If external gpu, why not external cpu?

[JCBiggs]

What are the technical limits ?     I forsee (as an engineer )   a phone with a (relatively)  weak  cpu,   but with memory capacity to store all my engineering software, and that software being fully enabled when you dock it  to a more powerful xeon .       Why couldn't this Happen?  !   Cpus already have the ability to shut off cores,  seems like it would only require some work in the motherboard 

[Guest]

You don't plug cables to cpu that's why

[sazrocks]

Theoretically possible, but no way this would work over something like thunderbolt or even pcie, it would have to be some very large 1:1 connector. But there's another problem, which is the actual time it takes for the electricity to travel through the cable, which in comparison to the die, is quite significant, and could result in bad things.

[zMeul]

1st and foremost, what would be the reason / need for an external CPU?

then you work on how to make it happen

 

you move the CPU out, then you need to move the RAM out, the PCH ... and you get yourself a mess

 

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unless you get yourself a ultra thin notebook with BGA CPU, or an embedded system, CPUs are user swapable - the need for an external CPU dies right there

[Aereldor]

Because wirelessly offloading tasks to a server is a better solution, and even if you could plug your phone into a processing dock, you will probably be bottlenecked by your phone's software.

[SLAYR]

6 minutes ago, JCBiggs said:

What are the technical limits ?     I forsee (as an engineer )   a phone with a (relatively)  weak  cpu,   but with memory capacity to store all my engineering software, and that software being fully enabled when you dock it  to a more powerful xeon .       Why couldn't this Happen?  !   Cpus already have the ability to shut off cores,  seems like it would only require some work in the motherboard 

They exist look up the xeon Phi coprocessors, more like a computer in a computer though, the issue would be latency to the coprocessor, rewriting OSes and programs to use a coprocessor, also most phone cpus are ARM cpus which are incompatible with x86 based xeons, and program, and would be more work then what it is worth.

 

 there are better solutions such as a remote desktop connection to a better computer from your phone, no wires required, or anything else needed.

 

With engineering, while there might be a better way to something, but it also has to be worth it. For example you can make cars today not ever be in an accident again, but most people aren't going to shell out the  millions of dollars to have that, so spending time engineering it is a waste of time if you can't make it reasonable.

[SmashinMachine]

There is "extenal" coproccessors in the market like XEON PHI with PCIE.

I dont know if XEON PHI PCIE processor works with Thundebolt 3.0 or not.

It is mostly for the servers.

[JCBiggs]

Sorry i ghosted after starting this topic .    Simply put What id like to see,  is the ability to go anywhere (new desk,  restaurant ,   home,  etc)   and just plop in the phone and  voila.  Full  desktop version software and functionality.   Unplug  (maybe without even closing the programs,)    and your phone becomes more of a phone.     You guys are right that remote works well.    I use it daily,    im just talking theory.   

 

As far as latency goes ,  in my mind ,  I'm picturing  something that pretty much completely replaces your phone cpu.   So when you plug in,  the phones  only task basically becomes acting as a file server.   (since  programs would be loaded into the ram in the  dock and exectuted locally)    i guess that makes sense.  

[Guest]

No, electrons take time to transfer data, and an external cpu with a long cable would kill the cpus performance. We need to put things closer to the cpu or put the cpu closer to other hardware in your PC to ensure a fast connection. This is why HBM (VRAM technology) was created and it is obviously located directly near the gpu die. Not to mention this is highly inpractical.

[JCBiggs]

I dont think the concept is impractical.   I imagine walking  into a customer meeting and plugging in my phone and  having the full power of my desktop immediately available to me .   Remote desktop can't do that.   At least not as fast as plugging in a phone to a dock .   Eject the phone and everything  you just did comes with u leaving a  dock that has minimal functionality on its own.    Your phone becomes cloud and the dock does the heavy lifting .  This woupd be great for walking down the hall to get help with a project ,  or for engineers and designers whom have thier own software licenses.  

[Guest]

9 hours ago, JCBiggs said:

I dont think the concept is impractical.   I imagine walking  into a customer meeting and plugging in my phone and  having the full power of my desktop immediately available to me .   Remote desktop can't do that.   At least not as fast as plugging in a phone to a dock .   Eject the phone and everything  you just did comes with u leaving a  dock that has minimal functionality on its own.    Your phone becomes cloud and the dock does the heavy lifting .  This woupd be great for walking down the hall to get help with a project ,  or for engineers and designers whom have thier own software licenses.  

As i said already, it would kill the performance, making it pretty pointless. You will never archieve desktop performance with an external cpu. Just get a faster phone or do your work on a desktop.

[JCBiggs]

And i think your missing the concept.  I am NOT talking about the phone cpu doing ANY major PRocessing involving offloading the heavy things. The programs  would fully load and exceute   on the docks hardware.   There would be no latency, and no performance hit.   at least no more than standard hard drive communication time.    In other words,  the dock would almost practically be its own pc and could perhaps  just be a shell os.   When you  plug your phone in,   all your apps would populate on the desktop.   Opening one.... Cad software for instance,  that won't run great on a phone,  would run on the dock,  while accessing its saved files,  and temp directories from the phones hard drive.   Again the benefit being that you really only need to load software once. . . To your own phone,  mobile storage container,  etc. . Imagine buying a racing  game,  loading it to your phone and playing it at home on your game level dock with one 4k monitor. . . Then one day your in the mall,  happen by the arcade,  pay your 5 bucks,  plug in your phone and play the exact same game with all the same settings,   controls,  etc...   But now your playing in a massive simulator.