Robert Pogson

Both AMD and Intel are increasing the cores per CPU this year. This will be particularly useful in high performance computing (HPC) and servers but is kind of silly for most desktop users. For the consumer this will be one way to increase the unit price when the technology should allow adequate processing power to fall in cost. Consumers should beware and stick to the multicore technology for servers and multimedia stations but use lower-end devices in their terminals/netbooks/smartphones. The advantages of Moore’s Law are lost if one keeps ramping up the cores for all applications.

Here are some cost per MIPS calculations:

See? The sweet spot for CPU performance per dollar and watts per MIPS is near the low end. That is the place for client PCs. Use the hot stuff only where it is needed by the end-user, not the marketing department of Wintel who are desperately trying to keep up the average selling price of PCs. Be a wise shopper. If you don’t use that other OS and you use thin clients, you will have the best performing system at the lowest cost.