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[hector13]

They’re also a bit dictatorial.

[Iduno]

Communists tried to destroy my country's culture though. I don't want that to happen again. :/

https://twitter.com/i/status/1238218176086900737

[methylatedspirit]

Why did early (microcomputer) CPUs have very low TDPs/power dissipations? Like, the original 8088 had a TDP of just 2.5W^[1], an AMD 286 running at 16 MHz did 3.15W^[2], a 386DX running at 40 MHz ran at 3.03W^[3]. And these were absolute maximum they could dissipate. These things ran so cool, that at least to my understanding, manufacturers never bothered with even a heatsink until the 486 era.

My question is, why didn't they just raise the clock speeds, then put a heatsink on top? After all, higher clock speeds meant higher performance, at least on paper. Or was it that the CPUs themselves couldn't run stably at those higher clock speeds anyway, so heat dissipation just wasn't the limiting factor at the time?

[Iduno]

Why did early (microcomputer) CPUs have very low TDPs/power dissipations? Like, the original 8088 had a TDP of just 2.5W^[1], an AMD 286 running at 16 MHz did 3.15W^[2], a 386DX running at 40 MHz ran at 3.03W^[3]. And these were absolute maximum they could dissipate. These things ran so cool, that at least to my understanding, manufacturers never bothered with even a heatsink until the 486 era.

My question is, why didn't they just raise the clock speeds, then put a heatsink on top? After all, higher clock speeds meant higher performance, at least on paper. Or was it that the CPUs themselves couldn't run stably at those higher clock speeds anyway, so heat dissipation just wasn't the limiting factor at the time?

I think they were running as fast as they could without running into issues. Things are heating up now because the same-sized CPU has a lot more parts with the same surface area to dissipate heat.

[Reelya]

The other components on the boards back then weren't capable of running any faster. Memory chips back in the early 1980s were very slow.

There's some interesting stuff here, worth watching if you're interested in retro computer hardware, the stuff about clock timing is about 6 minutes in, though the whole video is definitely worth a watch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg-6Cjzzg8s

[methylatedspirit]

The other components on the boards back then weren't capable of running any faster. Memory chips back in the early 1980s were very slow.

Because I was morbidly curious, I just had to look it up. The IBM PC 5150, released in 1981, used 200ns RAM^[1], which translates in modern terms (with the caveat that these are single data rate) to 5 MHz. I don't care about the throughput at that point, it's going to be terrible. This improved to 150ns (6.667 MHz) for the IBM PC AT (1984), but your point stands. You weren't kidding when you said RAM was slow.

[bloop_bleep]

I'm suddenly curious as to what Germans get taught in primary school about WWII.

I mean, it's easy to make the Nazis the bad guys if the Nazis were over there, but...

[Frumple]

Still bad guys, from what I can recall, though it's been a while since I've seen a german say anything on the subject. Unless I'm forgetting something it's still, like, illegal to publicly display a swastika in germany. There's not exactly a huge amount of sympathy of the regime that got millions killed and got their own country's teeth kicked in in the process.

[Laterigrade]

Still bad guys, from what I can recall, though it's been a while since I've seen a german say anything on the subject. Unless I'm forgetting something it's still, like, illegal to publicly display a swastika in germany. There's not exactly a huge amount of sympathy of the regime that got millions killed and got their own country's teeth kicked in in the process.

A few years ago, an amusement park ride that looked like a swastika once it was in the air was taken down and rebuilt. It’s still illegal.

[scriver]

Germany: *bans the sun*

[Naturegirl1999]

Germany: *bans the sun*

swastika=/=sun

[scriver]

The swastika is sometimes also called the sun cross -- it depicts a stylised sun.

[Kagus]

Germany: *bans the sun*

Germany: *eyes windmills suspiciously*

[CABL]

Everyone knows that the Sun is actually a hologram by GRU, and that the windmills spread COVID-19, which in turn is emitted from the 5G antennas around.

[Yoink]

Germany: *bans the sun*

Germany: *eyes windmills suspiciously*

This isn't going to stop until Pictionary bans the word "windmill".   
^ I was a "Community" quote virgin before this comment!