Ron & PSYOP
posted on
Feb 28, 2006 03:36PM
First some definitions before I express my opinion:
1. SoC - system on chip. Basically, you can not put a Pentium into an
iPod or a cell phone. You must generate a microchip that has a whole heap of function directly on the silicon. Things like RAM, ROM, PCI Bus, Network Handshaking, etc.
http://soccentral.com/results.asp?CatID=246
2. RISC - Reduced Instruction Set Computer. It is an operational design of code that allows the processor to actually perform a function.
Simply put, it is a list of commands that the processor can perform.
Using that list of commands generates you blowing the head off a hooker
In GTA:SA. Pentiums are CISC which is a bit more complex. Essentially RISC is hardwired commands in the silicon to allow faster processing with little power consumption, little needed cooling, and ease of building.
http://www.heyrick.co.uk/assembler/riscvcisc.html
3. Stack - This is how they are implementing memory and storage. It`s an old way of using the silicon directly to store info.
http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~koopman/stack_computers/index.html
Now let’s discuss the issues:
AMD does not design a damn thing. They buy the designs of microchips from several microchip design houses around the world. They then contract the fabrication of the microchip to outside vendors such as Hitachi. It is not surprising that they are listed as a licensee. Intel does not buy a damn thing. If they wanted the design, they would have purchased the company outright. They have around a billion in cash. Most likely they are licensing to prevent AMD from being the only one and since they are being beaten left and right by AMD in the market. (Craig Barret needs to be fired). That being said, their product is nothing new. Stack computers are an old tech and RISC is an old tech. The ``hybridization” of the two is not new. The concept of putting the two together is probably at least 15 years old, if not more, in the academic side of microprocessors. Remember, because of Intel and the heap of cash that a processor can make someone; no one really researches microprocessors for long since they are usually snapped up by Intel or the like after 1 or 2 years at a University. PhDs have instant jobs in that field.
In the end, Patriot Scientific is not original in their thinking. What is needed desperately in the world today is a very simplistic, very programmable, SoC to use in cell phones and iPods. The reason is that you need to pack all that crap in a tinier and tinier box. They need to not eat power (ever hold an old cell phone when it was on an analog signal?), and be able to work with existing systems. The internet has removed a lot of crosstalk between items, since they can just talk to a webpage. Most would like to be able to use existing software out there to program their cell phones, but before you know it, cells will be infected with virus, worms, etc. How do you Norton Antivirus a cell? That is why WindowsCE will fail. If you design a SoC and the software to run it at the same time, you can get rid of ALOT of crap.
These guys are not the first to try to go for this idea. If someone uses their patent, it will be AMD.
Inflame will never be used. Joe Homemaker will want something to plug into his TV that is familiar and work immediately. That means Apple or Windows. These two systems will not ever run on a theory as above.
The Ignite will probably be used, though it will be sold under an AMD logo.