What is g 8. "Group of Eight" (G8, "Big Eight"): history of creation and tasks. Execution and resignation

• Sempron
• Mobile Sempron
• Opteron
• Athlon 64/FX/X2
• Mobile Athlon 64
• Turion 64/X2

K8- x86 compatible CPU microarchitecture developed by AMD Corporation. First introduced on April 22, 2003: the first Opteron processors were released, intended for the server market. Based on this microarchitecture, the Opteron, Athlon 64, Athlon 64 X2, and Turion 64 families of microprocessors were produced. It is a radically redesigned, significantly improved and expanded version of the previous generation AMD K7 microarchitecture. The new processors managed to overcome a number of problems that were the Achilles heel of the K7, and also introduced a number of fundamentally new solutions.

Main points

K8 microprocessors are superscalar, multi-pipeline processors with branch prediction and speculative execution. Like AMD K7 and Intel P6 processors, they are theoretically capable of executing up to 3 instructions per clock cycle. Like any modern x86 processor, the K8 first recodes the external complex CISC set of x86 instructions into internal RISC-like micro-operations, which, in turn, are already executed. To improve performance within the microarchitecture, speculative execution with branch prediction and Out-of-Order launch of micro-operations is implemented; to reduce the impact of data dependencies, register renaming techniques, Result forwarding and a number of others are used.

Conveyor K8

The K8 microarchitecture uses a pipeline with 12 stages, a significant part of which is the instruction decoder.

Instruction fetching and decoding

The main problem with decoding x86 instructions is that they have different lengths (from 1 to 15 bytes). In K8, this problem is solved by dividing the process of marking the instruction stream and decoding itself into two separate subtasks executed in different processor blocks. The fact is that before placing instructions in the first level cache ( L1I) go through the pre-decoding procedure at a rate of 4 bytes of instructions per clock cycle. And information about the markup is placed in a special array of tags associated with L1. This simplifies further operational decoding and shortens the pipeline. This solution is unique, since in other processors x 86 (with the exception of K7) use other techniques to solve this problem. So in processors Intel P6 marking is carried out “on the fly”, and in Intel NetBurst instructions are being decoded before saving in L1(instead of a standard instruction cache, a special, rather complex structure is used that stores already decoded micro-operations - a trace cache).

K8 has a two-channel set-associative cache with a usable capacity of 64 KB with a line equal to 64 bytes. However, in addition to the instructions themselves, the processor also stores an array of markup tags - 3 bits per byte L1, that is, about 21 KB, as well as branch predictor descriptors - about 8 KB.

From L1 instructions are fetched at once in 16-byte blocks, which are sent simultaneously, through a special buffer ( fetch-buffer), to the execution pipeline and to the branch prediction block ( branch predictor). In a branch predictor, a block of instructions is analyzed using a special buffer of branch addresses ( BTB) with a size of 2048 records and associated transition history tables ( BHT) with a full capacity of 16K records, as well as some auxiliary devices. If the instruction block contained a transition, the next block will be fetched from the predicted address. Unfortunately branch predictor- the device is too complex to run at full processor speed, so all predictions are performed with a latency of 2 clock cycles, that is, if the processor encounters a transition, then the next sample from L1 will be executed only after a tick. In most cases, this delay is offset by the fact that one 16-byte block contains many instructions, and the overall sampling rate is advanced.

From fetch- buffer instructions go to the decoder. Every instruction x 86 K8 belongs to one of three classes:

• DirectPath- instructions that are recoded into one MOP (micro-operation);
• DirectPathDouble- instructions recoded into 2 MOPs; And
• VectorPath- instructions decoded into a set of more than 2 MOPs.

DirectPath And DirectPathDouble are considered simple, and VectorPath complex. In fact, the K8 has 2 different decoder blocks that work in parallel and complement each other. The main block is a complex of three simple decoders working together and decoding up to three DirectPath And DirectPathDouble instructions per clock cycle, in any combination. The second block deals exclusively VectorPath-instructions and decodes one such instruction per clock cycle. When it works VectorPath-decoder, the corresponding stages of simple decoders are blocked. Thus, the K8 decoder can be considered a fairly efficient and productive device that can transcode up to three simple or one complex instructions per clock cycle. The decoding results, MOPs, are repacked through intermediate buffers into special groups of three MOPs per group (lines). The uops in the group follow strictly in the order of the original program code; no rearrangement is performed. Mops DirectPath And DirectPathDouble instructions can be mixed as desired (except for the multiplication instruction, which is decoded in 2 MOPs and is always placed in one line), mops of one DirectPathDouble instructions may even be located on different lines, but all mops VectorPath instructions must follow a whole number of groups and cannot be mixed with uops from simple instructions, which leads to some fragmentation and incomplete filling of groups, but this is not a common situation, since the vast majority of instructions in K8 are simple.

