[OT] multicore/cpu history

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Mon, 26 Mar 2018 10:03:43 +1100, Chris Angelico wrote:

> At what point does it change from being two CPUs to being one CPU and
> one auxiliary processing unit?

When someone writes an OS that will run on the "auxiliary processing 
unit" alone, then it's probably time to start calling it a CPU :-)


> Back in the 80s and early 90s, the
> auxiliary was most likely to be a floating-point unit; today, it'd be a
> graphics chip. But it could just as easily be a Lisp chip.

Or a Forth chip.

Hardware people can probably tell you what it is that CPUs do that FPUs 
and GPUs don't do. Or specialised Bitcoin mining chips. Whatever it is 
that they don't do, but CPUs do, is probably a good dividing line between 
"CPU" and "auxiliary chip".


-- 
Steve