Ask HN: Why are older processors slower at the same frequency?

Re:Ask HN: Why are older processors slower at the same frequ... by ksec on Sunday September 25, 2022 @02:03AM (#32969301)

>I think looking at the GHz and number of cores is not enough anymore.

It never was. The whole era of Pentium 4 and Centrino, or PowerPC vs x86.

>I am a software engineer so I am pretty knowledgeable in the topic of computers in general, but this specific question continues to bother me.

I think this pretty much sums up modern day Software Engineer in the industry. Is the lack of knowledge in hardware. Everything is so abstracted most people think of it as someone else's problem. Until now when Moore's law is finally dead.

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Re:Ask HN: Why are older processors slower at the same frequ... by etamponi on Sunday September 25, 2022 @04:36PM (#32975907)

To be honest I don't think this is entirely true. I'd say it's more the fact that actually _experimenting_ and _learning_ these kind of things on the field requires very specialized knowledge and a lot of time. I'd be more than happy to learn a programming language (or some other, similar thing) that helps me understand how IPC work and the effects of caching.

The fact that processor producers have put all of this under a big "implementation details" sign makes it very difficult to develop an effective knowledge.

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Re:Ask HN: Why are older processors slower at the same frequ... by ostenning on Monday September 26, 2022 @01:03AM (#32979614)

Imo this is why it’s useful to discern a engineer from a developer. A developer can pickup a high level abstraction easily without ever needing to think about low level issues, and then comfortably stick to that silo for many years

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Re:Ask HN: Why are older processors slower at the same frequ... by jmartin2683 on Sunday September 25, 2022 @08:44AM (#32970775)

^ this. This is absolutely horrifying.

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