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Example research essay topic: Amount Of Time Silicon Chip - 2,049 words

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omputers. I should start by saying that the Moores law is a theory developed in 1965 by Mr. Gordon Moore, one of the founding fathers of Intel. The theory basically states that the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits had doubled every year since the integrated circuit was invented. I should note that Mr. Moore predicted that this trend would continue for the foreseeable future, yet did not specify how foreseeable.

In subsequent years (1970 s- 1990 s), the pace slowed down a bit, but data density has doubled approximately every 18 months, and this is the current definition of Moore's Law, which Moore himself has blessed (Cushman, 34). Most experts, including Moore himself, expect Moore's Law to hold for at least another two decades, and should disappear in the year 2017, when the hardware manufacturers are expected to invent a completely new technology rather than silicon chips. The need for new technology is apparent-the companies reach the physical limit of silicon as the layers become thinner and thinner (Chambers, 87). It should also be noted that Moore in fact showed an electromagnetic image of a microprocessor made under Intel's currently cutting-edge ." 25 micron" chip production technology, in which the individual atomic layers could be counted and identified (Anderson, 62). I will also add that as chip production processes get smaller and smaller, more and more transistors can be crammed into a chip, which results in an increase in performance since new performance features can be added.

Also, the chip's speed increases since the distance between the transistors is reduced. The key players like AMD, Intel, Motorola, Cyrix, Apple McIntosh are currently making most of their processors on a. 35 micron process but is slowly moving production to the more advanced. 25 process. The next step is to move to a. 18 production process, which will be a sign of a fifth generation computers. This is expected to be the new direction of computer manufacturing with chip miniaturization (Gooking, ).

Moores theory also implies more than a number of transistors per silicon chip but rather a new trend in computer manufacturing. For instance, it is a well known fact that as microprocessor circuits get smaller, more silicon real estate will be devoted to features that are now found as discrete hardware in a computer. Functions to be integrated onto the central silicon chip of the future -- analogous to today's microprocessor -- include modems, graphics chips, and memory control, let alone other peripherals. This so called new technology would be called system on a chip (Freiberger, 115).

Speaking about the processor architecture I would like to note that currently there are two: RISC (reduced instruction set computers) and CISC (complex instruction set computers). Speaking about CISC I should note that the primary goal of CISC architecture is to complete a task in as few lines of assembly as possible (Jain, 36). This is achieved by building processor hardware that is capable of understanding and executing a series of operations. For most usual tasks, a CISC processor would come prepared with a specific instruction (lets call it "SET").

Lets take a regular multiplication example. When executed, this instruction loads different values into separate registers, multiplies the operands in the execution unit, and then stores the product in the appropriate register (Cushman, 37). If x, y, z are the registers, the CISC only needs to specify to SET which registers to use for what operation. Thus, the entire task of multiplying two numbers can be completed with one instruction: SET x: y, stored in z SET is what is known as a "complex instruction. " It operates directly on the computer's memory banks and does not require the programmer to explicitly call any loading or storing functions.

It closely resembles a command in a higher level language. For instance, if we let "a" represent the value of 2: 3 and "b" represent the value of 5: 2, then this command is identical to the C statement "a = a b. " I should also draw the readers attention to the fact that one of the primary advantages of this system is that the compiler has to do very little work to translate a high-level language statement into assembly. Because the length of the code is relatively short, very little RAM is required to store instructions. The emphasis is put on building complex instructions directly into the hardware and that is the primary definition of CISC (Chambers, 91). The so called RISC processors use simple instructions that can be executed within one clock cycle.

Thus, the "SET" command described above for CISC in RISC has to be divided into three separate commands: "LOAD, " which moves data from the memory bank to a register, "MULTIPLY, " which finds the product of two operands located within the registers, and "STORE, " which moves data from a register to the memory banks (Cushman, 39). In order to perform the exact series of steps described in the CISC approach (SET), a programmer would need to code four lines of assembly: LOAD x (from some register) LOAD y (from some register) MULTIPLY x, y STORE in z At first, this may seem like a much less efficient way of completing the operation. Because there are more lines of code, more RAM is needed to store the assembly level instructions. The compiler must also perform more work to convert a high-level language statement into code of this form. However, the RISC strategy also brings some very important advantages.

Because each instruction requires only one clock cycle to execute, the entire program will execute in approximately the same amount of time as the multi-cycle "MULT" command. These RISC "reduced instructions" require less transistors of hardware space than the complex instructions, leaving more room for general purpose registers. Because all of the instructions execute in a uniform amount of time (i. e.

one clock), pipelining is possible (Jain, 40). Separating the "LOAD" and "STORE" instructions actually reduces the amount of work that the computer must perform. After a CISC-style "SET" command is executed, the processor automatically erases the registers. If one of the operands needs to be used for another computation, the processor must re-load the data from the memory bank into a register. In RISC, the operand will remain in the register until another value is loaded in its place. Thus, it is apparent that RISC does no longer remain inefficient (Freiberger, 118).

