Early 21st Century Processors - Computer

T he excitement and challenges of computer design lie in meeting multiple design goals and constraints while riding the dual horses of fast-improving technology and changing application domains. The target market, available technology, and target applications impose the design goals and constraints. The architect attempts to build a machine that leverages particular technology and performs well on popular and important applications within market constraints—and this results in the dual horses setting some of the race’s constraints. Since semiconductor technology improves rapidly, and the popularity and importance of applications can change, the design constraints take on the form of moving targets when computer design time—or time to market—becomes significant with respect to technology and application changes. Often, these factors force a computer design project to change its target market, target application, underlying semiconductor technology—or all three— in midstream. Because computer architecture research is very closely coupled to these real-life issues, technology breakthroughs and the inherent difficulties of predicting market factors and novel applications can take researchers by surprise.