CPU Question

[imported_Noob]

What is a transistor and what is its function? Is it what connects the pipelines together or something?

 

[theMan]

here ya go

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Yep, a processors is basically a whole lot of tiny switches. The pipeline is the path or distance the signal has to travel to complete a calculation cycle. And the speed the signal is traveling is the MHZ. Look at the pipeline as a race track, the longer the track is the faster you can go, but it takes more time to complete a lap on the longer track. So when the output is measured as laps completed(IPC) a slower car on a smaller track, has the advantage in perfomance and reliability because it can accumulate "laps completed" quicker at a slower speed, and expending less energy.

Intels architecture was designed to increase the speed, while AMD's design focused on output or calculations per second by shortening the track. Intel wizely implanted the implied connection between MHZ and performance in the general computing publics mind, through there advertizing campains. This has allowed them to maintain their dominance in the industry.