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Geek Culture / Favourite computer processor

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OSX Using Happy Dude
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Posted: 4th Dec 2003 00:26
Seeing as there is a favourite language, why not a favourite computer processor (or three) ?

Mine are :

ARM - Very fast and neat with conditional execution.
6510 - Pretty neat, even with three registers
680x0 - Not bad.

And the worst has to be :

80x86/Pentium - About as ineffecient as you can get.


Mirrors are more fun than television. Well, that was fun, in a not-so-fun sort of way...
IanM
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Posted: 4th Dec 2003 00:56
I've only ever tried machine code for 3 processors ...

65xx - horrible, except I didn't know any better at the time.
68xxx - great! Loads of data and address registers, almost no limitations on using them.
80x86 - blurgh
OSX Using Happy Dude
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Posted: 4th Dec 2003 01:09 Edited at: 4th Dec 2003 01:15
You'll love the ARM processor - neat, powerful and eay to use...

Heres an example from my Walker game :



For an example of conditional execution :

MOVEQ R0,#col1
MOVNE R0,#col2

The first will only execute if the result of the previous compare equalled zero, whilst the last one will execute if the previous compare didn't equal zero. Saves having to have loads of branches all over the place (ala Intel).


Mirrors are more fun than television. Well, that was fun, in a not-so-fun sort of way...
Easily Confused
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Posted: 4th Dec 2003 01:53
ARRRGHH! Assembler!

(Runs away screaming)

Programming anything is an art, and you can't rush art.
Unless your name is Bob Ross, then you can do it in thirty minutes.
CattleRustler
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Posted: 4th Dec 2003 03:47
Quote: "80x86/Pentium - About as ineffecient as you can get."


Tca, you should have just named this thread processor I hate and just typed the above. You didn't need to hide it behind any immature fluff thread name. Youre too intelligent and straight forward fo that, no matter how silly and self-serving the post is. Be yourself and just flame the 80x86. Period.

-RUST-
OSX Using Happy Dude
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Posted: 4th Dec 2003 11:07
I named it that so I could see who likes what processor, plus who doesn't like what processor...

Quote: "Youre too intelligent and straight forward fo that"

Quite true.

Quote: "no matter how silly and self-serving the post is"

True again.

Quote: "Be yourself and just flame the 80x86."

In the context of other processors, then yes.


Mirrors are more fun than television. Well, that was fun, in a not-so-fun sort of way...
MushroomHead
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Posted: 4th Dec 2003 12:49 Edited at: 4th Dec 2003 12:49
68000 will always be my fav chip, it's a very efficient chip with data/address registers which allowed lot of flexibility. I don't like intel chips which simply boost clock speeds for performance rather than efficient design!

Interestingly, I hear Microsoft is going to ditch Intel for PowerPC as the new chip for X-Box, good news for Apple and PowerPC Amigas ... I like RISC chips!

http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,61065,00.html?tw=wn_story_top5
OSX Using Happy Dude
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Posted: 4th Dec 2003 12:50
Anyone got any example of PowerPC assembly ? From the little I've read, it looks pretty good.

Yes, RISC chips are great


Mirrors are more fun than television. Well, that was fun, in a not-so-fun sort of way...
MushroomHead
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Posted: 4th Dec 2003 13:01
GNU gcc generates PowerPC code ... have a lookat this link :-

http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-ppc/
OSX Using Happy Dude
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Posted: 4th Dec 2003 13:28
Looks quite interesting - not as neat as ARM or 680x0 though by the examples given...


Mirrors are more fun than television. Well, that was fun, in a not-so-fun sort of way...
Kevin Picone
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Posted: 4th Dec 2003 14:16
6809 was a nice 8/16bit cross over chip. Virtually the same as the 6502 but with 16bit A/X/Y. Pretty handy. Used to be in the tandy colour.

680x0, with a learning towards the 68020 and above. Since they had a barrel shifter mainly.

Kevin Picone
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OSX Using Happy Dude
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Posted: 4th Dec 2003 14:25
The 680x0 seems pretty popular


Mirrors are more fun than television. Well, that was fun, in a not-so-fun sort of way...
Chris K
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Posted: 4th Dec 2003 22:38
They make good fishtanks.

No joke, I know someone who made a fishtank out of one of these old macs :

They called it...

wait for it...

THE MAC-QUARIUM

...and like that; he's gone...
OSX Using Happy Dude
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Posted: 4th Dec 2003 23:15 Edited at: 4th Dec 2003 23:18
Quote: "If you all hate the x86's soo much then go buy an apple macintosh and have done with it! "

Would if they were cheaper, easy to get software for, and had something like DB.

But until some other company comes along (or until Apple get their finger out), we'll have to put up with Windows.

How can you 'de-tune' a compiler ? Its not a fork you know. And from which source did you hear this 'information' ?


