1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:09,639 HR needs you to tell the difference between these two chips nothing how 2 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:10,880 about now what is a centaur CPU I mean 3 00:00:09,639 --> 00:00:17,080 it certainly isn't the kind of thing you'd find on new eggs or how'd we get our hands on one I can't tell you that 4 00:00:14,799 --> 00:00:24,760 but what I can tell you is that it is a prototype x86 CPU that fits into an 5 00:00:21,840 --> 00:00:31,160 Intel socket on this motherboard that doesn't work with an Intel CPU it's not 6 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:33,120 made by Intel or AMD for that matter and 7 00:00:31,160 --> 00:00:39,000 while it doesn't have much in common physically with a mythical Beast it very 8 00:00:35,800 --> 00:00:41,920 much is one just like our beastly 9 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:46,680 sponsor I fix it if your favorite old console is on the fritz don't go replace 10 00:00:44,160 --> 00:00:51,320 it just yet give it a new leas on life with the help of iix it check out their 11 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:54,320 game console Parts using the link down below 12 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:08,600 we're going to get to who Centaur is in a moment but first what is up with this 13 00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:11,360 motherboard it's got an Intel socket LGA 14 00:01:08,600 --> 00:01:16,080 2011 V3 to be exact but we were told by our anonymous source that you should not 15 00:01:13,759 --> 00:01:20,520 put an Intel CPU in it so it's physically the same but electrically 16 00:01:18,520 --> 00:01:26,600 completely incompatible kind of like when you see a USB port that's labeled 17 00:01:23,240 --> 00:01:28,400 rs232 they've just reused the housing 18 00:01:26,600 --> 00:01:33,439 and the pins in order to save time and cost but all the signal in is completely 19 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:38,920 different I have never seen that done with a CPU socket though and the 20 00:01:36,520 --> 00:01:42,240 motherboard it soldered to is a trip there's normal stuff you got what 21 00:01:40,600 --> 00:01:46,680 appears to be a quad Channel memory configuration just like we saw on the 22 00:01:44,360 --> 00:01:51,960 Intel CPUs that used this socket standard PC power inputs PCI Express 23 00:01:49,439 --> 00:01:56,719 expansion slots couple m.2 storage slots those were showing up on Intel around 24 00:01:53,360 --> 00:02:00,240 this time as well but as we dig deeper 25 00:01:56,719 --> 00:02:02,799 it is absolutely covered in jumpers and 26 00:02:00,240 --> 00:02:07,200 dip switches and that is an indication that this is a development platform 27 00:02:04,799 --> 00:02:13,080 board so with these which I've been instructed not to touch you can actually 28 00:02:10,319 --> 00:02:16,959 change the characteristics of either the CPU itself or the behavior of the 29 00:02:15,519 --> 00:02:21,120 motherboard depending on what you're trying to test this was a weird one for 30 00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:28,080 me too it's actually got one of those gamery segmented audio sub pcbs with a 31 00:02:24,760 --> 00:02:29,640 CD audio connector okay now hold on a 32 00:02:28,080 --> 00:02:35,800 second we need to take a closer look at this moving along the bottom we've got a 33 00:02:31,599 --> 00:02:37,680 USBC Port not a header an actual Port so 34 00:02:35,800 --> 00:02:42,159 that probably connects either to some kind of Hardware interface or another PC 35 00:02:39,959 --> 00:02:45,319 for Diagnostic and development purposes and then back to the front I've been 36 00:02:43,599 --> 00:02:51,280 told that I should take the heat sink off of here guess we'll put you back 37 00:02:47,159 --> 00:02:54,159 later and have a look at this guy zx200 38 00:02:51,280 --> 00:03:00,800 what are you interesting USB SATA networking and PCI Express 39 00:02:58,440 --> 00:03:06,920 switching that's about it it and what that means is that this CPU is a highly 40 00:03:03,560 --> 00:03:08,720 