Notes for the COAM External

Hi,
I doubt you'll read this, but it must be written. Here are some notes that should help the next time you take a viva:

1. Why don't people use Pentium 5, Pentium 6 etc?
Probably because they don't exist. That must be most of the reason.

2. Today's processors don't follow Moore's law.
Yes, they do. Your insistence that they don't does not change reality.

3. Dual core processors are the latest innovation - released 1-2 years ago.
No. There have been dual core processors at least since 2001.

4. Shrinking the manufacturing process increases total power consumption.
This is just stupid. It increases idle power consumption, not total.

5. Process shrinks are the only way to increase performance.
It's one way. There are many others.

6. Dual core processors exist because it's impossible to increase the clocks on a single core beyond a limit.
It can be done, refer Pentium 4. Dual cores exist because they're better at handling multitasking.

7. Pentium 4 dual core is the latest processor from Intel.
The only thing good about this is that you haven't seen Intel's garbage advertisements for the '2010 Core Processor Family'. You know what's bad? You don't read newspapers, or watch TV.

If you do read this, at least you will know that the world's changed since Ray-Bhurchandi was published. Just sayin'

Self help

I saddens me greatly that there are people in this world who have read self help books, or spiritual types of books, and not read The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Everyone knows that H2G2 has the biggest self help gyaan in the galaxy - 'Don't Panic' (in large, friendly letters, no less). What greater spiritual meaning can there be than 42, the answer to life, the universe and everything?

If you are a member of this group of people, please, please, remedy the situation by reading H2G2 as soon as possible. It's the best self help you could possibly get!