[michaelt]

> Over the last 10-15 years, fabs have continued to fit more and more logic gates per unit area, but haven't reduced the power consumption per gate as much.

Kids these days get 8 cores for a 100W TDP.

When I was a boy, 100W got you a single core. And you didn't get dynamic frequency scaling, so it'd be putting out that heat all the time.

(We also had to walk to school barefoot in the snow, uphill both ways)

[em500]

You must be young. Home PC CPUs from my youth drew only single digit watts. They didn't require any fan until the Pentium.

[acqq]

Indeed:

386, introduced 1985:

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/80386/Intel-A80386-16.html

Typical/Maximum power dissipation: 1.85 Watt / 2.3 Watt

And even no Pentium III 1999-2003 needed more than around 30 W:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Pentium_III_micr...

[karmakaze]

The Pentium II was not as efficient as the III. I remember setting up a dual socket machine where the PS started to matter. The best thing was that the web browser would only suck 100% from one processor.

[noisem4ker]

>putting out that heat all the time

Even if the frequency was fixed, dissipated heat did definitely vary together with the computing load.

[blaser-waffle]

> so it'd be putting out that heat all the time

What's the problem? My old school pentiums kept my dorm room nice and toasty. Could keep my window cracked in the winter for fresh air while gentoo compiled...

[msh]

Could you not use TDP to melt the snow ;)