[NTLUG:Discuss] Sempron discussion after Sep 18 meeting

[Ralph Green, Jr]

Howdy,
  At the lunch after the meeting today, there was a brief discussion
about the new AMD Sempron.  The question raised was whether it was a
cheap way to get a Linux system with a 64 bit processor.  The answer to
that is pretty much no.

  There are basically two types of Sempron.  K7-Semprons are basically
Athlon XPs with a cheaper price.  AMD needed a faster budget processor
and the did not want to devalue the Athlon name, so they renamed the
part.  K7-Semprons are drop in replacements on Socket A boards that
supported the later Athlon XPs.  The have the Thoroughbred-B core a 256K
of L2 cache.  K8-Semprons are based on the Athlon 64 and use the newer
Socket 754. They cut the L2 cache to 256K and leave off the x86-64
extensions.  I suppose at some level, it has the 64 bit processor
inside, but you only can use it like a fast 32 bit processor.  That is
why I say pretty much no.  And, this is a good outcome to the
discussion, because everyone was basically right.

  There was also a question about the French program for transcoding
DVDs to Xvid videos that I had read about.  It is called FairUse
Wizard.  It is not appropriate for use by someone in the US, because the
DMCA took away some of your fair use rights.  It should be safe to
mention, since, as I understand it, the author no longer allows it to be
downloaded like he used to.

 And a closing quote from George Bernard Shaw which came to mind at
lunch today.
  "I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and
besides, the pig likes it."