Mirrors are more fun than television. Well, that was fun, in a not-so-fun sort of way...
ReD_eYe
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Posted: 4th Dec 2003 23:38
i told him, hehehe- he believes everything i say


GO TO THE ETERNAL DESTINY FORUMS!!! http://forums.eternaldestinyonline.com
Do it now!!!
OSX Using Happy Dude
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Posted: 4th Dec 2003 23:59 Edited at: 5th Dec 2003 00:00
Quote: "But then again you could just say it's all just lies"

True - or not...

Quote: "THE MAC-QUARIUM"

Yes... quite...


Mirrors are more fun than television. Well, that was fun, in a not-so-fun sort of way...
IanM
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Posted: 5th Dec 2003 02:15
I pretty much don't care which processor I use any more, simply because I don't code for the processor. You see, I use something called a 'High-level language' and a 'compiler' to produce the machine code for me

Oh, you de-tune a compiler by switching off optimisations usually ... or by compiling in debug mode. You can also substitute 'fixed' libraries like ATI supposedly did recently.
Neophyte
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Posted: 5th Dec 2003 06:52
@Divide By Zero

Not to let you down or anything but that site is a wee bit laughable. Get a load of this gem:

Quote: "
When interpreting these FP results, let us keep in mind that most people use Integer (not FP) most of the time. Therefore, integer results (SPECint) are much more important than floating-point results (SPECfp). In other words, most people should ignore floating-point results because they do not use floating-point anyway (or not much)."


Its pretty obvious this guy has a serious axe to grind. I haven't read very far after this but I'm sure there is just as much goofiness later on.

That being said, I did read in Wired that the G5 didn't fair as well as Intel and AMD's latest. If I have time later I'll see if I can dig up that old issue and find out. Might be interesting.
Shadow Robert
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Posted: 5th Dec 2003 08:40
firstly that webreport is 100% BS...
i'd first like to point out something about the tests.

tested processors;
PowerPC G5 (68680.970) 2.0Ghz 64bit - lvl2 384kb lvl1 128kb
Xeon4 3.0Ghz 32Bit HThread - lvl2 7,168kb lvl1 896kb
Pentium4 3.0Ghz 32Bit HThread - lvl2 448kb lvl1 64kb
AthlonXP 2.25Ghz 32Bit HTransport - lvl2 384kb lvl1 128kb
Opteron 240 1.8 64Bit HTransport - lvl2 384kb lvl1 128kb

Now i'm not sure why intels 64bit Itanium has been left out of this, but no matter.
And i'm also not sure where the hell they believe the Xeon4 is a Pentium4 Xeon ... as the Xeon runs on the IA32 infrastructure, there isn't a shred of x86 in them and there never has been.
The Intel Alpha is actually very very close in structure and design to the ARM Processor.
But that's niether here nor there right now.

i just figured you guys would want to know some of the stats incase you were wondering.

Quite frankly the Pentium4 is extremely slow, even with Hyperthreading ... the only real speed it has over AthlonXP's right now is actual REAL speed increases. And the AthlonXP on a HyperTransport motherboard is actually just as fast as thier Pentium4 equivilents. (not that these speed tests every include AthlonXP's HT technology)

And quite frankly the new Athlon64 FX-60 2.8Ghz is THE fastest processor on the market. The little bugger is capable of out performing Dual Pentium4 3.2Ghz under Windows 64Bit and Linux 64Bit.

and the FX-51 2.2 Ghz is still by far one of the fastest home processors. Not to mention the new x86-64bit structure is very nice to use

you still have to deal with the old structure, but the new one has been designed in such a way that feels more like a RISC. It isn't but feels like it.
Not that many people will actually get thier hands that dirty lol

personally i'm torn between favourite processors,
Gecko or nv38 ... they're both cool in thier own rights


Detonating a nuclear device within the city limits results in a $500 fine!
900mhz|256mb|FX5200Ti 52.16|Dx9|WXP-Pro
heartbone
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Posted: 5th Dec 2003 08:51
I'm split between the Motorola 68000 and the Intel 4004, 99.44% to 0.56%

I'd have to say the 68000.

The more you see, the more you know.
The more you know, the more you see.
Shadow Robert
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Posted: 5th Dec 2003 08:53
hahaa, oki i think i'm officially a nerd cause i found that funny ^_^


Detonating a nuclear device within the city limits results in a $500 fine!
900mhz|256mb|FX5200Ti 52.16|Dx9|WXP-Pro
OSX Using Happy Dude
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Posted: 5th Dec 2003 10:11
I used to do a lot of assembly code - its great fun.

Anyone know what Sun SPARC assembly is like ?


Mirrors are more fun than television. Well, that was fun, in a not-so-fun sort of way...
empty
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Posted: 5th Dec 2003 20:41
http://www.cs.clemson.edu/~mark/sparc_assembly.html

They had a bunch of brand new SPARCstation 5 (1994/5) and a few SPARCStation 10 at the uni where I studied linguistics.

Me, I'll sit and write this love song as I all too seldom do
build a little fire this midnight. It's good to be back home with you.
OSX Using Happy Dude
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Posted: 5th Dec 2003 21:49
Nice!


Mirrors are more fun than television. Well, that was fun, in a not-so-fun sort of way...

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