So I missed this one until yesterday, when Dave Voyles of Microsoft tweeted it out. While the video was published in 2011, it doesn't have too many views and this topic only gets better with age (pretty much).
Image Credit:
Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Commons
The narrator opens up a Super Nintendo, which is a PAL kit for North Americans wondering why the casing looks so different. The console has a dedicated CPU, RAM, two sound processors with RAM, and a four-package video chipset of two graphics chips and two VRAM packages. The two video chips, each paired with a package of RAM, are used in tandem but apparently cannot see into each others memory. This reminds me of the split-memory architecture on the PS3, which provides 256MB to the Cell processor and 256MB to the NVIDIA GPU.
Another interesting note is that, because the sound system has its own 8-bit Sony processor, sound effects and music will continue to play when the main system freezes. I never really thought about it until I watched this video, but I believe I've actually experienced that a few times in the early/mid 90s. I just never thought much about it because computers were still somewhat magical back then.
I still have a Snes game
I still have a Snes game console with me in working order. Those were some good days of gaming on console.
Same. I have an NES that
Same. I have an NES that mostly works, a SNES that mostly works, an N64, a Virtual Boy, and a Gameboy. (I also have an Xbox and an Xbox 360, but yeah.)
nes. snes. n64. all working
nes. snes. n64. all working order, w/bunch of games and accessories (powerglove *ahem*). nephew in LOVE w/his unlce. they do note however, that mario doesn’t look as ‘good’ as he does on their DS. kids these days…
Its amazing what companies
Its amazing what companies could do before parts got 1000x more complicated.
Pretty much, yeah. You could
Pretty much, yeah. You could do less with them, but the construction is more legible.
Go here and watch this ARM1
Go here and watch this ARM1 chip run, watch those circuits and look at an actual simulated ARM1 CHIP crunch ones and zeros and decode those op-codes visually! Zoom in and watch those adders and half adders, with their AND, OR, NOT, NOR, XOR, XAND, and other logic gates made up into execution units do their work. It’s so COOL!!!!!
And Take the time to notice that CPUs have address buses for addressing and data buses for data, and the width of the address BUS determines the amount of memory that can be directly addressed! And it’s the size of the general purpose registers and the data bus(with exceptions) width that goes into determining the Bit size(32,64, whatever) machine word size of the microprocessor. So a 32 bit processor with a 24 bit address BUS can only address 16,777,216 bytes of memory directly, and a 64 bit processor with a 46 bit address BUS can only address 70,368,744,177,664 bytes of memory directly.
The i7-5960X(64 bit) processor supports up to 46 bits of physical address space and 48(46 + 2 extra bits) bits of virtual address space so it can address up to 281,474,976,710,656 bytes of memory virtually and only 70,368,744,177,664 bytes of memory directly!
http://visual6502.org/sim/varm/armgl.html
Hmm. Interesting.
Hmm. Interesting.
Can you do a Battlefield 4
Can you do a Battlefield 4 comparison test between this and the Xbox One?
Can it run Crysis?
Can it run Crysis?
About that… … …
About that… … …