Re: 3.9.8

>Thanks, I had seen it described that way, but being a young and
>inexperienced thing I had not realised that there was a different,
>'original terminology'.  (I've heard 'socket' used for something else
>entirely, so it is all very confusing!)

I find it so, but from the other end of course :).  

Originally processor was the term that is now being replaced
by "core".  SMP meant "symmetric multiprocessor", which essentially meant
non-NUMA.  Nowadays, SMP is often used to mean "shared-memory-processor",
which includes NUMA.  When multiple processors started appearing on the
same die, we added CMP, for chip multiprocessor.

Then, someone had the brainwave to redefine the word processor (because
the SMP/SMP confusion wasn't adequate, I suppose).  I believe Intel calling
their new chips "Core" was just the logical extension of the devolvement
of our terminology into complete incomprehensability (I eagerly await their
next several lines of architectures, which I suppose will be called
"processor", "architecture" and "chip").  

The first time I was aware of this nifty new terminology overload was when
reviewing a grant proposal, where I noticed that the authors had seemed to
redefine processor in a weird way, and I was fixing to tell them to please use
the standard terminology in their grant applications going forward, when a
friend said that they'd seen that terminology as the new "standard".

Frankly, I hate it.  I've spent 15 years talking about doing the fundamental
unit of computation occuring on the processor, and now I'm supposed to call
that "core", and change the meaning of processor to mean physical package
(one physical package goes into one socket on the motherboard, is where
the 'socket' usage comes from).

Anyway, I realize the boat has already sailed, but I have used "processor"
too long to able to make the change stick now :)

Cheers,
Clint

**************************************************************************
** R. Clint Whaley, PhD ** Assist Prof, UTSA ** www.cs.utsa.edu/~whaley **
**************************************************************************

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Open Source Business Conference (OSBC), March 24-25, 2009, San Francisco, CA
-OSBC tackles the biggest issue in open source: Open Sourcing the Enterprise
-Strategies to boost innovation and cut costs with open source participation
-Receive a $600 discount off the registration fee with the source code: SFAD
http://p.sf.net/sfu/XcvMzF8H
_______________________________________________
Math-atlas-devel mailing list
Math-atlas-devel@...
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/math-atlas-devel