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Don't want to sound boring but also still fondly remember the POWER architecture when for a time it had found it's way to the private consumer and there were different manufacturers using it, not only Apple. Today what you can purchase is big iron (mainframes) with such chips. That's a shame, it is still a decent architecture me thinks.
ARM or MIPS as an option is something I cherish. It's probably that there is no need for more performance for most people and what they like to do, so nobody has to re-invent the wheel for 'classic' computers? I don't need a top notch multi-core CPU for everyday tasks like surfing the net and office work. No reason to go x86 if I can have a more feasible alternative. If it suffices, who hisses?? So x86 will spar ARM or MIPS at the lower end of the performance range, no probs with it at all.
Different devices for different tasks had been the way to go for the past 20 years or so? IoT and and Smart Home applications don't long for much performance either. Even autonomous vehicles will probably use smallish cores and meshed system architectures.I guess x86-64 is here to stay for longer, AVX may become a thing in future for CPUs, but else?? Just can't imagine anything I'd do I have to pull super computer performance for in the near future. I don't see a revolution in computing coming any time soon, at least not for the normals out there like me.
More an enthusiast, too, but I'm actually in favour of a more diverse technological range of products. I mean to say for different kinds of hardware, no 'one size fits all' architectures. If I buy e.g. a workhorse computer I don't buy a 'shoe box' sized one. I got space and opt for a good cooling solution and what I know will do. This means PC and x86 multi-core for obvious reasons. Intel's architecture isn't quite universal to me, but the markets they took over are still big enough so no necessity to change that for a while. Last time Intel and Microsoft tried enter another playing field and came out with 'Wintel' tablets and phones these had been decent products, only I was far from excited. I thought 'oh please... I get me something else' and I did. I probably wasn't the only one, people didn't want to buy them en masse. Todays smartphones and tablets may have their roots in PDAs and those were traditionally powered by RISC architectures as far as I know (Palm, Casio...). These are good enough for the purpose. And we only got iOS and Android as the usual choice, so Windows Phone isn't something I got hyped by.
I would like to mention VIA for a moment, their 'Nano' x86 CPU was a capable little processor, on par with Intel's Atom and AMD's offers (think they did call theirs 'Athlon' but it was based on another core). Sadly the Nano didn't make it into more products. Some affordable mainboards would have made a nice NAS base, or a small surf station. But people bought what everyone else had in mind I guess. Wished I'd had seen VIA do better.
Thanks for this link @eelgoo, reading up! 🙂
Oh yes, thanks for reminder I forgot. So one manufacturer less actually. If HGST is still in use maybe it is to become the affordable brand and WD is the more top range one. HDDs running out of favour is somewhat reason for the weird pricing. But for my backups I'd like older and solid tech. Of my HDDs few do run for a decade more or less and are humming along. Can't complain.
@La_Pucelle, don't get any results for your link but I found these are 2.5" drives? So they don't need extra PSU, data and energy provided by one cable, good. Seem okay priced for backup drives, but use it only for this purpose (turn on, copy data, turn off). Not as addition to your storage and not running for hours. I made the mistake once. Didn't quite turn out the happiest day.
What capacities and storage (SSD or HDD) you here are using for your work? Is a M.2 SSD a good investment?
Only thing I can say is that 'WD Red' series was also offered for business utilisation in the past, which adds them to another category for me. Workload 24/7, better endurance, higher MTBF. This usually means they are on the more expensive end so consumers pay extra here. Maybe WD is relaunching this series and placing them for business clients mostly, so they try regulate drive sales via price tag now? To differentiate their product lines more.
Please see http://www.wdc.com/products/internal-storage/wd-red.html and http://www.wdc.com/products/business-internal-storage/wd-red-pro.html for starters. I understand they are considered high end for NAS, and WD got a 'Pro' series for data centres too. Didn't use them and I don't know if you have a need for such drives. A WD Blue could be enough for some hours a day intense workload? I'm still happy with my Seagate Constellation ES drives I bought a while back which were affordable for the common pleb that is me. I don't go cheap but I buy quantities, so they were the way to go.For 'home consumers' WD launched a bunch of elegant (I guess) all-in-one solutions, see here:
http://www.wdc.com/solutions/home-storage-solutions.html
360+ bucks for the dual bay My Cloud Home NAS 8 TB (2 4 TB drives) right now. Big disadvantage, they are to be perma-hooked to the internet and you need a WD software to access. Seems this is what WD wants private consumers to use. If it's their message I guess I did comprehend.
