The Free Lunch Is Over (computing)
Encyclopedia
"The Free Lunch Is Over" is an article from Herb Sutter
published in 2005. It stated that microprocessor
serial processing speed is reaching a physical limit, which leads to two main consequences:
Despite these facts, information systems are still being developed in a more serial fashion.
Herb Sutter
Herb Sutter is a prominent C++ expert. He is also a book author and a columnist for Dr. Dobb's Journal. He joined Microsoft in 2002 as a platform evangelist for Visual C++ .NET, rising to lead software architect for C++/CLI. Sutter served as secretary and convener of the ISO C++ standards committee...
published in 2005. It stated that microprocessor
Microprocessor
A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few integrated circuits. It is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and...
serial processing speed is reaching a physical limit, which leads to two main consequences:
- processor manufactures will focus on products that better support multithreadingThread (computer science)In computer science, a thread of execution is the smallest unit of processing that can be scheduled by an operating system. The implementation of threads and processes differs from one operating system to another, but in most cases, a thread is contained inside a process...
(such as multi-core processors), and - software developers will be forced to develop massively multithreadedThread (computer science)In computer science, a thread of execution is the smallest unit of processing that can be scheduled by an operating system. The implementation of threads and processes differs from one operating system to another, but in most cases, a thread is contained inside a process...
programs as a way to better use such processors.
Despite these facts, information systems are still being developed in a more serial fashion.