User talk:Iain.mcclatchie

Dori says hi
Hi and welcome to Wikipedia.But im sorry to report, that Good job on the classic RISC pipeline article. One thing though, as you create an article, try and link it from as many relevant pages as possible, and also create some sensible redirects, so that people can find it more easily. I should also add that this will be good in preventing any duplication. I was also thinking of writing a few comp arch articles (started with trace cache and branch predictor).

I am planning on doing a list of computer architecture topics article to keep track of them more easily. What do you think? Dori | Talk 06:22, Jan 4, 2004 (UTC)

Hey, I am not at all ticked off about your changes. I welcome any edits on computer architecture. I found the topics lacking myself, but I just didn't want to undertake them all myself. I think we can cooperate on this to bring them up to shape.

As far as not wanting to post an unfinished article, you don't have to "officially" post it. Many editors have their own userspace pages for in-process editing. So for example you might have User:Iain.mcclatchie/branch predictor or whatever. You can also put up a temporary sign on articles you are currently editing to "prevent" editing conflicts using  , which will show up as:

I think we should list as many topics as we can think of on a list like I proposed, and work off of that. What do you think? I'll let you know about the branch predictor article once I get a chance to read it. Dori | Talk 17:48, Jan 4, 2004 (UTC)

I just read the branch predictor article, and it is much better than what I had. The only thing is that we have to explain some of the terms to those who are not familiar with the field. This can be done through small definitions and links of course. Also, those reading these articles are likely to be interested in them so we can get a bit technical. The only thing is, the first paragraph should be simple enough that even someone who barely knows about computers can understand. Then those who are more interested can dig into the rest of the articles. If you think that you need to get into very technical details to the point where you don't think it is encyclopedic enough, there is always wikibooks. Don't be scared by the title, many of the "books" are little more than HOWTOs and TODO lists, although ideally they would develop into real books over time. I personally prefer to edit here on smaller articles though. Dori | Talk 18:07, Jan 4, 2004 (UTC)

I don't think an article can be deleted immediately. It has to go through Votes for deletion process first. However, in this case it is not necessary to delete, we can simply redirect it to branch predictor (i.e. replace its contents with  #REDIRECT Branch predictor ). That was if someone doesn't like the change they are able to revert the change, and the history and contributions are not lost either.

As for the diagrams, the reason PNG is suggested is that it is a lossless format that can be viewed. There is nothing wrong with submitting both an image and a diagram file (and having a link to each other in their respective description pages). Right now file uploading is disabled due to the server situation. The name is of course up to you. It should however be descriptive of the image. Some people also like to have the dimensions in pixels in the name. For more information see Image use policy and Special:Imagelist for a sampling of names. Dori | Talk 03:40, Jan 5, 2004 (UTC)

I think your list is a good start, so I will use it. But we probably need to populate it a lot more (from transistors to the Pentium 4). Dori | Talk 08:31, Jan 15, 2004 (UTC)


 * Hey, I didn't mean that you and I should write all the articles in the list. I just meant that we need to write a list as complete as possible, and then pick whatever and however many we want from that list to write about. I just think it's a good idea to list the topics so that if someone else wants to write about them, there is no duplication. Also, someone might get motivated to write about something if they see it listed. I don't know when and what I am going to write about next. I am starting school, so I may be a bit busy to get started. I'll let you know though.


 * I should also mention that there is no committment at Wikipedia except for not intentionally making its state worse than you found it :) Everyone does as they please when they please, so no pressure to do anything. Everyone edits for the fun of it, well some of us are a bit addicted :) Dori | Talk 06:13, Jan 17, 2004 (UTC)

Good to see that you're back (which reminds me to get started on some architecture topics). I have deleted that file. Dori | Talk 00:47, May 25, 2004 (UTC)

-

You might want to look at, which in its current form looks like one of the arrows is pointing to the wrong place in main memory. -- The Anome 12:53, 22 Jul 2004 (UTC)


 * Fixed. Thanks.

Out of Order Execution Article
Hi, I just created an Out of Order execution article. I previously noticed that this was on your plans. Please enhance as you see fit. The article could use some pictures, but I'm too lazy. Dyl 18:35, Sep 20, 2004 (UTC)

Images
The image is now at Image:CMOS NAND.png. Unfortunately images cannot be renamed. They have to be reuploaded under the new names, links updated manually, and the old images deleted. As far as *.dia, I think it may be one of the files that's blocked as "dangerous." I'll ask a developer on IRC and let you know. Dori | Talk 13:48, Nov 13, 2004 (UTC)
 * Apparently it's dissallowed as IE gets confused on unknown files and if it sees html in them, it runs it. So if someone uploads some malicious html in a dia extension, IE users could be in trouble. Apparently for now each file type is checked manually, and dia is not one of them. Dori | Talk 14:34, Nov 13, 2004 (UTC)

They're still looking at how to address which files are allowed. The problem is coming up with a solution that doesn't depend on external dependencies (like "file" under UNIX, since MediaWiki also runs under Windows).

