Wouldn't it be good if....

[Zak33]

... a motherboard for a something big and powerful, like a Corei7 Quad, or similar also had a tiny little Atom chip onboard to do web browsing and stuff?

So that the power drain was minimal for all this non cpu intense stuff.. and then flicked over to the quad for games, video rendering etc?

Just a thought really.. with the new Nvidia video stuff flipping between cpu and gpu it occured that a small mobo addition might be a little atom or similar.

Prolly silly really.

/wanders off

[jim]

I wonder how CPU-switching on the fly would work within Windows - I imagine it wouldn't be able to work like that at present, so it would need some code manipulation, although I don't know for sure.

I can almost see it in collaboration with EFI, so you could boot into a very simple browser/music player on the Atom in under 10 seconds, or alternatively boot into the full OS with the proper processor. And presumably then you might be able to put Windows into sleep, and revert back to the EFI again.

To be honest though, I can't help feeling that better power management is the answer - if you can cut the quad right down, shut down three cores, drop the voltage, drop the multiplier all on the fly then it would probably save more power in the long term than switching between it and the atom.

[matty-hodgson]

To be honest though, I can't help feeling that better power management is the answer - if you can cut the quad right down, shut down three cores, drop the voltage, drop the multiplier all on the fly then it would probably save more power in the long term than switching between it and the atom.

We already kinda have that with the "Cool 'n' Quiet" and "Intel Speedstep". They just need to be much more aggressive.

80% of the time I'm using less than 5% of my processor. So shutting down 3 cores would a very good idea if they could begin implementing it. It would also be a lot cheaper than finding somewhere to place an Atom on a motherboard and then putting the chip in there.

[jim]

We already kinda have that with the "Cool 'n' Quiet" and "Intel Speedstep". They just need to be much more aggressive.

80% of the time I'm using less than 5% of my processor. So shutting down 3 cores would a very good idea if they could begin implementing it. It would also be a lot cheaper than finding somewhere to place an Atom on a motherboard and then putting the chip in there.

Exactly... I think it's a bit half-hearted at the moment. Not to say they haven't tried, more that I suspect higher investment in that area would yield better results than trying to shoehorn multiple processors into a board.

To think as well that a lot of people leave their PC on when they're not even on the computer, and even when they are using it they're only browsing the net - I'd say that for the average person 99% of the time their PC is under 5% utilisation. Apart from the fact that they've got an old version of Norton, anyway.

[lodore]

I thought i7 does have the ability to shut down 3 cores?

the description i read was if a program is only one core the processer wil automatically shutdown 3 cores and overclock the core that is being used. now I dont see why intel cant make it so that if the system is under little load 3 cores cant be shutdown to save power and of course underclocked on the fly to save power.

I also dont see why graphics cards cant have better power saving features. I have always hated the idea of hybrid graphics because generally to switch between the cards you eiether have to log out or flip a switch and reboot which isnt convenient. You dont need full graphics card power when browsing the net or writing a letter so graphics cards should have better power management and change state based on the load.

[pollaxe]

It would be good if it were possible...

My approach to this is when I'm just typing/webbing I use my netbook - sometimes with a dock/proper keyboard - and if it's for anything more intensive then the main rig goes on.

[circuitmonkey]

DFI had a crack at it recently... Atom Ion and Skt 775 P45
http://www.dfi.com.tw/portal/CM/cmpr...rmal&mode=view
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/29...obo/index.html

[Singh400]

... a motherboard for a something big and powerful, like a Corei7 Quad, or similar also had a tiny little Atom chip onboard to do web browsing and stuff?

So that the power drain was minimal for all this non cpu intense stuff.. and then flicked over to the quad for games, video rendering etc?

Just a thought really.. with the new Nvidia video stuff flipping between cpu and gpu it occured that a small mobo addition might be a little atom or similar.

Prolly silly really.

/wanders off

I can do that, on my P5Q Deluxe. The Express Gate SSD function, it has some sort of minimal OS on it (linux), that allows me to quick boot up and check emails whatever. I've never used it, because the first thing I do is disable it

[Zak33]

seems like lots of you think similarly though.. that a quad is a bit wasted more of the time than it should be.

Intel Speed Step doen't drop the multi low enough.. but apart from that, it's a big chip and a big fan etc.

I'm intrigued by the DFI attempt.

[shaithis]

The best solution would be if each core could have individual profiles.....that way you could speedstep 3 cores down to 1x until they are needed....and when they are needed, only the cores necessary would be brought up to speed.

Powersaving is making in-roads but it seems to be far from the primary concern atm.

[circuitmonkey]

I'm intrigued by the DFI attempt.

As am I, but I'd like to see it done with the Atom Ion system being the main PC with the new Nvidia hybrid graphics where the discrete GPU directly injects frames into the integrated GPU and disabling the dGPU when not required. If you could only get an atom with QPI then have a i7 in the same system, disabling the i7 when it's not required. You'd share the same PSU and see some real power savings there without having to mess around with two separate machines in one case with a fancy KVM and Ethernet Hub

[Fraz]

You guys need to start running some grid crunching jobs, e.g. at World Community Grid or some such. I don't think my CPU has dropped below 100% usage for the last 3 years...

[scaryjim]

Don't AMD CPU's already use intelligent gating to switch off unused CPU cores? I remember being very surprised that when I unlocked my Sempron 140 to a dual core, the idle power draw remained exactly the same. That strongly suggests that the power to the second core was being cut completely (either that or the Sempy supplies power to the second core even when it's not being used?)...

[Pob255]

I was going to say DFI has done it, but I see I was beaten to it.

Although it's not quite the same as what you mean Zak, basically what DFI did was take an mATX 775 motherboard and an atom mitx motherboard and crammed them onto the same full ATX pcb, along with a KVM switch.
They are still two seperate pc systems, where as I think you mean something that is far more integrated.
And that is actually far harder with an i7 due to more functionallity being moved on to the cpu rather than the northbridge.

[arthurleung]

Why don't just get a KVM and a separate Atom system. Switch off the i7 when you're not using it. Problem solved.

I use my 50W (Idle) X4 620 to do everything, only fire up my intel quads (200W~300W max load each) when I want to play games. I relegate my laptop (20W idle) to MSN duty

[Platinum]

The best solution would be if each core could have individual profiles.....that way you could speedstep 3 cores down to 1x until they are needed....and when they are needed, only the cores necessary would be brought up to speed.

Powersaving is making in-roads but it seems to be far from the primary concern atm.

Nehalem pretty much does that I think? and Sandy bridge is set to do a much better job by physically turning off cores rather than clocking them down.