Yuh know the saying "the more things change the more they remain the same" that comes to mind. Now take into account that sure, a CPU has become far more powerful as time has progressed, however there will never be any denying that a specialized processor will be better at whatever it was built for than a general purpose processor like a CPU. Its not a matter of hitting a MHz wall, its a matter of using ur existing architecture to your advantage. Ppl like Xilinx and TI make FPGAs which can be programmed into any million number of specialized processors at low prices. So I have an extra Hypertransport lane accessing meh CPU... well make a FPGA to do particle collision physics slap him in and WHAM meh CPU offloaded and I doing those calcs faster than having even 2 cores do it, cause its specialized to do JUST THAT. Its an old idea, but everywhere you look, its a specialized chip working, ur cell, ur tv, ur remote control, everything has its own chip. The co-processor never went away, it was just not on the CPU front for a while. I think its a good idea, plus which would u buy? I have an Opteron system with a co-pro thats cheap vs. what? more cores on an intel platform to do the same amt of work?