integrated s so without the platform 41 00:03:06,920 --> 00:03:13,080 controller Hub that you would find on an Intel motherboard of this generation so 42 00:03:10,519 --> 00:03:16,920 it's more like a Threadripper in our search for identifying marks we found 43 00:03:14,760 --> 00:03:19,760 some cool stuff there's a bunch of probe points on this board which are Super 44 00:03:18,440 --> 00:03:26,760 useful for developers when they're trying to figure out what's going on with power delivery or on the various 45 00:03:22,799 --> 00:03:29,760 buses and we found this little label 46 00:03:26,760 --> 00:03:31,560 ch001 DC next to the Centaur Tech 47 00:03:29,760 --> 00:03:36,120 technology logo and maybe more importantly this sticker the QR code 48 00:03:33,879 --> 00:03:40,879 doesn't go anywhere but Kodiak assembly is a company that provides PCB assembly 49 00:03:38,400 --> 00:03:46,680 and other fabrication services and this date has this board manufactured in 50 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:49,840 September of 2019 that is not that long 51 00:03:46,680 --> 00:03:52,840 ago most PCS these days and really for 52 00:03:49,840 --> 00:03:55,360 almost the last 25 years use CPUs from 53 00:03:52,840 --> 00:04:00,760 AMD and Intel a duopoly that they maintain by refusing to license the x86 54 00:03:58,040 --> 00:04:07,439 instruction set to any other part but there is another sentaur technology 55 00:04:04,120 --> 00:04:11,239 was founded in 1995 as a subsidiary of 56 00:04:07,439 --> 00:04:14,599 IDT by former IBM fellow Glenn Henry to 57 00:04:11,239 --> 00:04:17,280 do what IBM didn't do and the concept 58 00:04:14,599 --> 00:04:23,919 was simple a small team building a low complexity lowcost energy efficient 59 00:04:19,759 --> 00:04:27,360 desktop CPU for the then new sub $1,000 60 00:04:23,919 --> 00:04:29,479 PC market this became the win chip and 61 00:04:27,360 --> 00:04:33,960 it was modestly successful mostly in Market markets outside of the US 62 00:04:31,320 --> 00:04:39,199 offering adequate performance at half of the size of a contemporary Pentium class 63 00:04:36,199 --> 00:04:42,160 CPU unfortunately Intel took notice and 64 00:04:39,199 --> 00:04:47,880 did what Intel did best in the 9s and absolutely crushed them centaur was 65 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:53,680 ultimately acquired then alongside cyrix by via Technologies in 66 00:04:49,880 --> 00:04:56,039 1999 their next CPU the cyx 3 found 67 00:04:53,680 --> 00:05:01,520 little Commercial Success on the desktop but in embedded systems it was so 68 00:04:58,600 --> 00:05:06,840 popular that many ITX was developed specifically to show off its successor 69 00:05:03,800 --> 00:05:09,600 the C3 Now Intel who had already sued 70 00:05:06,840 --> 00:05:14,960 via over chipset patents in the 90s sued via again in 2001 for x86 patent 71 00:05:12,720 --> 00:05:19,600 infringement and Via counter sued for the infringement of centaur's patents 72 00:05:17,280 --> 00:05:24,120 ultimately they both settled in 2003 with a 10-year cross- licensing 73 00:05:21,199 --> 00:05:29,360 agreement that stipulated that via / Centaur could continue creating x86 74 00:05:27,039 --> 00:05:34,560 designs as long as they were not in any way compatible with Intel chipsets a fun 75 00:05:32,360 --> 00:05:39,520 bit of trivia here is via used to make motherboard chipsets and the settlement 76 00:05:36,639 --> 00:05:44,479 gave them until 2017 to stop doing that for Intel chips so that explains how 77 00:05:42,319 --> 00:05:49,000 Centaur got away with building an x86 CPU but it doesn't explain why they 78 00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:53,720 built it and to find that out we've got to take a closer look at what it is 79 00:05:51,319 --> 00:05:59,240 starting with what it's not it's not a CPU it's an S so code named Centaur 80 00:05:56,720 --> 00:06:04,039 halls or cha that's why our motherboard has no chipset on it it's all on the 81 00:06:01,600 --> 00:06:10,680 chip itself it's got up to eight cores clocked it up to 2.5 GHz though 2.0 is 82 00:06:07,599 --> 00:06:13,880 stock on our chip and it