When Inspirations Strikes...

Early on I became a big fan of AMD (Adanced Micro Devices) for a number of reasons: they were the underdog and Intel needs competition; for a long time they were way more innovative than Intel (and may still be); their computers ran faster than Intel's on less GHz (which was really cool); they were the golden child of overclocking (sort of like a hot rod car).

My first dream system was what AMD called the 4 x 4 - it was two dual-core CPUs (4 cores) and two dual-GPU graphics cards (4 GPUs). This was pretty much the maximum you could pack in a desktop box.

There were a lot of different things I wanted to do with this system - but mostly I wanted to build it because it could be built.

AMD were the first to have an Intel compatible NUMA architecture. That stands for Non-Uniform Memory Architecture. What it means is that each CPU had it's own bank of memory. This was dramatically different than Intel's conservative FSB (Front Side Bus) where each CPU had to fight the others for access to memory. In a nutshell this doubles the bits-per-second you could access memory. The hitch is that the Operating System needs to know how to schedule the work most efficiently amongst all the CPUs, but newer operating systems, like Windows 7, are getting better at that. I have no direct experience with NUMA systems and I wanted to get some more experience which was my biggest inspiration. Note: to create a NUMA system you need at least two separate CPUs - which is why I plan to call my new computer system Gemini.

AMD invented HyperTransport. This is basically how the CPUs talk to each other and to the other devices like disk, network, etc. In Intel's FSB each CPU had to share the FSB with all the other CPUs, the memory, and all the devices. Basically the FSB becomes a bottle neck for transmitting data - sort of like the weakest chain in the link - or like when there is only one cashier on duty at the bank. With HyperTransport each CPU has it's own dedicated path to every other CPU and to the other devices.

AMD developed a brand new CPU called the Phenom - it was 4 cores on one chip - or a quad-processor. Intel had quad-processors too, but they did this by sticking two separate dual-core chips together. Less elegant, but it worked. Unfortunately for some reason AMD's new star-child, the Phenom, did not perform as well as Intel's quad-cores - mostly because Intel had better 45nm chip technology, whereas AMD were still using 90 nm.

For many years AMD had faster processors than Intel, that cost less money to buy. At first this didn't affect Intel because people just bought Intel because of the brand recognition - sort of like why people buy PCs rather than Macs. Eventually enough businesses clued into the fact they could save more money and get more work done using AMD processors, and AMD's market share began to increase - especially in the server market. To add insult to injury everyone just knew AMD just had better more innovative technology than Intel.

For a while Intel also had an advantage because they offered many computer manufacturers deep discounts if they didn't use or delayed using AMD parts. Consequently AMD is suing Intel successfully for breaking anti-competition laws.

Now Intel are no dummies and they are 10 times larger than AMD - their pride was seriously hurt. Intel used its substantial resources to create a completely new computer architecture - well new for Intel. Actually what they did was copy most of the design of AMD's technology, but they were able to do a better job of it. The result is called the Nehalem - or Core i7 which is still faster than AMD's second generation Phenom - or Phenom II.

While I still root mostly for AMD, I'm as selfish as the next person, so I waited until Intel finally had what I wanted - the AMD Phenom architecture - only faster. Recently Intel have finally released the Xeon 5500 series of computers - which lets you run dual-CPUs, utilize NUMA, and otherwise create a two-CPU computer that I was dreaming of.

AMD have unquestionably proved that competition helps the consumer - because if it wasn't for AMD Intel would still be making the same mediocre computers they did years ago.

So my bottom line inspiration for Gemini is that it has to have two CPUs.