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A comment on Open source process design kit for usage with SkyWater Foundry's 130nm node. Parent comment

Re:Open source process design kit for usage with SkyWater Fo... by Taek on Tuesday June 16, 2020 @02:35PM (#23542534)
The point is that you can do useful, practical modern computing on a 130nm node. It's obviously not going to compete with flagship 7nm processors, but it's not like you are working with commodore64 level stuff.

You can run modern operating systems on 130nm processors and they will keep up with most everyday tasks. No machine learning, no compiling Firefox, no gaming, but it should be good enough for basic development, browsing the web, checking email, watching 1080p video, etc.

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Re:Open source process design kit for usage with SkyWater Fo... by NovemberWhiskey on Tuesday June 16, 2020 @06:54PM (#23545320)
>watching 1080p video

Perhaps with specialized instructions to support decoding. Or a discrete graphics card to do the same.

Many contemporaneous reports show owners of Pentium 4 processors complaining about being unable to manage smooth 720p h.264 playback in software even with 100% CPU utilization; and 1080p was completely non-viable.

So now we have a 50+W TDP processor with a graphics accelerator and it will begin to compete with (if we back away from the bleeding edge 7nm stuff as you suggest) a Raspberry Pi Zero, which costs $15 shipped. I mean, OK, but what's the goal we're chasing here?

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