What is the fastest CPU out there available today?

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cudzich09

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Feb 20, 2008
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Just like the title says. My teacher told me that it is not the quad core, g5 series(or something like that) I will get extra credit points on my test if its right.



THANK YOU
 
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AmberClad

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Jul 23, 2005
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Fastest in what measure?

- Fastest single-threaded?
- Highest clock frequency?
- Most overall computational power?
- Fastest platform? Or single CPUs only?
- Stock CPUs only?

What does G5 mean? Mac Pro G5? That's not a CPU, it's a whole system. In which case, maybe the teacher doesn't understand the distinction, and is looking for Skulltrail as the answer. Afaik though, you can get a G5 with a dual 3.2GHz Harpertown Xeon option, instead of the stock 2.8GHz Harpertowns.
 
J

JWade

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
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www.heatware.com
now when you say fastest, it can be misleading, fastest as in the highest mghz/ghz? or fastest performance wise? Common knowledge that a slower clocked C2D will outperform a faster/higher clocked Pentium D processor. so is it fastest as in performance or fastest as in straight mhz/ghz speed?
 
aigomorla

aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
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Sep 28, 2005
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the fastest public net cluster, which i think your teacher is asking is RoadRunner.

Features risc processors and sony cell technology. In a sense it is a G5 but the station takes an entire room. No Joke.

As for the FASTEST single chip processor, nothing and i say nothing will take crown against a intel i7 965. If you want to talk about CUDA, its probably the GTX280 that will spank even desktop processors.

Sorry AMD fans, but its a losing war against neha.


For the fastest chip I think created, you need to look at the NSA, or Pentagon, as they probably had neha class chips 5 yrs ago.
 
M

Martimus

Diamond Member
Apr 24, 2007
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Originally posted by: aigomorla
the fastest public net cluster, which i think your teacher is asking is RoadRunner.

Features risc processors and sony cell technology. In a sense it is a G5 but the station takes an entire room. No Joke.

As for the FASTEST single chip processor, nothing and i say nothing will take crown against a intel i7 965. If you want to talk about CUDA, its probably the GTX280 that will spank even desktop processors.

Sorry AMD fans, but its a losing war against neha.


For the fastest chip I think created, you need to look at the NSA, or Pentagon, as they probably had neha class chips 5 yrs ago.
Click to expand...

If we take GPU's into consideration, the RV770 has more raw processing power than the GT200 (1.2Terraflops). Of course, "fastest" could mean a whole lot of things, so whatever you write on your test, make sure that you explain your choice as to how it is the fastest in whatever area it is fastest at.

 
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Extelleron

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Dec 26, 2005
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That's not a very good question; it is far too generic. If you are looking for the fastest x86 CPU, even then you cannot come to a single answer.... are you looking for single-threaded or multi-threaded performance? Multi-threaded, Intel X7460 is the fastest, ST the Intel E8600 is the fastest.

You could also say that the human brain is the fastest processor available, but not on all types of problems. The brain can't calculate problems with numbers in the millions given all the time in the world, but even the slowest CPU from 20 yrs ago can do that in an instant.

Then you can look at GPUs, which in certain types of calculations are worlds beyond CPUs. By FLOPs metric alone RV770 as in the HD 4870 is the fastest processor in the world, with 1.2 TFLOPs theoretical and 2.4 TFLOPs for the HD 4870 X2 model. But while RV770 is theoretically faster, you will have other situations where GT200 wins and is able to utilize more of its theoretical power.

And then you can look at other CPUs with different architectures than x86, like PowerPC, or Sun's Niagara 2 (aka UltraSPARC T2), which has 8 cores and 8-way SMT. But you can't compare any of these architectures because they are completely different and there is no one benchmark that can be utilized to declare a CPU "the fastest."