supports AVX 83 00:06:10,680 --> 00:06:16,720 512 kind of like AMD has done on their 84 00:06:13,880 --> 00:06:20,880 most recent Zen 4 architecture in such a way that it doesn't require the chip to 85 00:06:18,319 --> 00:06:26,639 be downclocked like intels did at the time the biggest piece though is an 86 00:06:23,160 --> 00:06:29,039 onboard AI accelerator code named encor 87 00:06:26,639 --> 00:06:35,000 it added essentially no cost but it could access the CPU's level three cache 88 00:06:31,840 --> 00:06:36,800 and system memory extremely quickly it 89 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:42,160 was meant to be the killer app for this platform with an extremely high-speed 90 00:06:39,400 --> 00:06:50,000 bidirectional 160 gab pers second connection to the CPU itself that's more 91 00:06:45,080 --> 00:06:52,599 bandwidth than a PCIe Gen 6 by6 slot 92 00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:58,400 unfortunately while their idea for a lowcost AI accelerated platform was 93 00:06:55,319 --> 00:07:00,199 pretty well timed the actual execution 94 00:06:58,400 --> 00:07:04,700 well not so much we'll get into that a little bit later first did I tell you 95 00:07:02,599 --> 00:07:10,840 this thing works let's fire it 96 00:07:10,840 --> 00:07:17,680 up even the fact they got as far as silicon power on means they were deep 97 00:07:15,879 --> 00:07:24,520 into development of this platform like real work was done and that is 98 00:07:21,319 --> 00:07:28,199 mindblowing the BIOS build date is 99 00:07:24,520 --> 00:07:30,120 2021 guys that is 2 and 1/2 years ago 100 00:07:28,199 --> 00:07:34,759 they were still developing for this thing and just 2 months before Intel 101 00:07:32,720 --> 00:07:38,360 purchased centaur's engineering staff from via man I feel like a kid who just 102 00:07:36,960 --> 00:07:42,240 got dropped off at the playground what do I go on first the monkey bars or the 103 00:07:40,120 --> 00:07:47,400 marryg go round now because this is a debug board there's a lot of items that 104 00:07:44,520 --> 00:07:55,479 go nowhere and do nothing but there's some really cool stuff in here oh did it 105 00:07:49,599 --> 00:07:55,479 just turn off it sure did it did um 106 00:08:00,240 --> 00:08:06,919 uh what I mean what all is there for us to play with here CPU configuration 107 00:08:04,960 --> 00:08:12,759 there's our 2 GHz clock speed oh nonfused CPU ah fuses apparently there's 108 00:08:10,919 --> 00:08:17,319 a whole bunch of fuses that we can blow in here and if you're not familiar fuses 109 00:08:15,080 --> 00:08:22,960 can lock functionality like uh instruction sets or even uh CPU cache 110 00:08:20,960 --> 00:08:27,960 and that's one of the ways that we get a lower-end chip from a higher end chip so 111 00:08:26,080 --> 00:08:31,599 theoretically they could put a top speec chip in a board like this one blow up 112 00:08:30,120 --> 00:08:36,519 the parts they don't need and end up with any chip from the lineup the 113 00:08:33,919 --> 00:08:42,039 concluder now hold on a sec if I'm understanding this correctly it changes 114 00:08:38,719 --> 00:08:44,720 the CPU ID to be whatever it is that I 115 00:08:42,039 --> 00:08:50,279 tell it to be Intel probably wouldn't like this for AVX 116 00:08:47,680 --> 00:08:55,160 512 that would have been really useful for this kind of application I wonder if 117 00:08:52,560 --> 00:08:59,560 this thing's a PlayStation 3 emulation monster demo board is just onboard land 118 00:08:57,760 --> 00:09:03,880 enable disable I guess they hadn't put it in the proper category yet this is 119 00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:11,279 surprisingly robust and finished looking PCI Gen 2 only though this was toward 120 00:09:07,760 --> 00:09:13,279 the very end of PCIe gen 2's life cycle 121 00:09:11,279 --> 00:09:18,600 this is really important setting Dam timings because oh my God those default 122 00:09:16,480 --> 00:09:23,200 timings I can see why you had to put it all in manually for now we're going to 123 00:09:20,920 --> 00:09:27,760 leave all of this alone including the ever so tempting the concluder button 124 00:09:25,800 --> 00:09:31,200 and let Windows see the real deal while we wait for it to boot by the way you 125 00:09:29,399 --> 00:09:36,440 can shop the real deal with YouTube shopping and get 20% off of our backpack 126 00:09:34,880 --> 00:09:41,160 when you purchase through the shopping tag right here you've seen how awesome 127 00:09:39,440 --> 00:09:46,000 this backpack is before and we are excited to announce you can now buy the 128 00:09:43,120 --> 00:09:51,040 definitive edition of the LTT backpack it's got the same 22 pockets and sleeves 129 00:09:48,800 --> 00:09:55,920 the same convenient features like an air tag pocket and RFID blocking passport 130 00:09:54,079 --> 00:10:00,120 pocket it's got more than enough space for all of your Tech and daily carry 131 00:09:57,720 --> 00:10:04,720 gear and features a resilient and fully recycled exterior Fabric and new today 132 00:10:02,880 --> 00:10:10,800 it ships with the bonded dual layer bottom and our upgraded titanium 133 00:10:08,160 --> 00:10:14,560 Carabiner zipper pulse thanks to YouTube shopping we're offering a limited deal 134 00:10:12,600 --> 00:10:19,760 where if you buy it through their link here on YouTube you can save 20% Which 135 00:10:17,200 --> 00:10:23,839 is 50 bucks this is a limited offer so grab it while you can hey look at that 136 00:10:21,920 --> 00:10:27,720 we're in Windows the first thing you'll probably notice is we're running Windows 137 00:10:25,240 --> 00:10:31,240 10 that's cuz there's no firmware TPM and no module that we were able able to 138 00:10:29,640 --> 00:10:36,399 easily find for the header that's on the board so Windows 10 then uh we could try 139 00:10:34,040 --> 00:10:41,399 to bypass the lock for Windows 11 but I've been told realistically the 140 00:10:38,040 --> 00:10:44,720 system's slow enough on 10 steam 100% 141 00:10:41,399 --> 00:10:46,600 the CPU easily when downloading at I 142 00:10:44,720 --> 00:10:52,240 mean let's do a quick speed test there it is 2 GHz at super super slow timings 143 00:10:51,240 --> 00:10:57,200 we'll get these tweaked we'll get these tweaked before we do any oh my 144 00:10:57,800 --> 00:11:05,880 God sorry I was about to say performance testing but I guess I mean lack of 145 00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:09,200 performance testing 350 146 00:11:05,880 --> 00:11:11,839 megabit that is not fast this is cool 147 00:11:09,200 --> 00:11:18,320 though it knows that it's Centaur technology even has the right code name 148 00:11:14,600 --> 00:11:20,480 it is often amazing to me how much 149 00:11:18,320 --> 00:11:26,000 information something like a CPU Z is able to pull off of Hardware that in the 150 00:11:22,880 --> 00:11:29,320 wild doesn't exist in the mainboard tab 151 00:11:26,000 --> 00:11:31,120 we see the chipset is made by Jin that's 152 00:11:29,320 --> 00:11:37,079 name that's going to come up later also PCI Express 3.0 now wait a second it 153 00:11:34,200 --> 00:11:42,560 said PCIe Gen 2 in the BIOS but the bus spec say gen 3 here honestly I would 154 00:11:39,440 --> 00:11:44,560 trust CPU Z over that janky BIOS and gen 155 00:11:42,560 --> 00:11:48,480 3 makes way more sense for that time period because we were on the cusp of 156 00:11:46,040 --> 00:11:51,079 Gen 4 by that point enough fooling around for now though Emily's going to 157 00:11:50,000 --> 00:11:55,440 get this thing dialed in and we're going to do some performance testing and 158 00:11:53,839 --> 00:11:59,399 sometime later we're going to have an exclusive over at lm. g/f flat plane of 159 00:11:57,880 --> 00:12:05,560 Emily going through everything that was changed we've got there we go that's 160 00:12:03,040 --> 00:12:11,120 more like it and I can drag a window around now yes without it lagging behind 161 00:12:08,839 --> 00:12:16,920 me I guess the first thing I want to do is run C bench R20 look at this I'm on 162 00:12:14,320 --> 00:12:21,880 the internet on a centaur loads the way you'd expect I mean it's x86 163 00:12:19,399 --> 00:12:30,680 right there's some differences but but but mostly that is not 164 00:12:24,800 --> 00:12:34,720 fast 3 hours later almost there 165 