Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Scumbria who wrote (59307)	5/22/1999 7:55:00 PM
From: Charles R	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 1572945

Pentium III-Based PCs Not A Huge Seller At Retail The iMac wasn't the only PC that wasn't very popular with shoppers last month. Despite a heavy ad campaign touting a faster Internet experience, PCs based on Intel's new Pentium III didn't crack the top 20 list of retail sales in April. Intel processors still managed to crack the list though, with Celeron's powering five of the top 20 and a Pentium II feeding one PC, according to the April figures from PC Data. Still, AMD's K6-2 proved to be the most popular processor overall, with K6-2 powered computers taking 10 out of the top 20 spots, including the number one position with Compaq's 5070 Presario. The remaining top spots were comprised of PowerPC Macs, a Cyrix MII, and the blueberry iMac. Here's the complete breakdown: Rank PC Vendor Unit Share $$ Share 1 Presario 5070 K6-2/350/MMX 32/4.0 32X 56K W98 Compaq 6.7% 4.9% 2 Pavilion 4445 Cel/366 64/4.3 32X 56K W98 Hewlett-Packard 6.0% 4.7% 3 Presario 5240 K6-2/400/MMX 64/10 40X 56K W98 Compaq 5.8% 6.0% 4 Pavilion 4430 K6-2/300/MMX 32/3.0 32X 56 W98 Hewlett-Packard 4.5% 2.5% 5 Pavilion 4455 Cel/400 64/6.4 32X 56 W98 MT Hewlett-Packard 3.9% 3.7% 6 Pavilion 6465 Cel/433 96/9.6 32X 56K W98 Hewlett-Packard 3.7% 4.3% 7 iMac G3/233 32/4.0 24X 56K NIC DT w/15" Monitor Apple Computer 3.6% 3.6% 8 Presario 5184 K6-2/380/MMX 64/6 32X 56K DT W98 Compaq 3.4% 3.1% 9 Aptiva 270 K6-2/400/MMX 64/8.0 32X 56K W98 IBM 3.1% 3.1% 10 eTower 333cs M2/333 32/2.1 32X 56K MT W98 E-Machines 3.0% 1.5% 11 Aptiva 240 K6-2/350/MMX 64/6.0 32X 56K W98 IBM 2.3% 2.2% 12 Presario 5280 Cel/433 96/12.0 40X Zip 56/ DSL W98 Compaq 2.1% 2.6% 13 Aptiva 500 K6-2/400/MMX 96/8.0 4XDVD 56K W98 IBM 1.7% 1.8% 14 Presario 5284 K6-2/450/MMX 96/19.0 4XDVD 56K/DSL W98 Compaq 1.5% 2.2% 15 PowerMac G3/300 64/6.0 24X OS8.5 Apple Computer 1.5% 2.4% 16 Cel/400 48/6.4 24X 56K W98 Private Label 1.4% 0.9% 17 iMac G3/333 32/6 24X 56K Blueberry w/15" Monitor Apple Computer 1.4% 1.8% 18 Presario 5220 K6-2/380/MMX 64/8.0 32X 56K LS-120 W98 MT Compaq 1.4% 1.1% 19 eTower 333K K6-2/333/MMX 32/3.2 24X 56K MT W98 E-Machines 1.4% 0.8% 20 Pavilion 6470Z Pentium II/400/MMX 96/12.7 32X 56k Zip W98 Hewlett-Packard 1.4% 1.8% Still, these numbers don't necessarily spell the end of the line for the Pentium III, especially since the aforementioned figures don't take into account the sales from mail-order stalwarts such as Dell, Micron, and Gateway. maximumpcmag.com

To: Scumbria who wrote (59307)	5/23/1999 8:06:00 PM
From: Gopher Broke	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572945

No doubt you can get performance boosts at the expense of complexity. In the scenario you describe, assuming the processor has dual paths for all computations (including the not-so-obvious assumptions like the compiler will need twice as many general purpose registers to be able to perform the same level of register optimization since it is now sharing them between two threads) then you can get twice the throughput over those sections of code where the thread instructions can be totally paralleled. FWIW my prediction is that it will work out cheaper to get the same throughput by running those two threads on a dual processor system.