That was only around 2000. There was a lot for me to get excited about since then:
* AMD64
* SMT
* Dual-core / multicore
* On-chip integrated graphics that weren’t awful (low-end discrete graphics aren’t a thing anymore)
* Gigantic L3 and L4 caches (a side-effect of on-chip graphics)
* Turbo mode making a comeback (yes, I know Turbo Mode switches actually slowed down computers)
Judging by Apple’s direction, it’s looking like we’ll start seeing actual (ultra-fast) RAM on-chip too, with Optane that could mean we can finally move-away from block-addressed storage and have a massive flat memory-space for everything .
I kinda laughed when AMD beat Intel to the punch not once, but TWICE. (1GHz, then 64b).
I also worked on the 740, 810 and 815 (both hardware and drivers, oddly, I did a lot of stuff). Game devs HATED us for the 810/815 because it was such huge volume they had to target it as the LCD.
RTL https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Register-transfer_level
RTL is a way to model a digital circuit and some common HW design languages are VHDL, Verilog amd Intel's proprietary iHDL.
Numbers are just Intel chipset families.
Why so? Few more material, and device generations are on the way. Litho has went through more generation changes in the last 1 decade, than in any previous one.
Whole new device classes are on the way: optics on silicon, new memory, logic in the backend, and logic on package.
Semiconductor engineering is still a career suicide though, that haven't changed in the last few decades.
> optics on silicon,
Yep! That and quantum and post VNeumann architectures. There's some weird shit on the horizon that I probably won't live to see in household products, but I don't think it will be be optical deposition by layer. It might, who knows, I"m officially talking out my arse now. :)
And not even for I/O, but for on-die communications, and busses.
High speed SERDES may well be replaced by same-die optics, as a lower transistor count, dumber, and cooler solutions.
This is so true. I am currently a hardware engineer and planning to switch to software. If you are not in Nvidia, Apple or other mega-growth hardware companies, you are suffering atleast 40% paycut compared to software industry and also working about twice as hard, using obsolete tools and flows, and almost no opportunities for technical advancement or significant impact. Meanwhile the annual raises are cost-of-living adjustments. Its truly depressing.
Wow, so I need to thank myself for accidentally bumbling towards ops and dev? Meh, for me it’s just that in EU there’s a total dearth of opportunities in the industry
Could you go into more detail?
The long term is that the industry will get less, and less labour intensive as more, and more old, labour intensive fabs are retired, and new ones are 100% AMHS.