Computer tech blog

Smokey · March 26, 2009, 09:13:27 PM

wasn't that silver? at least that's what i've seen (waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back) in science class once... That silver has a little higher electrical and thermal conductivity...

Dr. Mario · March 27, 2009, 12:24:30 PM

The today's science has proven that Copper's actually the first, Silver the second, why? Because Copper has specific crystalline structure. They even also tried to heat it to see if they would witness any drop in Ohmic value. That's also why Athlon K7, throughout to Phenom II have interconnections made of Copper.

Smokey · March 27, 2009, 07:25:44 PM

And Intel named on of their cores Coppermine... Interesting, i always believed it was a price issue... ^_^

Dr. Mario · March 28, 2009, 12:55:17 AM

Unfortunately, Intel didn't use Copper in the Coppermine, until Tualatin's 130nm SOI process forced them to. (That was to prevent the voltage consumption from going out of whack. Remember why Intel recalled the toasty 5 Volts DC Pentium?)

Smokey · March 28, 2009, 07:07:20 AM

ahhh, those lying bastards....

At least old processors were noble, with lotsa (in comparison) gold in them... ^_^

Dr. Mario · March 28, 2009, 10:46:42 AM

Yeah, I know... -_-;
Intel always get in big trouble.

BTW, Pentium is also indeed a interesting CPU, because its FPU can perform precise mathematic processing, beating any of TI calculators.

Smokey · March 28, 2009, 11:33:02 AM

:/ wait, isn't that something any CPu should be ablt to do since the last ten years or so?

Dr. Mario · March 28, 2009, 07:24:20 PM

Yeah, and Athlon K7 was no exception.

And also I wonder, what should I do with Cell processor in one of my workstation. Hmm.

Smokey · March 28, 2009, 07:33:39 PM

What, no exception in being more of an electric grill than a processor? ^_^

I remember those early athlons, they could get really hot without complaining, because they had no thermal protection circuitry...

Dr. Mario · March 29, 2009, 07:15:09 PM

Yeah, and saw some of 'em commiting seppuku on Youtube video when a dude removed a heatsink - only Intel CPU survived that by slowing down.

Couldn't think of what I wanna throw at Cell processor - Too many things to imagine... (drifting in euology) BTW, what software do you think I should look for, while demostrating Cell's power. Prime95's useless, it's deemed too easy for this kind of CPU. Open Source, please (since if I get to use a x86 Cell BE, I might want to port it into x86 architecture.)

Smokey · March 30, 2009, 06:09:09 AM

SuperPi or HyperPi is very popular in the overclocking community, they run it and screenshot it with it running alongside a monitoring tool wich shows temperatures etc.... And of course some sort of benchmarking program showing the Tflops and Tips...

Dr. Mario · March 30, 2009, 08:19:42 AM

Seem good enough. Also I would run Prime95 to see what's the difference between those program while running it on multi-core SPEs (NT kernel would be run on XPE core [x86 Processing Element], naturally because it's a bootstrap processor. While that means XPE is the core that boots up first, it has easier control over SPEs within Windows.)

I may post a screenshot of x86 Cell BE working its magic on GreenOmega 64 (with command-prompt based FFT calculation), when I grab the chance to do so.

Smokey · March 30, 2009, 09:33:43 AM

Cool, please do... Meanwhile, i will be trying to get my very first Mac up and running...
Bought myself a powerMac G3 at a second hand shop while i was actually looking for old parts for a Duron 1100 for a friend... Only â,¬17,50, so i just couldn't resist... ^_^

Added after 59 minutes:

Okay, although i got it to boot up (finally, i had to put the Graphics card in a 64bit slot and remove a faulty DIMM), but now i am greeted by an icon wich alternates between an Mac smikley and a questionmark...
Yay Mac for being so specific about your errors...

Dr. Mario · March 30, 2009, 02:29:07 PM

Okay, it happened to me - it does have the same problems as the PC. (No surprise, really.) What you're seeing is that some parts has failed POST or it's looking at bad boot sector. Just be sure that you're using the apples-certified parts, which contains PowerPC instructions onto it. If so, first try replacing IDE / SCSI cable onto the hard drive. If still unsuccessful, format the hard drive. There are rare chance the Macintosh G3 / G4 system at the pawnshop containing dead hard drive, so please check.

Smokey · March 30, 2009, 03:29:53 PM

Thought so, i was thinking of reinstalling OS9, to see if that helps... And i reckon that the installation disc of a MacOS would have similar disk tools that a windows install disc has...

That system has been upgraded though, there is more RAM and an 80Gb harddisk alongside (i think) the original...
But i haven't tried everything yet, so i will continue to work on her...

This is my first Desktop Mac, so i will not give her up that easily...
[dramatic doctor] She's still alive, i will not lose her, dammit![/dramatic doctor]
^_^

Added after 55 seconds:

Also, i was pleasantly surprised to see a Socket A in there...(I always open up my PC's before i do anything else ^_^)