Fundamentals of Quantitative Design and Analysis - Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach - page 19

FIGURE 1.10 Performance milestones over 25 to 40 years for microprocessors,
memory, networks, and disks . The microprocessor milestones are several generations of
IA-32 processors, going from a 16-bit bus, microcoded 80286 to a 64-bit bus, multicore, out-
of-order execution, superpipelined Core i7. Memory module milestones go from 16-bit-wide,
plain DRAM to 64-bit-wide double data rate version 3 synchronous DRAM. Ethernet advanced
from 10 Mbits/sec to 100 Gbits/sec. Disk milestones are based on rotation speed, improving
from 3600 RPM to 15,000 RPM. Each case is best-case bandwidth, and latency is the time for
a simple operation assuming no contention. Updated from Patterson [2004] .
Performance is the primary differentiator for microprocessors and networks, so they have
seen the greatest gains: 10,000-25,000X in bandwidth and 30-80X in latency. Capacity is gener-