00:12:30,680 --> 00:12:36,920 1660 to put that in context the ryzen 7 166 00:12:34,720 --> 00:12:41,720 1700x which was not even the top performing ship at the time came out 7 167 00:12:39,480 --> 00:12:45,199 years ago and is more than double that score I'm afraid to see what's going to 168 00:12:43,800 --> 00:12:48,920 happen in gaming I'm afraid to see what a single core run would look like how 169 00:12:46,880 --> 00:12:54,680 many points was that no no points I bet we can gain 170 00:12:52,880 --> 00:13:02,040 though we'll just play older games lighter games play Dave the diver 171 00:12:59,440 --> 00:13:07,760 oh my goodness and this isn't even because it has a mechanical hard drive 172 00:13:03,639 --> 00:13:07,760 in it this is just how fast it 173 00:13:09,480 --> 00:13:15,839 is I mean In fairness it does work our 174 00:13:13,399 --> 00:13:20,560 next game is Doug hug which was created as a prank I guess to generate fake 175 00:13:18,199 --> 00:13:25,519 outrage around the time of the launch of Duke Nukem Forever and uh they said they 176 00:13:23,440 --> 00:13:30,279 would do it 13 years ago and actually followed through here it is in 2024 it's 177 00:13:28,360 --> 00:13:35,600 time to generate some some positivity cuz games are just too negative 178 00:13:32,959 --> 00:13:38,959 this there are sharks in the sky Let's help this granny across the street shall 179 00:13:37,199 --> 00:13:42,560 we here we go mimo let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go come on pick up the pace 180 00:13:45,360 --> 00:13:51,639 lady yeah okay she'll make it I can't 181 00:13:49,160 --> 00:13:58,040 stop frown I think it's some kind of turn that frown upside down that's not 182 00:13:55,279 --> 00:14:03,240 the same voice actor as Duke Nukem is it it is that is John St John oh now is the 183 00:14:01,480 --> 00:14:11,279 perfect opportunity to find out if that USBC Port is in fact a functioning USBC 184 00:14:07,279 --> 00:14:12,800 Port can I plug a controller into it yes 185 00:14:11,279 --> 00:14:19,199 now that doesn't mean that it isn't for Diagnostics it very likely is but it 186 00:14:15,880 --> 00:14:21,120 also just happens to be a USBC Port it's 187 00:14:19,199 --> 00:14:25,480 a super cool game it's a Rog light hockey game you go on a campaign to 188 00:14:22,920 --> 00:14:29,480 restore hockey to its former glory uh there's all kinds of cool upgrades like 189 00:14:27,320 --> 00:14:33,440 you can throw your stick at opponent you can fart and push them away so they 190 00:14:31,199 --> 00:14:37,079 can't body check you pretty fun and with the latest beta supports five player 191 00:14:35,120 --> 00:14:40,880 local multiplayer so you can have every player on your team be human controlled 192 00:14:39,199 --> 00:14:46,959 just don't lose a game or your campaign's over hey look at this in the 193 00:14:43,959 --> 00:14:50,199 lightest possible games we can get 150 194 00:14:46,959 --> 00:14:53,519 frames per second no problem 195 00:14:50,199 --> 00:14:56,000 buddy here we go here we go here we go 196 00:14:53,519 --> 00:15:00,079 let's go come on you know what it feels pretty laggy 197 00:14:58,680 --> 00:15:05,399 though I'm not not going to lie it does not feel like 150 frames per second the 198 00:15:03,320 --> 00:15:09,120 point is other than being slow there's nothing that really sets this thing 199 00:15:06,800 --> 00:15:17,800 apart from any other computer that I've used it works try C bench 2024 no 200 00:15:15,120 --> 00:15:21,880 avx2 I know where we're going with this I'm going to pretend to be a different 201 00:15:19,199 --> 00:15:27,199 CPU now right that is where the concluder comes in as far as we can tell 202 00:15:24,600 --> 00:15:32,480 some applications instead of checking the instruction set support are just 203 00:15:29,240 --> 00:15:34,079 checking a list of I don't know CPU 204 00:15:32,480 --> 00:15:37,880 models that are known to support the instruction set and if you don't happen 205 00:15:35,759 --> 00:15:43,920 to have it they're just spitting out an error and cinebench 24 would be one of 206 00:15:40,639 --> 00:15:46,319 them cuz according to CPU Z the CPU does 