Speaking about 64 -bit processors and their advantage over 32 -bit processors I should note that the advantage for the common users might go undetected. The difference between 64 bit and 32 bit processor is their ability to work with data. Thus, in simpler terms, in order for a 32 bit processor to accomplish a set of commands with the same speed as for the 64 bit processor, the 32 bit processor has to have a clock speed about twice as high as it can be in a 64 bit processor (Chambers, 93). What that implies, is that as it becomes rather hard for companies to constantly improve the CPU clock speed, the CPU performance can be improved by making them 64 bit. Because the majority of computer users do not use CPU-intensive programs (Actually for the majority of us, the CPU works about 2 % of the total time we actually spend in front of a computer). Yet, as the world moves towards voice-recognition software, commands, and smart machines that need to process huge amounts of information (visual, audio, etc), the 64 bit processors are also going to be out beat by 128 + bit processors (Cushman, 45).

Speaking about multi-processor technology I should note that shared-memory multiprocessors are an enabling technology for high-performance computing because of their general-purpose nature, simple programming interface, and their exploitation of commodity components which makes them cost-effective (Jain, 42). The modern technology of multiprocessors are based on the RISC type computers with their superb ability to multithreading and pipelining. In simple words, multiprocessor systems are regular computers that posses more than one CPU (central processor) to work better on the given tasks. Each of the processors is given a part of the task to complete in order to accomplish the task much faster as it can be done with one processor. Lets make an illustration. When you use your computer to type your homework, and listen some WinAmp music, your single processor constantly switches between sound-related tasks, and visual tasks, let alone a great number of other tasks (hardware checking, power control, etc).

Because the processor is fast enough, you are able to do several simple things at the same time without feeling discomfort (Cushman, 49). Although in theory, the processor dedicates an instance to your music, an instance to your WordPad and an instance to other things, in practice it is not noticeable. Yet if you load some modern computer game (Need for Speed 3, Max Payne etc. ) and try to turn on some music you are likely to notice problems as your CPU would not be able to accomplish these millions of tasks at a speed to make it unnoticeable to your eye and ear (let alone the fact that your RAM would also not suffice the requirements of several large tasks). In Multiprocessor technology, a separate processor (or several of them depending on the multiprocessor system configuration) will be responsible for a given task. Thus, one might not need a sophisticated CPU but rather 4 normal processors working in a team to enjoy virtually anything that one might need on a computer.

A brief note is that, if one of the processors fails, the other (3 in our case) will pick up the task and accomplish it (Freiberger, 120). It should be noted that the US military, NASA, and weather forecasting companies use supercomputers, all of which are based on a multiprocessor technology. Today multiprocessor technologies are used for on-line transaction processing (OLTP), decision-support systems (DSS), and telecom applications. These applications play an increasingly important role and pose a challenge for multiprocessor architects, especially regarding the design of the memory hierarchy (Chambers, 96).

Speaking about different types of CPUs I should note that their number and the areas of use are unlimited. Most of the modern commodities are equipped with some sort of chip. Starting with a regular calculator, burglar alarms (movement detectors), GPS, mobile phones, mobile PC, microwave owens, washing machines, VCRs, TVs, laundromats, dishwashing machines, electronic pets, sony playstation, palmpilot's, etc. , etc. possess different types of cpus. What one has to keep in mind is that each of these CPUs are intended mainly for a given good and a set of operations (Jain, 45). Thus, If computer chips can be programmable and flexible enough handle different tasks (from watching movies, to typing, to construction spreadsheets), the washing machines possess a CPU that controls the laundry process (time needed, water, detergent, cycles, drying, etc. ) and is not reprogrammable.

It should be noted though that much effort is currently done to assure that compute chips get the most advances, yet more and more companies enter the chip-making industry for less sophisticated technology (Freiberger, 122). In conclusion I would like to speak a little about the future trends and technological advances. First of all it appears that more and more efforts is done to create smart machines (smart phones, smart cars, smart weapons) that would certainly need much processing power to analyze visual, or audio data. It is likely that multiprocessing systems are going to enter the majority of such machines to facilitate the data analysis. The new technology is likely to develop in the first world nations, USA, Japan and Europe, with the third world countries serving as the important market for less-modern chips and technology. Bibliography: Cushman, Pauline, Schaum's Outline of Introduction to Computer Science, McGraw Hill, 2002.

Freiberger, Paul, Fire in the Valley: The Making of The Personal Computer, Prentice Hall, 2001. Chambers, Mark, Mac OS X All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies, NY Random House, 2000. Jain, R, K, The Art of Computer Systems Performance Analysis: Techniques for Experimental Design, Measurement, Simulation, and Modeling, Prentice Hall, 2001. Gooking, Dan, PC's for Dummies Quick Reference, Penguin books, 2002. Anderson, J S, Microprocessor Technology, Oxford University Press, 2000.


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Research essay sample on Amount Of Time Silicon Chip

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