Execution and resignation

An interesting feature of the K8 is that the processor internally operates with entire groups of 3 MOPs, which makes it possible to significantly reduce the amount of processor control logic. In Intel processors, although MOS are supplied in groups at some stages of the pipeline, each MOS is still monitored separately. Another big difference between K8 and processors Intel, the fact that it departs from the principle of maximum simplification of micro-operations. The fact is that the x86 command system is like CISC contains a large number of instructions like Load-Op(load+execute) and Load-Op-Store(load+execute+upload). Since everyone is modern x 86 processors inside are RISC, then such instructions inside the processor are divided into a large number of MOPs, each of which performs some simple action, so an instruction like add eax, mem; will be decomposed into at least 2 MOPs - loading from memory and the addition itself, that is, the number of MOPs that need to be executed can significantly exceed the number of original x86 instructions; they will fill the internal paths and buffers of the processor, not allowing a speed of 3 operations per clock cycle to be achieved.

In the K7 and K8 microarchitecture processors, the developers decided to get around this problem by making the MOS two-component. Each MOS in these processors consists of two elementary instructions, one microinstruction of integer or floating arithmetic + one microinstruction of address arithmetic. Thus instructions like Load-Op And Load-Op-Store can be decoded in K8 into just one MOS, which saves processor resources and, accordingly, improves its operating efficiency.

If necessary, one of the MOP components may not be used and will be filled with a dummy. So an instruction of the Load type will be recoded into only one MOS containing only the address component. It must be said that in the new processors Intel for a number of instructions like Load-Op They also used a similar mechanism for merging micro-operations into one MOP with its subsequent division before launching the MOP for execution, which they called microfusion.

A group of three two-component MOS outputs from the decoder and is then controlled by the processor as a single unit using a special block - ICU (Instruction Control Unit). Groups of uops go through the stages of register renaming and resource allocation, then are placed in ROB (Re-Order Buffer). In ROB, groups of instructions are stored until the moment of resignation; instructions are released at once by the entire group only when all MOPs in the group are executed and only in the order of priority specified by the source program. The ROB capacity in K8 is 24 groups, which corresponds to 72 MOPs or 144 micro-operations. The K8 processor uses a static scheme for distributing instructions among execution units, that is, into which FU group [ unknown term ] the MOP will be launched directly depends on the position of this MOP in the group. In total, the processor has three instruction schedulers for integer and address arithmetic, depending on the number of MOPs in the group.

From ROB instructions are copied to scheduler buffers. The processor has three scheduler queues for Int-operations and three for address operations, each with a capacity of 8 micro-operations. In general, instructions from each queue can be launched for execution in the FU independently of each other and using Out-Of-Order. That is, instructions are sent to the FU in the order required by the processor. The processor contains three 64-bit ALUs and three AGU (Address Generation Unit) connected in pairs, each to its own scheduler.

The planning and execution of floating arithmetic MOPs is carried out in a separate special device. For their execution, the processor contains one device FMUL, one FADD and one FMISC(being auxiliary).

Links

The Big Seven (before the suspension of Russia's membership - the Big Eight) is an international club that does not have its own charter, treaty, secretariat or headquarters. Compared to the World Economic Forum, the G7 does not even have its own website or public relations department. It is not an official international organization; accordingly, its decisions are not subject to mandatory execution.

Tasks

As of early March 2014, the G8 countries include the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Russia, the United States of America, Canada and Japan. As a rule, the club's task is to record the parties' intentions to adhere to a certain agreed line. States can only recommend to other international participants to take certain decisions on pressing international issues. However, the club plays an important role in the modern world. The composition of the G8 announced above changed in March 2014 when Russia was expelled from the club. The G7 today is as significant for the world community as large organizations such as the International Monetary Fund, the WTO, and the OECD.

History of origin

In 1975, the first meeting of the G6 (Big Six) was held in Rambouillet (France) on the initiative of French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. The meeting brought together the heads of countries and governments of France, the United States of America, Great Britain, Japan, Germany and Italy. As a result of the meeting, a joint declaration on economic problems was adopted, which called for the abandonment of aggression in trade and the establishment of new barriers to discrimination.In 1976, Canada joined the club, turning the “six” into a “seven”.The club was conceived more as an enterprise with a discussion of macroeconomic problems , but then global topics began to arise.In the eighties of the twentieth century, agendas became more diverse than just resolving economic issues.Leaders discussed the external political situation in developed countries and in the world as a whole.

