bit-tech reader RotoSequence writes to point out a very cool snippet of info over at French news site X86-Secret.
The info is about a potential new AMD processor. Allegedly, the green camp is developing a sort of “Anti-Hyperthreading,” which would allow two (or multiple) physical cores to emulate one physical core.
From the site (via Google translation): “Conscious that K8 architecture could not compete with the next high-speed motorboat of INTEL, all its hopes are for the moment based on a new ‘revolutionary’ technology (it is our opinion, not it his) on which AMD works in this moment for after-K8. This technology is in fact a kind of anti-HT: There or HyperThreading sought to emulate two virtual processors with a physical processor, it is a question for AMD of emulating a single virtual processor with two (or several) physical processors.”
This could be incredibly interesting. Early performance numbers suggest that AMD’s new AM2 platform won’t be able to compete with Conroe on raw native performance. However, if AMD can perfect the ability to make multiple cores appear as one, then it could take a massive performance lead in applications that are single-threaded – like the vast majority of games right now.
Source: bit-tech.net
U.S. software maker Oracle is considering launching a version of the Linux operating system and has looked at buying one of the two firms dominating the technology, the Financial Times newspaper reported on Monday.
The report, citing an interview with Oracle’s chief executive officer, Larry Ellison, said the move would redraw the software landscape and open a new front in Oracle’s long rivalry with U.S. rival Microsoft.
It said Ellison told the newspaper that Oracle wanted to sell a full range of software that, like Microsoft, included both operating system and applications.
“I’d like to have a complete stack,” Ellison was quoted as saying.
“We’re missing an operating system. You could argue that it makes a lot of sense for us to look at distributing and supporting Linux.”
The report said that like IBM, Oracle has counted on Linux–an open-source system whose code is open to anyone to view and adapt–to act as a counterweight to Microsoft’s Windows, which has expanded rapidly from desktop PCs into corporate IT systems.
As part of a recent study of the open-source software market, Ellison told the newspaper, Oracle had considered buying Novell, which after Red Hat is the biggest distributor of Linux.
Source : CNET News.com
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