Completely confused about CPUs

[Strawberry]

This has been puzzling me for ages so I decided to post it here.

What is the actual, physical difference between different CPU types, other than the manufacturing process and size?

Ie. what's the difference between an i7 at 4 GHz and a Core2Quad at 4 GHz? Why does the i7 outperform the C2Q?

Aren't they both just 4 cores that can run 4.3 billion instructions per second?

Also, what separates a CPU core from a GPU core? Why can't you just use existing GPU technology to run regular instructions? Wouldn't that easily allow you to have CPUs with 1000+ cores running at 1 GHz?

What's the difference between CPU instruction types (like SSE2 or w/e it's called)?

And finally, why are CPUs so large?

Okay enough questions for one post, but these have been seriously bugging me.

 

[feeddagoat]

for a start google is your friend. a lot of this information is there especially on wiki.

 

[Tute]

What is the actual, physical difference between different CPU types, other than the manufacturing process and size?

Ie. what's the difference between an i7 at 4 GHz and a Core2Quad at 4 GHz? Why does the i7 outperform the C2Q?

Aren't they both just 4 cores that can run 4.3 billion instructions per second?

It's down to the way that they process instructions. The new Core i5/i7 lines have improvements internally in the CPU that allows them to do more per clock cycle.

Also things like improvements in how well and fast they can communicate with other components on the board, such as RAM and storage devices, help improve performance considerably.

Also, what separates a CPU core from a GPU core? Why can't you just use existing GPU technology to run regular instructions? Wouldn't that easily allow you to have CPUs with 1000+ cores running at 1 GHz?

No, because a CPU is designed to do things that a GPU isn't, and vice versa. In theory you could get a CPU to do a GPU's job, but it would be very slow (software rendering is a good example of this). They also have totally different instruction sets - I don't think a Radeon would understand x86 code, for example.

What's the difference between CPU instruction types (like SSE2 or w/e it's called)?

Just extra instructions designed to make it easier for developers to carry out tasks. Simple as that.

And finally, why are CPUs so large?

How do you mean? If you mean transistors, that's just how many are needed to make it function. If you mean actual size, then CPU sizes have not really changed much at all since the first x86 ones started appearing.

 

[JTrickle]

Ie. what's the difference between an i7 at 4 GHz and a Core2Quad at 4 GHz?

In real world cpu limited tasks i7 has a roughly a 10% speed gain over a q9xxx, clock for clock (ie, look for benchmarks with the turbo off - or take it into account). In some synthetics, it can reach 20%.

The built in 'turbo' on these devices is another way of them saving power in idle mode, and giving a 10-15% overclock for 'free'. More than that for single threaded apps.

 

[QlimaxUK]

And finally, why are CPUs so large?

WHAT!?!

think you can make one smaller???

 

[theheyes]

And finally, why are CPUs so large?

Don't worry, us Mancs have got that covered with the Small Scale Experimental Machine.

 

[solway]

Don't worry, us Mancs have got that covered with the Small Scale Experimental Machine.

nah they just draw into onto some special paper with a pencil, the graphite lines then carry the electrics, then they just folder the paper up until its really small!
the pins on the back are for aesthetics only.
ive made a few my self, not hard that all, just make sure you have a rubber to hand just incase you make a mistake