The Canterwood Chipset

By Jerry Pournelle

April 14, 2003

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Column 273

The newest system at Chaos Manor is built from the Intel D875PBZ motherboard and an Intel 3 GHz\800 MHz Front Side Bus Pentium 4 with Hyper-Threading technology. The Intel code name for the 875 chipset is Canterwood. That sounds like a heck of a machine, and it is: You're going to love it. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, as I write this, Saddam International Airport just outside Baghdad has become Baghdad International, and U.S. forward elements have entered Baghdad and surrounded the Ministry of Information. In two weeks, with fewer than 100 casualties, the Anglo-American Alliance has conquered more territory with fewer losses than any army in history. The Moslem conquest of non-Arab lands began when Caliph Omar defeated the Persian General Rustam at Qadisayyah (Kadisiyah) southwest of Baghdad. The great Mosque of Ali, where the Shi'ite religion is centered and many Iranians hope to be buried is in Karbala. Mesopotamia was the high water mark of the Roman Empire, and the grave of several Roman armies. It is one of the most fought over places on Earth. And all of it fell in days to the Anglo-American Alliance, with fewer than a hundred casualties to the mile.

This has been the first war in real time. I don't mean just that it was reported in real time, I mean that all other wars have been turn-based. In the past, armies moved, then the general assessed what they had done, and orders were sent. Armies that could operate inside the decision cycle of the enemy, as the Wehrmacht did during the collapse of France in 1940, were generally victorious; and sometimes generals tried to lead from the front and operate in real time, but they were never aware of where all their forces were, or what was going on a few miles away.

This war was fought in real time—but only for the U.S. The Iraqi forces were fighting a turn-based war, and they didn't get many turns. Most of their troops had no choice but to hold in place and hope for the best. The war flowed around them, and soon they were irrelevant.

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