Archive for May, 2009

“Square Root of 3″ by David Feinberg

Sunday, May 24th, 2009

I just watched Harold and Kumar escape from Guantanamo Bay and I have to say the best part of the movie for me was the poem that Kumar reads out. I figured when I’d heard it that it was probably not written specifically for the movie, although Googling it only turns up results that reference the movie in the first page! Maybe I’m just a geek, but I think it is just done so well!

“Square Root of 3″ by David Feinberg

I’m sure that I will always be
A lonely number like root three

The three is all that’s good and right,
Why must my three keep out of sight
Beneath the vicious square root sign,
I wish instead I were a nine

For nine could thwart this evil trick,
with just some quick arithmetic

I know I’ll never see the sun, as 1.7321
Such is my reality, a sad irrationality

When hark! What is this I see,
Another square root of a three

As quietly co-waltzing by,
Together now we multiply
To form a number we prefer,
Rejoicing as an integer

We break free from our mortal bonds
With the wave of magic wands

Our square root signs become unglued
Your love for me has been renewed

Intel Processor Architectures

Sunday, May 10th, 2009

Tonight I was reading Intel® 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer’s Manual (not sure how long that link to Intel will be valid for; it looks quite obscure) and in the introduction chapter it states what processors the manual is specific to. Interestingly enough, it also goes on to state what processors belong to what family. I found it interesting because it’s unusual that I see documentation from companies that is so concise in giving information. While I knew the Pentium Pro / Pentium II micro-architecture  was the same, I didn’t know it was called the P6 micro-architecture. Just a little tidbit of information I thought I’d post and watch Google eat into the world knowledge banks (whole excerpt from the document below).

  • P6 family processors are IA-32 processors based on the P6 family microarchitecture. 
  • This includes the Pentium® Pro, Pentium® II, Pentium® III, and Pentium® III Xeon® processors. 
  • The Pentium® 4, Pentium D, and Pentium processor Extreme Editions are based on the Intel NetBurst® microarchitecture. Most early Intel® Xeon® processors are based on the Intel NetBurst® microarchitecture. Intel Xeon processor 5000, 7100 series are based on the Intel NetBurst® microarchitecture. 
  • The Intel® Core™ Duo, Intel® Core™ Solo and dual-core Intel® Xeon® processor LV are based on an improved Pentium® M processor microarchitecture. 
  • The Intel® Xeon® processor 3000, 3200, 5100, 5300, 7200, and 7300 series, Intel® 
  • Pentium® dual-core, Intel® Core™2 Duo, Intel® Core™2 Quad and Intel® Core™2 
  • Extreme processors are based on Intel® Core™ microarchitecture. 
  • The Intel® Xeon® processor 5200, 5400, 7400 series, Intel® CoreTM2 Quad processor Q9000 series, and Intel® CoreTM2 Extreme processors QX9000, X9000 series, Intel® CoreTM2 processor E8000 series are based on Enhanced Intel® CoreTM microarchitec-ture. 
  • The Intel® AtomTM processor family is based on the Intel® AtomTM microarchitecture and supports Intel 64 architecture. 
  • The Intel® CoreTMi7 processor is based on the Intel® Microarchitecture (Nehalem) and supports Intel 64 architecture.