[OT] multicore/cpu history

[Peter J. Holzer]

On 2018-02-19 12:39:51 +0100, Adriaan Renting wrote:
> >>> On 17-2-2018 at 22:02, in message
> <CAPTjJmpK5iACzM+f_SJauHSq0OAQkDpcJs-Zt6-acPy3KKLzYA at mail.gmail.com>,
> Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> wrote: 
> > On Sun, Feb 18, 2018 at 5:05 AM, Steven D'Aprano
> > <steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info> wrote:
> >> If you're talking about common desktop computers, I think you're
> >> forgetting how recent multicore machines actually are. I'm having
> >> difficulty finding when multicore machines first hit the market,
> >> but it seems to have been well into the 21st century -- perhaps as
> >> late as 2006 with the AMD Athelon 64 X2:
> > 
> > No, I'm talking about big iron. Has Python been running on multi-CPU
> > supercomputers earlier than that?
> > 
> >> By the way, multiple CPU machines are different from CPUs with
> >> multiple cores:
> >>
> >> http://smallbusiness.chron.com/multiple-cpu-vs-multicore-33195.html
> > 
> > Yeah, it was always "multiple CPUs", not "multiple cores" when I was
> > growing up.

Yes, but the difference is only an implementation detail. Once chips
became large enough that you could fit multiple cores on a single chip
it became cheaper (and faster) to do this than put each core on a
separate chip. Just like modern CPUs may contain a floating point unit,
a memory controller, SATA and ethernet controllers, etc. when previously
those would have been separate chips (or even separate cards).

> > And it was only ever in reference to the expensive
> > hardware that I could never even dream of working with. I was always
> > on the single-CPU home-grade systems.
> > 
> 
> Multicore became a thing with the Pentium 4 hyperthreading around ~2002
> for consumers, and
> multi cpu was a thing much longer, even with "consumer grade"
> hardware:
> 
> I remember running 2 Mendocino 300 MHz Celerons on a Pentium II Xeon
> motherboard to get a
> multi-cpu machine for running multiple virtual machines for testing
> purposes around 1998.

I I bought my first multi-processor computer (a dual pentium-90) in
1995. AFAIK the Pentium was the first Intel processor intended for SMP
(there were multiprocessor systems based on earlier intel processors but
they used custom chipsets and were very much not consumer-grade).

> This was not as Intel intended, but a quite cheap consumer grade
> hardware solution.

My dual pentium wasn't cheap, but the motherboard and the second
processor weren't that expensive. The 21" monitor OTOH ...
and did it have a tape drive? I don't remember, but I think it did.

        hp

-- 
   _  | Peter J. Holzer    | we build much bigger, better disasters now
|_|_) |                    | because we have much more sophisticated
| |   | hjp at hjp.at         | management tools.
__/   | http://www.hjp.at/ | -- Ross Anderson <https://www.edge.org/>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 833 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/attachments/20180325/22b6813b/attachment.sig>