New ideal for CPU's

[bri88]

Before people get to crazy let me just say this is just a thought. That being said, i would like to know what you think. You can use almost any video card via PCIE 16, almost all vid cards are different but work in the same PCIE slot. What if CPU's was like vid cards. The CPU would be on a card itself, but fit into a special slot much like Video cards do. Being able to choose AMD or Intell to go on the same Motherboard would be so much better. Me personally, i think having to get a new motherboard just to support a new CPU type is just annoying. Anyway just a thought, what do you think, possible?

 

[ulillillia]

I actually wouldn't know if that would work - lab tests and the such should verify. At least that way, the CPU can also be made much, much larger in size. Instead of the roughly 3x3 centimeters that they are, 12x9 would be possible (expensive like crazy, but it should provide a major speed boost) and CPUs could also be multidimensional too, though that part is uncertain (I've read about 3D processors in Scientific American instead of the current 2D).

I, myself, find it rather annoying (and expensive) to have to change motherboards just to change CPUs. I've gone through 5 motherboards already and all but one of those cases was upgrading the CPU (the odd one was so I can transition to PCI-express from AGP). It's time consuming to disconnect everything from the current motherboard (except the CPU and often RAM), swap the motherboard with the new one, put the new processor and RAM in, then reconnect everything else.

 

[protokiller]

At one time they were on a riser card with the Pentium III and Athlon.

I don't think that design was any more future proof, I think the entire motherboard has to be built around the cpu reguardless of how it connects to the motherboard.

 

[bri88]

I actually wouldn't know if that would work - lab tests and the such should verify. At least that way, the CPU can also be made much, much larger in size. Instead of the roughly 3x3 centimeters that they are, 12x9 would be possible (expensive like crazy, but it should provide a major speed boost) and CPUs could also be multidimensional too, though that part is uncertain (I've read about 3D processors in Scientific American instead of the current 2D).

I, myself, find it rather annoying (and expensive) to have to change motherboards just to change CPUs. I've gone through 5 motherboards already and all but one of those cases was upgrading the CPU (the odd one was so I can transition to PCI-express from AGP). It's time consuming to disconnect everything from the current motherboard (except the CPU and often RAM), swap the motherboard with the new one, put the new processor and RAM in, then reconnect everything else.

I know, I have an old Intell core 2 duo, if I want to upgrade im looking at New CPU, Mobo, RAM(i have ddr2..) and a hard drive, no needed but its old. All that just to be up to date. With my ideal i could get a motherboard that i could easily upgrade, untill ddr4 came out lol

 

[beenthere]

The problem is that CPU design is so different now days that a single mobo for two radically different CPU designs is impractical if not impossible.

 

[bri88]

The problem is that CPU design is so different now days that a single mobo for two radically different CPU designs is impractical if not impossible.

I see but on the other hand AMD and Nvidia are different but can be swapped in most Motherbords

 

[CaedenV]

You would have to have the CPU, northbridge, and perhaps the southbridge chipsets all on this card.... meaning the mobo would just be a bed to provide power, and interconnects with the addon cards, ram, fan headers, etc.

This would also go against the general evolution of the industry. It use to be that there was IBM, and the 2 clones (intel and AMD). Back then you could swap between processors, but as the chip makers adapter different strategies then they required different chipsets, and now they are completely different animals.

 

[beenthere]

I see but on the other hand AMD and Nvidia are different but can be swapped in most Motherbords

That's because a Video card is only one add-in element to a mobo and the Vid cards are built to an industry standard that allows them to be interchangable as an add-in card. A mobo is far more complicated and designed to function with a specific CPU with Intel and AMD being much different design CPUs.

 

[neon neophyte]

what you seem to be missing is that the motherboard chipset is essentially part of the cpu. its not a seperate entity. many functions of the cpu are tied in at the motherboard end. over time companies are moving more and more from the motherboard, to the cpu die. someday, you will get an entire system on a chip. when that day comes, maybe we can have generic motherboards that... just hold it all together =P

 

[bri88]

Im not talking about now, im just saying in the future. There are Cpus now that have North or South bridges inetgrated into them. the way things are going, the Cpu may have most of the motherbord in it( North/south bridge, Gpu, Ram). Yeah it might not be possible for Intell and AMD to work on the same Mobo, but that was just a little wishing. Even if it would be to hard to intergrate other components in the CPU, if it was on a card like video cards, there would be plenty of space for lets say North/south on the card. Lets say Intell and AMD would not work together, Amd could make there own "card" slot type to support future CPUs, and Intell the same. Just saying, Vid cards have changed alot over the years but still fit into the same PCIE slot.

 

[cummy]

Big argument you have here Bri88. It seems that this should be possible. It should be possible for a motherboard to use a simple processor to manage the input/output to the "CPU card" in much the same way that current cpus pass off graphics to video cards. Both AMD and Intel use technology that can be modified in Hypertransport and QPI respectively that should be able allow this.

We might end up with System on Card with a industry standard board to handle everything else.

Kool hehehe

 

[bri88]

I have been doing a little looking around, and really i dont see why this wouldnt be possible. If intell or Amd had controll of North/south bridge on there own card it should open up alot more possibilites. Yeah i know that teck is going "smaller is better" but Cpu companies could, as they do now, make cpu's smaller for laptops, but for desktops size dont really matter to much. desktops, laptops, and now Tablets, are used for differnt reasons, so to speek. So, if cpus was on there own card for desktops, the size of cpu wouldnt matter to much. therefor, for desktops, cpus could be focused more on speed, while laptops could continue to be more portable.

 

[bri88]

Best answer selected by bri88.