We've gotten used to seeing pretty standardized parts in our PCs, DDR RAM, ATX motherboards,
and square shaped CPUs, very neat, very tidy.
But along the way, there have been some wacky standards that look quite different from what we have today.
Let's start by talking about slot-based CPUs.
That's right, instead of fitting a square processor into a socket and putting a heat sink on top of it
to make a technology sandwich, delicious.
For a few years in the late 90s, you'd have a slot in your motherboards
similar to a PCI slot, where you'd plug in a CPU assembly
that looked like an adapter card. It consisted of the CPU itself soldered to a PCB
and covered with a plastic shroud. So you might mistake it for a modern graphics card
or even an old laptop battery at first glance. But why was this done
other than to confuse future PC enthusiasts? They were trolls back then.
Was it just to make the CPU easier to install? Well, not exactly.
You see, the first slot CPU for desktops was the Intel Pentium II from 1997.
And it was designed to ensure there was enough real estate for the CPU's cache,
that small amount of super fast memory that holds information the CPU needs immediately.
But hold on a second, isn't the cache typically just integrated
onto the CPU die itself? You're right that it is on modern CPUs.
But back in the late 90s, it wasn't quite that easy.
The Pentium Pro, which came before the Pentium II,
had a built-in cache next to the CPU in the same package,
an arrangement that improved performance, but putting two chips in one package
meant that you'd have to throw away both chips if either one had a flaw,
which Intel could only detect after they were put together.
Meaning yields were low and there was lots of wasted silicon.
The Pentium II's slot design attempted to solve this problem
by moving the cache memory away from the CPU package completely,
which necessitated a large PCB to mount both components.
Intel also used a slot design for a few Celeron and Pentium III models,
and AMD used it for its original Athlon processors.
However, shrinking transistors and improved manufacturing
soon made it possible to simply put the cache on the chip itself,
and both Intel and AMD stopped making slotted processors
around the year 2001. Coincidence?
Moving on, let's talk about BTX. As the name implies, this was meant to be a successor
to ATX, the standard form factor for motherboards.
Intel launched BTX toward the end of 2004,
thinking that systems based on this new standard would take up less space and stay cooler.
That's because BTX systems featured a dedicated air duct
for the CPU, with a fan that drew cool air directly from outside the case.
Other heat generating components, like the Southbridge and expansion controllers,
were placed closer together, improving efficiency, and generating less waste heat.
Thermal improvements were seen as important around this time since computers were quickly becoming more powerful
and generating more heat. So why did a design primarily based around
getting lower temperatures fail so spectacularly?
Well, you see, the real reason BTX was conceived was because the main CPU lineup that Team Blue
was trying to sell at that time, the Pentium 4, ran really hot due to problems with the micro architecture.
Those issues are notoriously hard to solve, so instead of continuing to push a whole new form factor,
Intel ultimately decided to simply focus on making new chips that took less power.
And we got the Core 2 lineup in 2006, the same year that Intel decided to stop
trying to make BTX happen. Finally, my friends, let's pour one out for Rambus.
And no, this wasn't a transit line started by Sheep, even though we all want that.
Rambus is a company that developed RD RAM, which was a major competitor to the DDR SD RAM
used in modern PCs, and it even supported double data rate transfer before SD RAM did.
So, Intel agreed to use Rambus exclusively
for the Pentium 4, meaning lots of people in the industry expected RD RAM to dominate.
However, impressive numbers on paper don't always translate to success in the market,
as any D&D dungeon master would tell you.
RD RAM was tricky to manufacture, expensive, ran hot,
and didn't even offer better performance in most typical applications.
Plus, the modules had to be installed in pairs, making it even more expensive for consumers
who just needed a PC for basic tasks. With all these issues, it's not surprising
that Intel jumped at the opportunity to support faster, cheaper DDR SD RAM when it hit the market in 2000.
RD RAM was effectively dead by 2003, joining the likes of Betamax and later HDDVD
in the big eWaste pile in the sky. And that pile has plenty more old gadgets
we didn't talk about today, so what failed technologies would you like to see us cover in a future episode?
Be sure to let us know down in the comments section.
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