Re: How are CPU Speed and Overall CPW Related?

["William Washington III" <w.washington3@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Of course, CPU IS contsrained - it is ALWAYS constrained by something - CPU
>technology is so much ahead of memory technology, I/O technology, disk
>drive technology. The problem is how to keep CPU busy, not how to make it
>run faster.
>I have seen somewhere results of investigation, that in normal desktop
>workload CPU on PCs is waiting for memory accesses more than 95% of the
>time. So it does not really matter, how fast CPU is. CPU is working in
>short bursts. The speed of this burst is important for graphical rendering,
>for some special-purpose applications, for your test, for games...
>But in a real world memory bus throughput, I/O bandwidth etc are much more
>important.

This gentleman speaks truth!  If you're running Windows 2000, just do a Ctrl-Alt-Delete keystroke combination and take the option to show the Windows Task Manager.  Look at the Processes tab, abd most likely you'll see the System Idle Processes taking well over 90% of the CPU... Most computers are just sitting around waiting for something to happen.

 

This is why I never get bent too far out of shape when discussions about CPU speeds of the AS/400 versus NT boxes start up.  The AS/400 with it's pokey CPU speed is typically operating at a much higher utilization than the Unix and WinTel machines.  Because of this, IBM can keep prices **somewhat** competitive because they're not spending big bucks on the CPU.

 

I have full faith that if the business need ever occurred where IBM needed to put a significant processor with high clock speeds on the market, it would leave everything else in the dust... including IBM's own alternative, higher-margined offerings.  But it would probably kill off the competition, they would complain,  and the Department of Justice to come snooping again...

 

Just my $0.02...

 

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William Washington III
Njia Systems Incorporated
w.washington3@njiasystems.com
312-719-0519
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