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Six cores means nothing when the cores are slow.


What makes a core fast vs slow?

Isn't this just Verilog code? Isn't there only a couple of ways to implement a fast CPU?


This machine has a six-core SoC that has 2 fast cores and four slow ones. It's more or less equivalent to what you'd expect from a low-end laptop, which is consistent with the price.

In general, faster cores will dedicate more silicon to out-of-order or speculative execution, branch prediction, internal caches of various sorts, etc. The slow cores, OTOH, are most likely simpler, in-order cores with less less smart tricks, aiming to be simple and low-power. Vendors add/remove/tune all these tricks and more (memory channels, IO lines) to put processors in a given spot.


It means you get to work with issues that emerge from asymmetric multiple cores. It's more fun if you like to look to the metal from up close.




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