From "seven" to "eight"

In 1997, the club began to position itself as a "Big Eight" as Russia was included in the roster. In this regard, the range of questions has expanded again. Military-political problems became important topics. G8 members have begun to propose plans to reform the club's composition. For example, ideas have been floated to replace leaders' meetings with video conferences to avoid the huge financial costs of holding summits and ensuring the safety of members. Also, the G8 states put forward the option of including more countries, for example, Australia and Singapore, to transform the club into the G20. This idea was then abandoned because with a large number of participating countries it would have been more difficult to make decisions. As the twenty-first century begins, new global themes emerge and the G8 countries address current issues. Discussion of terrorism and cybercrime comes to the fore.

United States of America and Germany

The G7 brings together significant participants in the world political arena. The United States of America uses the club to promote its strategic goals on the international stage. American leadership was especially strong during the financial crisis in the Asia-Pacific region, when the United States achieved approval of favorable action plans to resolve it.

Germany is also an important member of the G7. The Germans use their participation in this club as an influential means to assert and strengthen their country's growing role in the world. Germany is actively striving to pursue a single agreed line of the European Union. The Germans are putting forward the idea of ​​strengthening control over the global financial system and major exchange rates.

France

France participates in the G7 club in order to ensure its position as a "country with global responsibility". In close cooperation with the European Union and the North Atlantic Alliance, it plays an active role in world and European affairs. Together with Germany and Japan, France advocates the idea of ​​centralized control over the movement of global capital to prevent currency speculation. Also, the French do not support “wild globalization,” arguing that it leads to a gap between the less developed part of the world and more developed countries. In addition, in countries that are suffering from a financial crisis, the social stratification of society is worsening. That is why, at the proposal of France, the topic of the social consequences of globalization was included at the meeting in Cologne in 1999.

France is also concerned about the negative attitude of many Western countries towards the development of nuclear energy, since 85% of electricity is generated at nuclear power plants on its territory.

Italy and Canada

For Italy, participation in the G7 is a matter of national prestige. She is proud of her membership in the club, which allows her to more actively pursue her claims in international affairs. Italy is interested in all political issues discussed at the meetings, and also does not ignore other topics. The Italians proposed giving the G7 the character of a “permanent mechanism for consultations,” and also sought to provide for regular meetings of foreign ministers on the eve of the summit.

For Canada, the G7 is one of the important and useful institutions for ensuring and promoting its international interests. At the Birmingham summit, Canadians pushed issues relevant to their niches in world affairs, such as banning landmines, onto the agenda. The Canadians also wanted to create the image of a petitioner on those issues on which the leading powers had not yet reached a consensus. Regarding the future activities of the G7, the Canadians' opinion is to rationally organize the work of the forum. They support the "presidents only" formula and holding separate meetings of foreign ministers two to three weeks before the meetings.

Great Britain

The UK highly values ​​its membership of the G7. The British believe that this emphasizes their country's status as a great power. Thus, the country can influence the resolution of important international issues. In 1998, while the UK chaired the meeting, it raised discussions of global economic problems and issues related to the fight against crime. The British also insisted on simplifying the summit procedure and the composition of the G7. They suggested holding meetings with a minimum number of participants and in an informal setting in order to concentrate on a more limited number of issues in order to resolve them more effectively.

Japan

Japan is not a member of the United Nations Security Council, NATO or the European Union, so participation in the G7 summits has special meaning for it. This is the only forum where Japan can influence world affairs and strengthen its position as an Asian leader.

The Japanese use the G7 to put forward their political initiatives. In Denver, they proposed to discuss on the agenda countering international terrorism, combating infectious diseases, and providing assistance for the development of African countries. Japan actively supported solutions to the problems of international crime, the environment and employment. At the same time, the Japanese Prime Minister was unable to ensure that at that time the G8 countries of the world paid attention to the need to make a decision on the Asian financial and economic crisis. After this crisis, Japan insisted on developing new “rules of the game” in order to achieve greater transparency in international finance for both global organizations and private enterprises.

The Japanese have always taken an active part in solving world problems, such as providing employment, fighting international crime, arms control and others.

Russia

In 1994, after the G7 summit in Naples, several separate meetings were held between Russian leaders and G7 leaders. Russian President Boris Yeltsin took part in them on the initiative of Bill Clinton, the head of America, and Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister. At first he was invited as a guest, and after some time - as a full participant. As a result, Russia became a member of the club in 1997.

