SILICON
SILIC
CHIP
www.siliconchip.com.au
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Nicholas Vinen
Technical Editor
John Clarke, B.E.(Elec.)
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Editorial Viewpoint
New computer technology
We haven’t published articles on personal computers
in quite some time. The last one that I can find, in May
2012, is on optimising ADSL internet connections.
There was also an article on the Linux operating system
in July 2011 and a Macbook review in March 2010.
Partly that’s because Silicon Chip isn’t a computer
magazine, but of course, computers are made from
silicon chips. The most advanced, powerful and flexible
chips ever made are computer processors of various
types. They contain billions of transistors and result from countless hours of
engineering and testing, plus extremely impressive manufacturing techniques.
One reason we’ve published so few computer articles of late is that computer
technology has been somewhat stagnant over the last decade. There have been
plenty of improvements in that time, but they’ve mostly been incremental. I
think that’s starting to change now, so I plan to give computers some coverage,
If you aren’t into computers, don’t worry, we’ll still have plenty of DIY and
other articles. We’ll just be occasionally adding a computer-themed article
into the mix.
As evidence of the recent advances in computing technology, three major
product series launches at the end of last year saw stocks of these new products
almost immediately exhausted as production could not keep up with demand.
Those were AMD’s Ryzen 5000 CPUs and Radeon 6000 series GPUs (graphics
cards), and Nvidia’s RTX 3000 series GPUs.
Apple also just released a line of Macs using their own ARM-based processors
(the Apple Silicon M1) which have incredible levels of power efficiency and
some other impressive features.
The lack of availability was partly due to these new devices being so much
more capable than the previously available equivalents, at similar prices (if you
can find one). There were also supply problems due to COVID-19 (and many
people being forced to stay at home also increased demand).
It’s mind-boggling to realise that for a couple of thousand dollars, you can
put together a computer that can perform over 30 trillion (3 × 1013) calculations
per second!
Solid-state data storage has also come a long way in the last year or two,
with incredible speeds (more than four gigabytes per second for consumerlevel parts!), very high capacities and relatively low costs.
So, we will likely have a handful of computer how-to articles this year. The
first, in this issue, shows how to upgrade a PC to the latest AMD Ryzen 5000
series of CPUs (it is also mostly applicable to Intel CPU-based systems). We’ll
also have some in-depth stories on the technology behind the incredible power
of modern computers.
The articles we have planned will describe some fascinating technology
that I think many of our readers will not have heard of, or if they have, won’t
know a lot about.
To throw another almost unbelievable number out there, it is now possible
to build a computer with over ten thousand computing units, each capable of
executing instructions and performing calculations. We plan to do that and
describe some of the challenges involved.
By the way, Silicon Chip used to run quite a few computer columns in the
early days, including one called “Computer Bits” from July 1989 to December
1998. We also had all sorts of other articles on topics like setting up a network,
upgrading computer CPUs, computer reviews etc.
Of course, PCs were not as mainstream back then and required a lot more
DIY. So I don’t plan to go back to that sort of content. But the odd article
on computer technology and some interesting computers you can build or
modify yourself should be part of the mix of a magazine named after the very
technology behind them.
Nicholas Vinen
24-26 Lilian Fowler Pl, Marrickville 2204
2
Silicon Chip
Australia’s electronics magazine
siliconchip.com.au
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