It might be that someone will code up an extension to use .dia files directly, it's just that no one has done it yet. It would probably need to be cross platform again. I don't know if Dia is available under Windows.

Dori | Talk 17:35, Nov 13, 2004 (UTC)

You can try posting an enhancement request at or posting to the mailing list at  to see if anyone wants to implement it. Dori | Talk 18:19, Nov 13, 2004 (UTC)

You can use |thumb| or |frame| to get the caption. Dori | Talk 00:46, Nov 16, 2004 (UTC)

Image copyrights
Thanks for uploading Image:PLL,generic.png andImage:PLL,usage.png. I notice they currently don't have image copyright tags. Could you add one to let us know their copyright status? (You can use if you release it under the GFDL, or  if you claim fair use, etc.) If you don't know what any of this means, just let me know where you got the images and I'll tag them for you. Thanks so much,   &mdash; Edwin Stearns | Talk 16:40, 13 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Also check Image:Iceland power station.jpg Image:Register renaming:tag indexed scheme.png Image:Register renaming:reservation station scheme.png - Omegatron 21:59, July 27, 2005 (UTC)

Dear Lain
Well... this being the "talk page" I figured that this would be the best place to ask this.

You recently deleted my section in the article "Moai", claiming it was vandalism. I run my connection through a proxy server, and thus my IP address might be taboo to you. I assure you that all the info in the article is correct, and I could present a source list if you wish.

Thanks, Sam

Sam,

Sorry about that. Your IP address matches that of some guy who keeps vandalizing pages. I thought he had just become more clever.

That said, if you can present a source list, you should definitely do so on the Moai page itself. Right now Wikipedia doesn't have good source attribution in most articles, but it's something we want to move towards.

If you aren't sure how to present your source list, just stuff it into the Talk:Moai page, and someone (probably me) will figure out how to put it into the article.

-Iain

Thanks, I will do that soon. -Sam

Its done. -Sam

Modular electronics diagrams
What do you think of this proposal?

Village_pump_%28proposals%29

Please leave comments there. Just bringing this to the attention of a handful of people who might care... - Omegatron 00:57, Mar 6, 2005 (UTC)

Diagram of PLL
I've reworked the basic PLL diagram: PLL. Let me know if you want the SVG version for further tweaking. --Lkesteloot 07:10, 10 Mar 2005 (UTC)


 * Nice. What SVG editor did you use?  Iain McClatchie 22:16, 10 Mar 2005 (UTC)


 * Thanks. I used Inkscape.  There really should be a way to upload both the image and the source.  I've seen plenty of diagrams that I thought needed tweaking, but I didn't want to start it from scratch.  Now if someone wants to tweak my diagram they have to start from scratch.  That's not very wiki-like.  By the way, I copied your comment from my talk page to yours.  I don't know what's the accepted way to have a conversation, but it seems to make more sense to have it on one page.  Lkesteloot 04:18, 11 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Vaneless ion wind generators
Where can I find out more about vaneless ion wind generators? The only Google hits I got pointed back at Wikipedia, and I have not seen these referenced anywhere in the trade publications, etc. --Wtshymanski 04:36, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I don't have a clue. I started the Vaneless ion wind generator article because I wanted to get that crap out of the Wind turbine article. Maybe you could look to see who added that bit to the Wind turbine article.

BTW, I notice you're active on some of the pages I've been working on. It's great to see. I don't suppose you'd be willing to read the CPU cache page and just tell me what you think is specifically wrong with it. That's my biggest contribution so far, it's been a featured article, but I still think the parts about address translation are hard to understand. I could use some highly specific feedback.

And, of course, the PLL page is a disaster. I agree that the intro is not great. I was trying to start with something I thought many readers would have some familiarity with. The analogy bit is pretty weak too. The analogy I usually use at dinner parties is an 80s disco: the DJ is transitioning from one song to the next, by using two mechanical turntables playing the two songs. He uses his finger to modulate the rotation speed of the turntable playing the next song until the beat lines up with the current song. But this analogy isn't great either: the beat frequency is similar only because the DJ picks songs with similar speed beats.

Grid stability
I'm not sure if I understand this topic well enough to explain it clearly. My power systems class was a long time ago and I'd have to do some research to boil this down to an article. I'll put it on my "to do" list and wait for the cold weather, perhaps...summers are too short here to spend time indoors typing. --Wtshymanski 17:32, 17 August 2005 (UTC)

Turby Wind Turbine
Hello Iain. Thanks for expanding on the Turby wind turbine article. Also I saw you cut my addition from the vertical axis section of the wind turbine article which I don't have any problem with. I did wonder if it was one of the two types that were already listed but wasn't sure and thought someone who was more knowledgeable might fix it up. I see that you have now linked to the Turby from the Darrieus wind turbine article.