Since that time, the G8 has significantly expanded the range of issues discussed. The Russian Federation held the presidency in 2006. At that time, the stated priorities of the Russian Federation were energy security, the fight against infectious diseases and their spread, the fight against terrorism, education, non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, development of the global economy and finance, development of world trade, environmental protection .

Club goals

The G8 leaders met at summits annually, usually in the summer, on the territory of the Chairmanship State. In June 2014, Russia was not invited to the summit in Brussels. In addition to the heads of state and government of the member countries, two representatives from the European Union participate in the meetings. Proxies of members of a particular G7 country (Sherpas) set the agenda.

The chairman of the club during the year is the leader of one of the countries in a certain order. The G8's goals in Russia's membership in the club are to solve various pressing problems that arise in the world at one time or another. Now they remain the same. All participating countries are leading in the world, so their leaders face the same economic and political problems. Common interests bring leaders together, which allows them to harmonize their discussions and conduct fruitful meetings.

Weight of the Big Seven

The G7 has its significance and value in the world because its summits allow heads of state to look at international problems through someone else's eyes. Summits identify new threats in the world - political and economic, and allow them to be prevented or eliminated through joint decision-making. All G7 members highly value participation in the club and are proud to belong to it, although they primarily pursue the interests of their countries.

Microsoft ended support for Windows 8 on January 12, 2016.

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✪ How to connect the Internet on Windows 8

✪ Windows 8 does not connect to the Internet

✪ Limited Wi-Fi access in Windows 8/8.1 Solution

✪ How to install Internet on Windows 8

Subtitles

Innovations and changes

Appearance and new Metro interface

Windows 8, unlike its predecessors - Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP and earlier, uses a new interface called Metro. This interface appears first after system startup; it is similar in functionality to the desktop - the start screen has application tiles (akin to shortcuts and icons), clicking on which launches the application, opens a website or folder (depending on which element or application the tile is attached to). The Metro interface is designed for touch screens, but does not exclude use on non-touch PCs.

The system also includes a “classic” desktop as a separate application. Instead of the Start menu, the interface uses a “hot corner”, clicking on which opens the start screen. Scrolling in the Metro interface is horizontal. Also, if you make a zoom out gesture (or press the minus sign at the bottom of the screen), the entire start screen will be visible. You can move and group tiles on the Start screen, name groups, and change the size of tiles (only available for tiles that were originally large). Depending on the screen resolution, the system automatically determines the number of rows for tiles - on standard tablet computers there are three rows of tiles. The color of the start screen changes in the new control panel, and the background pattern also changes.

Windows 8 is a reimagined Windows 7, and the desktop experience remains the same.

Main innovations

• Microsoft account and settings synchronization: Ability to log into Windows using Live ID. This will allow you to log into your user profile and download settings online, and also adds integration with OneDrive.
• App Store Windows Store: The only way to buy and download Metro and desktop apps on Windows RT.
• Two new methods for user authentication: a password picture that allows the user to log in with three taps, and a four-digit PIN code, as well as built-in support for biometric devices. The non-local user account password is the same as the Microsoft account password.
• Internet Explorer 10. IE 10 in Windows 8 is included in desktop and touch versions. The latter does not support plugins or ActiveX, but does include a version of Adobe Flash Player that is optimized for touch controls.
• Conductor. Explorer includes a Ribbon ribbon (similar to the ribbon in Microsoft Office and Windows Essentials) and improvements to the way it resolves conflicts when moving or copying files.
• System Restore. Two new functions have been added: Refresh and Reset. Restore for Windows returns all system files to their original state while preserving all settings, user files and applications. A reset returns the computer to factory settings.
• New task manager. In Windows 8, the task manager has been completely redesigned. New performance graphs have been added, management of running applications, background processes and services has been optimized on a single “Performance” tab. Also, startup management from System Configuration has been moved to the task manager.
• Family Safety feature" was built into Windows, Family Safety is managed in the Control Panel.
• Personalization: after startup, a picture appears on the screen with the current time and date. To get started, you need to press any button to open the welcome screen. The picture itself can be changed in the settings. Added auto color detection in desktop themes.
• New control panel in Metro UI style, which allows you to quickly change some system settings.
• Advanced Search: From the Home screen, you only need to press any key to start searching through apps, settings, etc.
• Switch keyboard layout: You can also change the keyboard layout using the keyboard shortcuts Windows + Space or ⇧ Shift + Alt.

Development history

First information and rumors

The first information about Windows 8 began to appear even before Windows 7 went on sale - in April 2009, when Microsoft posted an offer in the vacancies department for developers and testers to participate in the development of Windows 8. “We will also start soon<разрабатывать>Significant improvements for Windows 8 that will include innovative features that will revolutionize file access on remote machines,” was written in an advertisement for the position of Lead Software Development and Test Engineer.

