Re:Ask HN: 90s programmers, what did you expect the future o...
by ghaff on Tuesday June 22, 2021 @09:16AM
(#27591193)
>Moore's law is about transistor size shrinking, but that has an obvious end
Yes, but by itself that isn't a single core vs. multicore issue. It's a process node question generally.
That said, Intel in particular did try to push single-core frequency at least a beat too far. They demoed a 10GHz prototype at one IDF--and other companies were mocking them for it.
The story that a very senior Intel exec gave me at the time was something to the effect that, of course, they knew that they were going to have to go multi-core but Microsoft was really pushing back because they weren't confident in multicore desktop performance in particular.
Yes, but by itself that isn't a single core vs. multicore issue. It's a process node question generally.
That said, Intel in particular did try to push single-core frequency at least a beat too far. They demoed a 10GHz prototype at one IDF--and other companies were mocking them for it.
The story that a very senior Intel exec gave me at the time was something to the effect that, of course, they knew that they were going to have to go multi-core but Microsoft was really pushing back because they weren't confident in multicore desktop performance in particular.