In short your teacher shouldn't be asking you this question because there is no real answer. There is no CPU that will be the fastest in the world for every task and no universal benchmark to make such comparisons possible. I suppose you should explain something like I have here - making note of the different processors in each category that are the fastest, acknowledging the brain's supremacy but that it is not the best for everything, and coming to the conclusion that there is no right answer.





 
aigomorla

aigomorla

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Sep 28, 2005
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Originally posted by: Extelleron

In short your teacher shouldn't be asking you this question because there is no real answer. There is no CPU that will be the fastest in the world for every task and no universal benchmark to make such comparisons possible. I suppose you should explain something like I have here - making note of the different processors in each category that are the fastest, acknowledging the brain's supremacy but that it is not the best for everything, and coming to the conclusion that there is no right answer.
Click to expand...

in total agreement.

Your answer should be simple:

x86 Archtech. = i7 aka gainstown or bloomfield
Net Cluster = as in a bunch of machines classed as 1 server = RoadRunner, which toe DoE is using right now.

Biological and all time most powerful computer, your brain, nothing in the world comes close to the raw power of the human brain when used to its full potential. :p
 
C

cudzich09

Banned
Feb 20, 2008
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Originally posted by: AmberClad
Fastest in what measure?

- Fastest single-threaded?
- Highest clock frequency?
- Most overall computational power?
- Fastest platform? Or single CPUs only?
- Stock CPUs only?

What does G5 mean? Mac Pro G5? That's not a CPU, it's a whole system. In which case, maybe the teacher doesn't understand the distinction, and is looking for Skulltrail as the answer. Afaik though, you can get a G5 with a dual 3.2GHz Harpertown Xeon option, instead of the stock 2.8GHz Harpertowns.
Click to expand...

I asked him today and he said "As long as you give a reason for it, I'll accept it" what he meant was fastest cpu in any way; clockwise, overall cpu's speed(3.6Ghz x 2 cores=7.2Ghz)
 
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Idontcare

Elite Member
Oct 10, 1999
21,110
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91
Originally posted by: cudzich09
My teacher told me that it is not the quad core, g5 series(or something like that)
Click to expand...

Originally posted by: cudzich09
I asked him today and he said "As long as you give a reason for it, I'll accept it" what he meant was fastest cpu in any way; clockwise, overall cpu's speed(3.6Ghz x 2 cores=7.2Ghz)
Click to expand...

In that case, since your teacher is guilty of giving you a ridiculosuly ill-defined problem statement but went out of his way to exclude at least two examples...I would be inclined to bend over backwards to figure out how I could justify a quad-core or g5 series as being the fastes CPU our there today.
 
Keysplayr

Keysplayr

Elite Member
Jan 16, 2003
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x86 = i7
single cluster = Roadrunner
Organic = Human Brain
MHz = Pentium4 3.8GHz
So many possible answers. Maybe you should present a list like this to your teacher with a reason for each. He will give you the credit
regardless for doing the research.
 
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Idontcare

Elite Member
Oct 10, 1999
21,110
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Originally posted by: keysplayr2003
x86 = i7
Click to expand...

Not available today so I don't think this meets the requirements.

Maybe Skulltrail with dual QX9775 for multi-threaded course-grained desktop apps like povray, or a quad AMD Barcelona system?

Single socket would have to be QX9650 on a x48 board.

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003
Organic = Human Brain
Click to expand...

We are all made equal, so I am told, but I sure seem to come across an inordinate number of "celeron and sempron" models out there on teh roads and at the stores.

Not to mention the fine pieces of organic computers displayed in all the political ads this time of year. ;)

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003
MHz = Pentium4 3.8GHz
Click to expand...

POWER6, 5.0GHz.

http://www.spec.org/cpu2006/re...06-20080730-04820.html
 
Cogman

Cogman

Lifer
Sep 19, 2000
10,286
147
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If it where my teacher, the clear answer would be "it depends". At one time, Intel had a 10GHz beast in their labs IIRC. Fastest is an extremely subjective statement when dealing with CPUs.
 
PlasmaBomb

PlasmaBomb

Lifer
Nov 19, 2004
11,636
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81
Originally posted by: cudzich09
Originally posted by: AmberClad
Fastest in what measure?

- Fastest single-threaded?
- Highest clock frequency?
- Most overall computational power?
- Fastest platform? Or single CPUs only?
- Stock CPUs only?