207 00:15:43,920 --> 00:15:52,759 in fact support avx2 but I guess we're about to find out if we artificially 208 00:15:49,279 --> 00:15:55,800 change the reporting ID to Skylake X 209 00:15:52,759 --> 00:15:58,440 will it run I mean probably won't run 210 00:15:55,800 --> 00:16:05,720 but it might walk oh that's hilarious oh Intel would would not be happy about 211 00:16:00,319 --> 00:16:09,279 this it even shows an Intel logo it even 212 00:16:05,720 --> 00:16:12,959 misreports does it even misreport the 213 00:16:09,279 --> 00:16:15,959 socket that's super weird oh my God this 214 00:16:12,959 --> 00:16:19,639 cor speed okay it has no idea what's 215 00:16:15,959 --> 00:16:21,519 going on why does it say PCI E Gen 4 now 216 00:16:19,639 --> 00:16:29,519 there's no way that's right hold on a second what is our GPU reporting oh this 217 00:16:24,319 --> 00:16:32,199 is fascinating no it's gen 3 wait but it 218 00:16:29,519 --> 00:16:41,199 report it reports a bus interface of Gen 4 is it Gen 4 not my 219 00:16:35,720 --> 00:16:44,000 knowledge yes no no what and of course C 220 00:16:41,199 --> 00:16:48,279 bench 2024 totally launches in an effort to get the end core neural processor 221 00:16:45,880 --> 00:16:52,079 working we fired up Linux as well but we had even more problems in Linux than we 222 00:16:50,040 --> 00:16:57,720 did in Windows it takes forever to boot the desktop is even laggier and our PCIe 223 00:16:55,120 --> 00:17:02,399 devices seem to run at incorrect speeds also no public driver seems to exist for 224 00:17:00,199 --> 00:17:07,360 the encor so we weren't able to test it and the fonics test Suite takes forever 225 00:17:04,600 --> 00:17:12,079 just to download let alone to run with how customizable Linux is I think this 226 00:17:09,520 --> 00:17:17,160 is one of if not the first time that we've had some weird esoteric piece of 227 00:17:14,600 --> 00:17:22,480 Hardware that works less completely or less reliably on Linux than it does on 228 00:17:18,959 --> 00:17:24,799 Windows but hey even Champions have bad 229 00:17:22,480 --> 00:17:29,480 days all of which is interesting but doesn't answer our big questions how did 230 00:17:27,559 --> 00:17:33,360 this come to be and why Why didn't it get over the Finish Line in order to 231 00:17:31,400 --> 00:17:37,080 answer that we've got to do a little bit of a history lesson the final 232 00:17:35,520 --> 00:17:42,360 commercially released design from centaur was the Via Nano X2 code name 233 00:17:39,919 --> 00:17:46,880 Isaiah that came out back in 2011 and was a dual core chip meant for Pico ITX 234 00:17:44,679 --> 00:17:52,400 systems and meant to compete with Intel atom now in the 2010s pretty much 235 00:17:50,120 --> 00:17:57,440 everyone Intel included saw the writing on the wall for embedded x86 not to 236 00:17:55,320 --> 00:18:03,080 mention that via's patent cross license deal with Intel with which included the 237 00:17:59,559 --> 00:18:06,440 x86 license was only guaranteed until 238 00:18:03,080 --> 00:18:08,320 2013 so that same year then via started 239 00:18:06,440 --> 00:18:12,520 the xiaan joint venture with the Shanghai municipal government where s 240 00:18:10,520 --> 00:18:18,159 so's would be developed for the Chinese market where uh pesky things like IP 241 00:18:15,760 --> 00:18:22,320 licensing deals don't matter quite as much but in spite of their obvious 242 00:18:20,600 --> 00:18:27,200 attempts to safeguard their future by investing in China they weren't out of 243 00:18:24,159 --> 00:18:30,799 the global market just yet in 2014 244 00:18:27,200 --> 00:18:34,240 rumors circulated of a Poss Centaur x86 245 00:18:30,799 --> 00:18:37,200 SL ARM hybrid project but nothing came 246 00:18:34,240 --> 00:18:41,600 of it and then in 2019 they announced the cha the S so that we're looking at 247 00:18:39,720 --> 00:18:47,320 today the idea was that it would be positioned against Intel's Zeon CPUs at 248 00:18:44,400 --> 00:18:51,960 an estimated price of just $500 to $1,000 which sounds like a pretty 249 00:18:50,080 --> 00:18:57,720 compelling story but the headwinds were many and they were Mighty in 2019 alone 250 