<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><HTML><FONT SIZE=2 PTSIZE=10>I think:<BR>
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Hiving off chunks of workload (notably re sound and vision) to other processors means that the CPU can do its job faster and I’m all for it<BR>
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But:<BR>
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The financial boys (small medium and large) can afford the processing power they need (medium large and very large). The cost of their staff (and premises I expect) dwarf this<BR>
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There is enough money in the developed countries for people to want fairly up-market PC’s, and these are improving in cost-performance anyway<BR>
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The more GPU’s try to be CPU’s for high performance all-singing all-dancing PC’s the more they will have to resemble those CPU’s. But the established CPU’s have all their software and instruction sets and compilers etc. established. The GPU sellers have the cost of getting into this and the problem of getting people to accept their different product. E.g. AMD can still find that people ask for Intel. Others who tried hard to do what AMD have done failed. <BR>
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And the GPU’s will run into cooling problems if they keep doing more and getting faster<BR>
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And if they can do things (in hardware / cooling terms) that CPU’s can’t the CPU’s will start to copy them.<BR>
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To the extent there is a market for simple cheap PC’s Intel and AMD and lots of others can soon flood it with cheap CPU’s or single chips that have much of the chipset as well. <BR>
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E.g. there are various hand-held’s with a range of processors. The size form and shape of these can adapt. And mobile phone companies’ want their products to be one’s key portable device. Sony would be happy for their Playstation to do our email etc. as well. And I think it is Via who do a computer on a board or something, cheaply. <BR>
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Further, as broadband spreads, to the extent that people want a simple device with minimum fuss, especially commercially, there is the thin client model with the server end handled for you. <BR>
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Software configuration, and security are bigger issues than hardware cost. And, especially commercially, training is a much bigger cost. <BR>
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But: SOMETIMES I'M WRONG!<BR>
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Cheers, Edward</FONT></HTML>