5.4 Extending skills
36 Extract 6
Lecturer Let’s go back to this diagram for the moment to see how it can help with understanding how processing power is developing. First of all, tell us about the processors you chose.
Leila Well, the report had a lot of different measurements to differentiate between the types of processor and we thought it was very useful. Didn’t we, Majed?
Majed Absolutely. There were lots of processors and lots of measurements. It was quite difficult to decide which to choose, but, in the end, we chose the ones which showed the biggest difference.
Extract 7 Majed
Jack Evie
It was difficult to find reliable data on the performance of the processors, but one of the articles on the reading list helped us a lot with the measurements.
Sorry, I don’t follow. Could you possibly explain why the article was important?
Majed Well, the report had a lot of different measurements, and it was really difficult to decide which was the most important. The article had a list of key measurements, so we were able to use that when we decided what to use.
Extract 8
Lecturer Any other ideas? Evie
I’m sorry, but has anybody made the point that we are not really comparing the same things here? You are using different measurements for the different chips. I don’t think that we can compare complex instructions on an x86 processor with a single, simple multiplication step in a TPU.
Leila
Extract 9 Jack
No, that’s a good point, Evie, and it hasn’t been mentioned yet.
So you’re saying that even though you could have used different measurements, for the purposes of the chart you just used the ones which showed the difference more clearly.
Majed Jack
Extract 10 Evie
Yes, that’s right. For example, the clock speed was used as the measurement for the x86 processors, even though we know there are other variables which affect the speed. OK, I think that’s clear.
I read an article which said that using a real-world measurement, like processing a specific image, would be more realistic than using chip speeds.
Leila Extract 12
Lecturer This is all very interesting, isn’t it? So, what do you think is the most important point you want to make?
Leila Well, if we go back to the chart, we can see that it shows an absolutely huge increase in the number of transactions which the new processors can carry out. I think this is very significant, even if they are only simple transactions. I agree!
Majed
Extract 13 Jack
Leila Evie
I saw a post on a discussion board where they said that world demand for x86 type processors would fall really quickly.
I’m not sure that’s true. The articles we read seemed to suggest that demand for x86 processors would remain steady for at least a few years.
I think that Leila is correct. It takes at least a few years for computer companies to change their designs and begin manufacturing the new products.
Extract 14 Evie
Lecturer
I don’t know if this is relevant, but I read an article which said that a lot of the processing power on a chip is not really used, so the speeds don’t show the true picture.
I think it is relevant. Majed and Leila, do you have any comments on that?
Majed Well, I think Leila looked at that at the beginning – so I think she can explain it better than I can …
Majed Well, as Leila has said already, there were lots of processors and lots of measurements and it was quite difficult to decide which to choose.
Leila
It sounds like a good idea, Evie, but it’s very difficult to find an image processing task which is suitable for the different types of processor.
Extract 11 Leila
So the purpose of presenting this data is to show the different speeds of processors, but it also shows that there are changes in the way we can compare the power of different processors. Older comparisons like counting transistors and measuring clock speed isn’t really enough.
If I understand you correctly, you’re saying that Moore’s law – doubling of transistors and halving of price – isn’t the only way we can measure improvements in processors.
Exactly. So, we need to think about what the chips are designed to do, not just how fast they can do it.
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