Essential Linkage: Wrap your head around the chips we love.
We're used to using processors nowadays that are almost exclusively over a Gigahurtz in speed, may be multicored and possibly even be running in tandem with a GPU for computation.
But we didn't get here overnight - it was a long and gruelling slog to get here in the first stages of the 64-bit era - instead it took about 31 years.
Today we use x86 in everything from mobile devices like netbooks, to hugely powerful gaming rigs, but the performance of the chips we use are leaps and bounds above the original ones - they were basically pocket calculators.
So take a walk through the annals of computing history, led on your tour by MaximumPC, and pick up some knowledge you haven't had before - or remember some you had all along!
In case that wasn't enough reading already, check out our funny little story about the King of x86.
Issue: 133 | February, 2012