[–] zak_the_mac 1 point 0 points 1 point (+1|-1) ago
If it improves the battery life of my phone, then that's a great thing. Modern chips are plenty fast enough already, it's mostly inefficient software that makes them seem slow. A decade of holding the speed the same might finally cause people to fix up their slow code.
[–] Caboose_Calloway 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
7nm will be the last step in the ladder. After that it is not logic but more like statistics. That transistor might be turned on but there is a 25% chance it may not be. If you go smaller it gets even worse.
[–] Turnip_Time 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
That transistor might be turned on but there is a 25% chance it may not be.
Is this caused by electrons leaking or something else entirely?
[–] Ghetto_Shitlord 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
You get fun quantum effects, like electrons tunneling past closed gates, and circuits too small to properly carry an electron as well. Future efforts are to try to harness the quantum stuff to do calculations. Look up spintronics. This is where 1's and 0's are represented by electron spin, and is debatably considered the next step.
There are of course quantum computers, but that's a longer way off. One of the major issues is that by observing the quantum system, you may or may not change the result. There is a mod for minecraft called qcraft, that attempts to simulate these heady concepts on a macro scale, so it's easier to wrap your head around it.
[–] khalkhapolabear 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago
Energy efficient while same speed or at the expense of speed? I am going to buy faster CPU regardless. Are they saying that they would make only that CPU?
[–] west_pac 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago
This is confusing to me too. There's only one specification I look at when buying a CPU: benchmark. I'll buy the fastest one my budget can afford. Sometimes I'll go budget on the graphics card just to increase my CPU + mobo budget. Energy consumption is not a figure I give a shit about except when calculating what size PSU to install. If Intel haven't made a new processor that is faster than the old one then I won't be interested. I'll buy whatever is nearest the top of the benchmarks.
I mean serious gamers are already preferring the Xeon, which is Intel's business chip. That will continue if Intel treats the consumer market as if they're less performance concerned and/or tech savvy than the business market.
[–] forgetmyname 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
if one were in the business, one would make very sure to design to get high rest results on all the benchmarks to prove you have a great product worth a premium over your competition?
[–] forgetmyname 0 points 4 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago
Hard drives are entirely different segment of the industry than CPUs. You are comparing tires to the price of gas.
[–] [deleted] ago
[–] west_pac 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
There was a time, about 8 or 9 years ago, when computer's overall speed was limited by the various bottlenecks in the complete system. These were things like the front side bus, serial bus, memory, hard drive transfer speed, etc. Those times have passed.
Generally speaking, as of right now, modern solid state memory drives, memory, and busses can load and transfer information MUCH faster than a processor can chew through it. So really hard drives aren't going to need a speed increase for maybe another half a decade at least. The biggest challenge facing hard drives is for disks to compete with solid state, and for solid state to grow in storage capacity to the point that it makes disk drives obsolete.
Also, the physical size-on-disk of programs is unrelated to the amount of processing power required to run them. Programs are likely to get bulkier and bulkier in order to reduce processing times, because rendering takes more power than storing pre-rendered data.
[–] ForgotMyName ago
These answers are hilarious. OP, your question makes no sense.
Why would CPU power consumption affect the hard drive market? In what way are you talking about HDDs "expanding"? HDDs are only for mass storage now anyway, everyone uses SSDs for everything else.