technology

No comment.

GPGPUs are interesting and they’re coming.  There’s an interesting bit about Nvidia and AMD’s new chips here at The Inquirer. This slideshow made by Mike Houston of Stanford University does a better job of explaining why GPGPUs than Wikipedia’s page.  For anyone who is IT illiterate a graphic processing unit (GPU) is the core of the part of your computer that renders graphics, and its floating point (the way a computer represents real numbers – decimals etc.) operation speed is often significantly faster (depending on the type of calculation) than the computer’s CPU.

My next computer is going to be an Apple Mac or souped-up multi-core Linux system. I’ve just about had it with Windows Vista. It’s not that it’s as bad as some people say, it’s just that it can’t be relied upon to do as it is told all of the time. For instance – I had an idea on the back of a headache and got an early night – as a result I’ve been up since six arsing around. Except Vista is doing something in the background and my system is seriously sluggish. I don’t know what it is doing in the background. I’ve launched the resource monitor, looked at the task manager, and I’m fucked if I know. So I’m going to have to ditch Vista. It’s an impediment.

I’m not so keen on having to buy Apple kit. It’s expensive compared to its PC equivalent. What I’m going to do instead is buy a medium priced Asus motherboard, an Intel Core 2 Duo, an 8800g_, and build myself a new system based around Linux. I’ll run XP in something like VMWARE so I can still use Mathcad. I want the system to be fast but not using bleeding edge components. Here’s what I’m thinking:

• ASUS P5KC AiLifestyle Series iP35 Socket 775 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard
• Corsair 4GB Kit (2×2GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL5(5-5-5-18) Heat Spreader Lifetime Warranty
• Intel Pentium Dual Core E2200 Socket 775 2.2GHz 800FSB Retail Boxed Processor
• Samsung SpinPoint HD501LJ 500GB SATAII Hard Drive 16MB Cache – OEM
• XFX 8800GS 384MB DDR3 (580MHz) Dual DVI TV Out PCI-E Graphics Card
• Coolermaster Elite 330 Black Case With CM eXtreme Power 460W PSU

That’s a list quickly thrown together and subject to change as I read more. That comes to about £350 including VAT, PCs really aren’t that difficult to put together, and Ubuntu is free. The processor will be overclocked – I’ve been told Core 2 based Intel chips are overclockable even with reference fans and at stock voltages.