What does G5 mean? Mac Pro G5? That's not a CPU, it's a whole system. In which case, maybe the teacher doesn't understand the distinction, and is looking for Skulltrail as the answer. Afaik though, you can get a G5 with a dual 3.2GHz Harpertown Xeon option, instead of the stock 2.8GHz Harpertowns.
Click to expand...

I asked him today and he said "As long as you give a reason for it, I'll accept it" what he meant was fastest cpu in any way; clockwise, overall cpu's speed(3.6Ghz x 2 cores=7.2Ghz)
Click to expand...

Arrrrggghhh!! noes! 3.6 GHz x 2 cores != 7.2GHz

For single chip - this. 500 GHz of chippy goodness and at ~500 Gigaflops it's fast.

That pales in comparison to your brains spec though -

Your brain is made up of about one trillion cells with 100 trillion connections between those cells. We might take a rough estimate and say it is handling 10 quadrillion instructions per second, but it really is hard to say.
 
L

lyssword

Diamond Member
Dec 15, 2005
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C

cudzich09

Banned
Feb 20, 2008
383
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did you get the extra credit? Also what class was this for?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I got the extra credit. It's Computer Maintenance Technology class.


I answered IBM Power6 based on this article

IBM Corp. began shipping high-end computers Tuesday built around the fastest chip on Earth, a microprocessor that can carry out up to 5 billion instructions per second, surpassing the speediest competing processors built by rivals like Intel or Sun Microsystems.

The new IBM processor, called the Power6, was designed to run big-ticket, water-cooled machines that drive corporations or tackle scientific problems, but slower versions of this same family of chips are already being used in inexpensive, consumer devices like the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation.

Cranking up the speed is only one way to improve overall system performance, say chip experts from Intel and Sun, which have evolved different ways to coax more work from chips - and therefore stay competitive in the never-ending race to sell computers that do more and cost less.

But if a stopwatch were the only ranking system, the 5-billion-instructions-per second Power6 processor from IBM would beat such rivals as the 3.73 gigahertz Pentium Extreme and the 2.4 gigahertz UltraSparc T2 from Sun.

"It's hard to make the average person understand just how fast this is," said IBM Chief Technology Officer Bernard Meyerson, offering an example meant to explain his company's baby that still leaves the listener awed with the speediness of the two "laggards."

"Hold your index finger out in front of your face," Meyerson said in a telephone interview from IBM headquarters in New York. In less time than it would take a beam of light to travel from your knuckle to your fingertip, the new IBM chip would complete one task and start looking for the next, he said.

Light would presumably have to travel more than a finger's length to get each task done on the slower processors from Intel and Sun - and at billions-of-cycles per second, slow is a bit of a misnomer.

Then why don't Intel and Sun just crank up the speed? Well, just as is the case with cars, the faster chips run, the hotter they get, and IBM has created water-cooling systems akin to the radiators in cars to keep its processors from overheating. Not doing so, Meyerson quipped, "results in setting fire to the user, which is bad."

Intel spokesman George Alfs said his company, which sells millions upon millions of processors for all sorts of stuff like laptops, where lugging around a water jug would be a chore, said there's no technical reason why Intel chips can't run faster.

In fact, Alfs said, sophisticated game enthusiasts buy water-cooling kits that they fit into desktop PCs, then use software tricks inside the Windows operating system to crank up their own speeds into the 5 gigahertz range.

"But that can void your warranty," Alfs said.

Sun spokesman Mark Richardson took umbrage at the focus on speed. "It's an easier marketing message to deliver to say that faster gigahertz means a faster processor," he said. His colleague, chip expert Fadi Azhari, explained how the Mountain View firm uses a different technical trick, called multithreading, to make a computer faster but not hotter.

Imagine a long line of airport passengers waiting for the ticket agent to check them in, Azhari said. The IBM speed trick would have that ticket agent working faster and faster - with maybe a blower overhead to cool the agent down. But multithreading would be like putting two or more ticket agents on duty, which is another less-heat-intensive approach to processing, he said.
Click to expand...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/...8/04/09/BUBI10258F.DTL


thanks



 
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