The 10 Most Influential CPUs of All Time

[Brian_B]

The only solid use case I can think of for a cheap M1 Macbook is Excel. Performance is pretty decent compared to a noisy desktop especially in heavy multicore calculations and amazing for being fanless. I mostly use my MBA for watching movies.

I have an M1 MBP sitting on my desk and I can safely say it's the best laptop I've ever owned.

But... yeah, what igor says is true. I take it with me out in the field, but about the only thing I use it for is Excel, or when I need to write an email and it's too long to peck it out on the phone.

 

[Thunder 57]

Pentium 4 made the list.

GOOD

Of course you'd say that. It made the list for all of the wrong reasons if you read the article. Your fetish for the P4 is odd to say the least.

I think it's odd that they have the Pentium listed as 1993. I know for a fact (( And have the keychain to prove it)) that it was introduced in at LEAST 1992... had the floating point problem past the 6th decimal digit for calculations so they had to recall it. Made a lot of keychains... and yes I still have mine busted up coating on the 'cpu' at this point and all from over 30 years of pocket life with other keys. I was lucky to have owned a 486sx 20, that I upgraded to DX266, then a pentium 90, followed by an Celeron 300 cand bar processor if I remember correctly, then I think the Athalon 3200+, then a Q6600 Pentium, (FOUR CORE BABY) then a few others after that... too many to recall.

The year on a CPU doesn't mean it was made that year. It used to be in the serial number where you would look for a 4 digit number which would indicate the week/year the CPU was made. So "2213" would mean week 22 of year 2013. Memory works the same way and it will show up in Memtest86.

With everything having heatspreaders these days I don't think it's visible anymore. Maybe there is software that can read it? BTW it says Copyright 1992, which just means Intel Copyrighted the "Pentium" name in 1992 for future use. Also, although not exact, the Pentium G3258 "20th Anniversary Edition" didn't come out until 2014. It split the difference between the Pentium and Pentium Pro.

As for the list, I would remove the P4. I would swap the Pentium with the Pentium Pro. Pentium Pro was a game changer compared to the Pentium. Since I have room left after removing the P4 I would add a Ryzen of some sort, or maybe Epyc but the list seems to be consumer oriented.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Of course you'd say that. It made the list for all of the wrong reasons if you read the article. Your fetish for the P4 is odd to say the least.

We would be past 10 GHz by now if P4 had been kept alive in one form or another.

 

[Thunder 57]

We would be past 10 GHz by now if P4 had been kept alive in one form or another.

And you are basing that on what exactly?

 

[igor_kavinski]

And you are basing that on what exactly?

On some Zen 5 cores able to hit 6 GHz even on N4. Zen 5 is crazy more sophisticated and complex compared to the simpler pipelines of P4. It would've loved soaring on N4.

 

[Thunder 57]

On some Zen 5 cores able to hit 6 GHz even on N4. Zen 5 is crazy more sophisticated and complex compared to the simpler pipelines of P4. It would've loved soaring on N4.

So if it COULD hit 10GHz, the fact that is was far more simple means it would still be slower.

 

[igor_kavinski]

So if it COULD hit 10GHz, the fact that is was far more simple means it would still be slower.

But in frequency sensitive tasks, it would be unbeatable.

 

[LazyGamer]

But in frequency sensitive tasks, it would be unbeatable.

What about in room-heating tasks?

 

[igor_kavinski]

What about in room-heating tasks?

The room would definitely get heated well (the tasks would take their sweet time to complete). You know, in countries like Japan, they would've used the heat for something useful, like a coffee mug heater. When life gives you lemons, you squeeze them and make lemonade.

 

[Brian_B]

I guess if your main goal is just to win the Mhz war, then it's definitely possible to hit 10Ghz.

But I'm glad we kind of got off that train. Things got better quickly once we did (and the software caught up to SMP)

 

[Tyler-98-W68]

I have quite fond memories of the Socket A days. Were they influential cpu's maybe not to most but it sure woke into up to the race to 1ghz. Then intel tried a 1.13ghz P3 and it was basically overclocked and unstable, good times.

Managed to pick up a Duron 650 that was factory unlocked (meaning the L1 bridges were still intact) allowing multiplier adjustments to make it easy to OC, 650mhz to 1ghz was attainable, using a Globalwin FOP38, meaning it had the 7000rpm delta fan.

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

6502

 

[Ditchinit]

6502

This. Program with Assembler or go home. Apple Basic was bugged.

 

[igor_kavinski]

meaning it had the 7000rpm delta fan.

Did you use ear plugs? Fan noise becomes unbearable at anything over 3500 rpm.

 

[Tyler-98-W68]

Did you use ear plugs? Fan noise becomes unbearable at anything over 3500 rpm.

Nope, even had a hole cut in the side of my full tower case for an 80mm fan right above the heatsink, case sat on the floor under my desk. The noise wasn't that noticeable with it tucked under there.

It sure was a different era back then, high rpm fans were pretty much the norm for serious cooling. AIO's did not exist.