[olePigeon]

Well, I can't get the damn search to work in the new forum to find the original thread (maybe someone else would have more luck.) A while ago I proposed the idea that CPUs, PPU, GPUs, and APUs would be moving to a directly to a socketed motherboard, allowing a user to upgrade any component they wish, similar to the Cell architecture, but more module and for processing units other than floating point and/or integer.

So here it is.

Not as elaborate as my prediction, but still very similar. Sockets directly on the motherboard where users can upgrade the individual components without buying an entirely new card. It is possible that in the near future after this technology is adopted, they'll move to a generic socket system that will allow you to mix and match which components you want, giving you more power in the desired areas; be it graphics, audio, physics, or fp and/or int computation.

[slpdLoad]

Cool, but unless I don't fully understand what you're proposing, how is this solution better than PCI cards? You can "mix and match" upgrade a PC with graphics, audio, and physics cards as it is. A lot of CPUs are swappable, too.

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by slpdLoad 

Cool, but unless I don't fully understand what you're proposing, how is this solution better than PCI cards? You can "mix and match" upgrade a PC with graphics, audio, and physics cards as it is. A lot of CPUs are swappable, too.

You can't easily (if it at all) upgrade any component in a laptop. On intro-level consumer desktops such as Mac minis and other low-profile, "integrated" computers, this would be a huge step.

Since each chip would be designed as a co-processor (yes, this is moving back in time to the Amiga) it wouldn't be bottlenecked by a PCI bus. It'd also be cheaper.

On top of all that, it's conceivable that we'll have arrays of independent, general sockets that will allow you to easily customize which aspects of your computer you want to enhance by adding more of whichever type of processor you want.

[olePigeon]

This isn't a troubleshooting thread, it's my future technology prediction thread. I'm 5 and 1 now.

[kamina]

The future of CPU's in short term is adding a lot of cores. The next step is turning those cores into more specialized units instead of just "a lot of cpu's on one socket". What you are mentioning is not so much the future of CPU's, rather the computing platform as a whole. It's a huge positive step forward for integrated computers, like the ones found in most offices (and Macs other then the Power Mac).

Sure there will always be a market for separate GPU's on a card, but there is a much larger market for well working simple setups that work and are cheap. AMD is going in the right direction (I guess Intel is going there too). Everybody does not need a computer with the fastest possible CPU, GPU ect.