New Hyperion Entertainment Website http://a-eon.com/ - The Mystery Continues

[Hammer]

All this talk of x86 this...x86 that....

Has it ever occurred to anyone the x86 viability roadmap is coming to an end, even with multiple cores?  Perhaps the new hardware is onto something with the nod, assisted of course at first by a beefed up PPC 'co-processor', to the use of a transputer.

I personally don't think Intel even knows the future in any certain terms, as the P4 debacle probably best most recently illustrated when they fell behind AMD, albeit briefly.

As for "x86 viability roadmap is coming to an end" subject, AMD Bulldozer(1) and AMD Llano(1)(2) indicates otherwise.

1. Inlcudes Intel AVX's 256bit wide SIMD and reverse hyperthreading.
2. Includes DX11 type GpGPU with 480 SPs.

[Hammer]

but there aren't any PowerPC CPUs for the desktop market that are competitive with even midrange x86 CPUs like the Core2 and Phenom II

The Cell in the PS3 has 8 cores clocked at 3,2 GHz, granted only 6 of those area available to the developer. Linux performes very well on the PS3. Its very cheap and I know people who use is as their desktop computer.

Also, you really need to look at performace vs powerconsumption. Which Intel x86 based CPU only uses less than the 440? and still gives the same performance.

I dont know eveyrthing there is to know about CPUs far from it, but my guess is that the CELL is more than powerfull enough and that the PPC does have a future.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_(microprocessor)

Linux feature was removed from PS3 Slim. CELL's SPEs competes against GpGPUs.