Friday, May 2, 2008

MultiCore MultiBrain

AMD MultiBrain machine...

Or something like that. It popped up on my radar twice in one day and after the typical Google research it has become apparent this is simply another way of saying MultiCore. This term will not help and will only confuse.

The second time it occurred was on NPR during drive time. I cannot recall the show or episode but I do recall thinking "this is new I need to chase down what AMD is up to.."

The first time was on a Wall Street Journal podcast (I think). So you can see the pattern, venues for popularizing technology will start to use this Multi-Brain when they should say Multi-Core. No doubt some editor felt Multi-Core was too complex. When they were told that details. Hey look the new CPU designs have taken the core functionality of the CPU and duplicated it withinin the CPU multiple times.. the editor trotted out the old 1980s standby CPU=brain and since this gives you multiple CPU capability it must be "MULTI-BRAIN!"

Unfortunately when I hear Multi-Brian I think multiple CPU. And what is worse since no one says brain for cpu anymore, I'm thinking there is something new afoot. AMD must be value adding to the CPU to make it more brainy!

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