One thought I have is that you state that vertical winds are negligible in the countryside but I would imagine that you would still find them at the top of cliffs and places generating warm air updrafts. In the Turby brochure they talk about using them also in the countryside. Also I wonder if the updrafts experienced on the top of tall buildings are partly generated by the large amount of heat dissipation you find in a CBD area.

Once again, thanks for yr editing which greatly improved on my non-expert contribution.

Oska 00:10, 7 October 2005 (UTC)


 * I agree that you'd find updrafts along cliffs -- that's why hang glider pilots like seaside cliffs so much. I tried to write that, but it must need revisiting.  Could you try to fix the wording?  Iain McClatchie 04:05, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

labelled vs labeled
In your edit to CPU cache, what is wrong with "labeled"? The link you included in the edit summary doesn't appear to shed any light (it lists both "labeled" and "labelled" as valid alternatives). Neilc 02:18, 14 October 2005 (UTC)


 * Compare to .  "Labelled" is the correct spelling, "labeled" is not.


 * If you read the referenced pages carefully, cited in your comparison, you'll find that both intransitive verb forms are correct. 71.241.47.125 04:05, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

I need help
Hello VSmith, Femto, Iain.mcclatchie, Skatebiker and Ultramarine. I need help with regards to the damage(in my opinion) done by user Theo Pardilla. Please look at his contribution page, and in the history of some the articles he contributed to, please look at my contributions, under Sillybilly. What is the correct way to proceed in such cases? I'm fairly new to wikipedia, and not well versed in the control methods, if there are any.


 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Negawatt
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Theo_Pardilla

Sillybilly 01:05, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

Cache image
Iain, Im probably the last person you want to hear from... it's been a few weeks since I actively browsed wikipedia, and certainly cache for that matter; I randomly opted to check out it's progress today. It looks like it's coming along very nicely. Nevertheless, my comment is about your image on the cache page (since you were asking in the history page) - which I believe is close to target.

A couple of suggestions, the words 'Main Memory' and 'Cache Memory' might be better off as 'Backing Store' and 'Cache' to use terminology introduced in the text. Also, you might want to add and depict the 'Cache Client' to give a more complete perspective to the context and participants in caching (although, you could easily expand the diagram since asynch updates to the backing store from other sources is also common in some environments - leading to stale caches, also discussed in the article). This might make the image too wide and you might opt for a vertical presentation rather than horizontal (or square depicting cache managers and other caches to a single backing store, multiple cache clients, etc). Yet it needs to remain clear and concise.

The arrows enforce the referential nature of the cache's contents but the tags suggest that to the more observant reader. The arrows might also be mis-interpreted as being the movement of data - in the current rendering a write-back operation of some sort. It doesn't really matter about the arrows, it could go either way. Hope this was helpful, I suggest pulling this comment off your public talk page ASAP since it might 'taint' other contributor's valuable comments on the image. 4.152.27.97 04:12, 3 November 2005 (UTC)

Sum addressed decoder
Hi, the article Sum addressed decoder, that I believe you wrote initially, had been flagged for wikifying, and, as a member of WikiProject Wikify I've had a go at it. I only have a rudimentary knowledge of CPU architecture, but have done my best to make some of the internal links more specific, patch up the broken external link using the Internet archive, and have written a lead section. It is the latter that I would particularly value you having a look at, with a view to improving it. It is supposed to introduce the subject of the article, even to someone without detailed knowledge of the topic. Many thanks -- Windymilla 20:55, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Possibly unfree Image:North_american_operatingplants.gif
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CPU Cache page miss rate graph
The miss rate graph you posted to the CPU Cache page in 2004, still present in svg form, appears to have very low miss rates, if it is intended to represent a data or unified cache. A typical miss rate would be a few percent or a few per thousand instructions, rather than about 10-5. Additionally, it seems odd to put a graph there for miss rates of an instruction cache, especially if not specifically labelled as such.

Indeed, looking at the reference you posted for the image, your numbers seem to be more similar to the instruction cache miss rates (or perhaps the prefetch miss rates) rather than to the unified or data cache miss rates (I haven't found the exact table that you used for your data -- there are a lot on the page).

I think the graph would best be replaced with one representing total data or unified cache miss rates, or at least, the table which lead to the graph should be identified and the graph should be labelled appropriately (as an instruction cache or whatever it is). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.112.139.195 (talk) 22:48, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

CPU cache - cache entry structure
I added this discussion section for a proposed changed to cache entry structure:

Talk:CPU_cache

Jeffareid (talk) 10:13, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

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Speedy deletion nomination of File:Cache,basic.dia


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