A good subject for my diploma work

[Marcin]

I have about 1 week to propose interesting subject for my diploma work on University. I have tried to go with microprocessor history but my Professor said it is very boring subject He said more interesting will be i.e. additional extensions in cpus like SSE2/SSE3/3D Now! and others. I really like to write about CPUs but in same time about something not difficult

Maybe you will propose something else ? Please help.

[Neon]

How processors are marketed.

Pricing strategy, incentives, differences in regional markets...

[Marcin]

This professor's subjects are related more with hardware and basic programming not with economy and marketing

[susl45]

[donutty]

I would choose low powered and embedded processors. Maybe that way you can link it to how Z80 and 6502 cores are still used in a lot of embedded applications.

But don't let the historical aspect take over from the seriousness of the work...

[andamus]

What about the evolution of the x86 isa from a full CISC paradigm to an hibrid RISC/CISC core with a lot of things taken from the real RISC architectures? (like memory controller from Alpha 21364, smp (hyperthreading) from Altha 21464, 64bit, various vector extension ...)

[Qwerty]

And what about GPUs? This could be a quite interesting topic.
The differences between CPUs and GPUs are vanishing. A state-of-the-art GPU can also perform different GPU-unlike computational tasks. It can easily outperform a CPU in some areas - for example in password cracking.

I wrote my diploma thesis on NVIDIA's CUDA technology. It was very interesting - I worked much with C, C++ and assembler under Linux.
The professor was pleased with the outcome (and I with the degree I got ).

The only one drawback of this topic is that this technology is relatively new. When I worked on my thesis there was almost no documentation available. Everything must be found out by trial and error.

[wepwawet]

What about social aspects.
Here you can merge historic CPU stuff with recent themes.

Such as how much cpus determine our whole day life - cellphones, entertainment, how many people's work is dependent on cpus today and in the past?
What if develompent stops - where can it go?
..
just one example:
If cpu AND BUS speed reach 3 MHZ then one instruction impulse can not reach a hardware component like RAM more than 10 cm in distance just because of lightspeed limitations.

Is there something that had more influence on mankind in the last thirty years?
Is this influence comparable or maybe more important than "industrialization" of the 19th century?

What's the effect on 3rd world countries (as some of them are really good in internet technology (of course not in sahel zone))

lol, I could write a couple of pages more, but I guess that's your job:-)

Good luck!

[D.8080]

[Marcin]

lol

These are great propositions. I must consider it very carefully.

To wepwawet : maybe I will give you that job and when will be done I will just paste into google translate

Actually on the TOP 10 is still cpus extensions.

The easiest way would be to program some java midlets and make website with some special scripts or make big Access base like my friends from University but I like to go with CPUs. Unfortunelly that will not be so easy

Feel free to suggest other subjects.

[wepwawet]

Nope.
No more suggestions as I am deeply sore that my idea is not your favourite.

And the time for me to write my own diploma is gone.

lol

[eledga]

Hi,

do you have something similiar like Adam Ries?


I heard nothing from your country about that.

Edgar

[johnorun]

Marcin,
If your Professor has a sense of humor, you may win with this idea....hehehe!
http://dvice.com/archives/2008/03/bristlebot_20_o.php
scroll down to Video....

[wepwawet]

[Marcin]

wepwawet : Choosing your subject I could propably kill oneself because of poor knowledge about physics. I was good with physic in high school but not at so high level as was on university

I thought about other subject : integrated peripherials in CPU like memory controller and very futurable integrated VGA core. Intel thinks about it but we knows Cyrix had this many years ago.