
How-to Stuff
- How to Make the Most of a Gallery Crawl (When You’re on a Shoestring Budget)
- How to Swim with Dolphins (When Deep Water Terrifies You)
- How to Cure a Homemade Cookie Craving Without Turning on the Oven
PopStuff
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 43: Drag Queens: You Better Work!
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 42: Road Trip!
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 41: Celebrity Couples
Stuff They Don't Want You To Know
Stuff to Change the World
- Who will own the Arctic?
- Obesity: The New Global Crisis
- Bill Gates Makes For A Pretty Decent Cartoon
Stuff You Missed in History Class
- Butch Cassidy: Should we read between the lines?
- Are we rooting for D.B. Cooper?
- Party Time: A Look at Unconventional Politics