00:18:55,440 --> 00:19:02,919 Intel's lowcost Cascade Lake launched Intel's high-end ice Lake SB was due to 251 00:19:00,159 --> 00:19:07,559 launch and AMD's epic RAM launched with Incredible core counts that absolutely 252 00:19:05,039 --> 00:19:13,320 dwarfed what Centaur Halls was expected to deliver in the second half of 2020 253 00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:17,000 not only that but gpus and AI accelerator cards had already taken over 254 00:19:15,480 --> 00:19:22,480 the task of machine learning from the CPU and the performance was not even 255 00:19:19,760 --> 00:19:29,640 close don't believe me ask Jensen hang's accountant NVIDIA's Tesla T4 which was a 256 00:19:25,520 --> 00:19:33,080 downclocked RTX 2070 super was 2 $2,000 257 00:19:29,640 --> 00:19:36,679 in 2019 which is a lot more than one of 258 00:19:33,080 --> 00:19:38,520 these but absolutely Stomps all over the 259 00:19:36,679 --> 00:19:44,039 end course performance even with an older four core Skylake CPU that cost 260 00:19:42,840 --> 00:19:50,200 only $213 so generously if we assume that 261 00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:52,880 Centaur Halls launched at $500 that Zeon 262 00:19:50,200 --> 00:19:57,679 plus T4 combo is 4 and half times the price for four to five times the 263 00:19:55,280 --> 00:20:02,159 performance which actually sounds pretty reasonable until you consider that going 264 00:20:00,520 --> 00:20:06,000 the other route you'd get a platform from a company that's launched more than 265 00:20:03,760 --> 00:20:09,960 one commercial chip in the past 8 years you could use Cuda so you have broader 266 00:20:07,559 --> 00:20:17,280 compatibility and you can throw consumer gpus in these things for a lower price 267 00:20:12,159 --> 00:20:20,200 too so yeah they had a good idea for 268 00:20:17,280 --> 00:20:24,880 2017 but by 2019 the industry was just moving too fast for it to make any sense 269 00:20:22,760 --> 00:20:28,880 and by 2021 much of centaur's engineering was sold over to Intel 270 00:20:26,760 --> 00:20:31,919 leaving via with mainly just Cent intellectual property which kind of 271 00:20:30,280 --> 00:20:36,760 makes you wonder if Intel had a hand in Centaur Halls cancellation Centaur Halls 272 00:20:34,280 --> 00:20:41,840 was as far as we know the final s so designed in-house by Centaur and much of 273 00:20:39,320 --> 00:20:45,720 its DNA is actually shared with the Xian chips like the one that we looked at 274 00:20:43,360 --> 00:20:51,440 some time ago which makes it kind of a missing link between where xia Shin is 275 00:20:47,960 --> 00:20:54,400 today and the Isaiah based via Nano and 276 00:20:51,440 --> 00:21:00,000 unfortunately that's all it is a missing link to our sponsor I fix it that loud 277 00:20:57,960 --> 00:21:04,280 buzzing noise coming from your console it's probably bad news but it's not the 278 00:21:02,240 --> 00:21:09,400 end of the world because iix it has the help you need from the newest 279 00:21:06,039 --> 00:21:11,200 PlayStation to the Xbox 360 which yes 280 00:21:09,400 --> 00:21:15,559 I'm sorry to tell you is considered retro now they have the parts to help 281 00:21:13,520 --> 00:21:19,559 you breathe new life into your favorite console and I mean it they got like 282 00:21:17,400 --> 00:21:24,720 everything replacement face plates power supplies thumb sticks screens they got 283 00:21:22,279 --> 00:21:29,279 it plus with their comprehensive guides all you need is a little DIY spirit I 284 00:21:27,520 --> 00:21:33,279 don't have sleeves to roll up and the daunting task of taking apart your 285 00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:37,880 console becomes a breeze so do your part to help reduce E-Waste by checking out 286 00:21:35,240 --> 00:21:41,880 iFixit game console Parts at the link down below if you guys enjoyed this 287 00:21:40,200 --> 00:21:45,760 video why not check out the one where we looked at one of those xiaosen CPUs at 288 00:21:44,039 --> 00:21:54,480 the time we were looking at it going how did these guys get an x86 license and 289 00:21:49,799 --> 00:21:54,480 well they kind of didn't I guess