In connection with these first indirect information, various rumors and conjectures regarding Windows 8 began to actively appear. For example, it was suggested that Windows 8 would only be supplied in a 64-bit edition, would have a completely different interface without the Start menu, that Internet access will be possible directly from the desktop and a non-tree file system will be present. There have also been speculations about a complete merger of Windows 8 with the concept laid down by MinWin. Another group of rumors was the assignment of third-party code names to Windows 8. Windows 8 was most often codenamed "Midori", while "Midori" was a separate research OS. In addition to “Midori”, Windows 8 was given the names “Mojave”, “Orient” and some others.

Initial development stage

At the computer program developers conference Professional Developers Conference - English) 2009, which took place from November 17 to 20 in Los Angeles, Microsoft's plans to release new operating systems of the Microsoft Windows family for personal computers and servers became known. Two slides were shown, which indicated the release date of the next operating system of the Windows family - 2012. Moreover, on one slide the name of this operating system was indicated - “Windows 8”, but it was clarified that this name is a code name and not a final one.

On January 27, 2010, Microsoft's technology roadmap with preliminary plans for the release of various software products, including Windows 8 and Microsoft Office 2013, became available to the public. According to this document, the release of the RTM version of Windows 8 was scheduled for July 1, 2011. Windows Server 2012 and Office 15 were scheduled for release exactly one year and one day later on July 2, 2012.

On February 9, 2010, thanks to messages from two Microsoft employees, new information about Windows 8 appeared in the press. The first employee is the director of consumer and online business in the EMEA region John Mangelaars, who in an interview with the British publication CIO said that Windows 8 will be "amazing". A little earlier, another employee published an entry on the official MSDN blog entitled “What’s In Store for the Next Windows” (Russian). What's in store for the next Windows) . This entry was soon deleted, but its text became available to journalists. In this entry, Windows 8 appears under the name “Windows.next”. The entry claimed that Windows.next would be "something completely different" from what people typically expect from Windows. Dozens of teams worked on the OS, and the author of the post called the process of discussing Windows.next “surreal.” According to the author of the entry, Windows.next was supposed to completely change the attitude towards personal computers and the way they are used.

Leaked presentation materials in 2010

At the end of June 2010, on the Italian fan site “Windowsette”, dedicated to Windows 8, PowerPoint slides of Microsoft presentations (which bear the stamp NDA and dated April 20, 2010) were made publicly available, which described the key features of Windows 8 . Immediately after this publication, this information was republished by the authoritative English-language sites Microsoft Kitchen and Microsoft Journal, and after them - by most other news media resources dedicated to the IT industry. In addition to the information about the new OS, these slides included an image of a 30-inch voice-control all-in-one with Windows 8 installed.

Presentation at CES 2011

BUILD Conference (formerly PDC 2011)

It took place from September 13 to 16, 2011. During the conference, a test version of Windows 8 for software developers (“Developer Preview”) was published on the product’s official website. The validity period, initially set until March 11, 2012, could be extended until January 15, 2013.

Mobile World Congress

According to Microsoft, 4 million Windows 8 upgrades were sold in the first days of release, and within a month, more than 40 million OS licenses had been sold. However, initial demand for the new operating system was assessed by analysts as weak. According to Net Applications, the market share of Windows 8 among Windows systems by the end of February 2013 was 3%. The same figure for Windows Vista during this period was 4%, and for Windows 7 - 9.7%.

Simultaneously with the release of Windows 8, Microsoft released its tablet PCs - Surface. Tablet PCs from Microsoft are divided into two branches - Professional with pre-installed Windows 8 and regular Surface with Windows RT. The professional version sells for more.

Sales results for the first quarter of 2013 showed that Windows 8 failed to slow down the decline in demand for personal computers. Consumers want touchscreen PCs, but they're expensive and manufacturers are running low on components, according to IDC analysts.

On May 20, 2014, China banned the use of Windows 8 in government agencies. The reasons for the decision were not announced.

Windows 8.1

On March 26, 2013, Microsoft officially confirmed that they were working on an update under the code name Windows Blue. On May 14, the update received the official name Windows 8.1; it also became known that the update would be free for owners of official versions of Windows 8 and would be distributed through the Windows Store. The public preview of Windows 8.1 appeared on June 26, 2013, and the final version was released on October 17, 2013.

Criticism

Windows 8 received negative reviews due to the dominance of the Metro interface. Users criticized the changed interface, which forces them to spend additional time learning to work with the new operating system, although most of the innovations are described in the help system, which is called up by pressing the F1 key while the desktop is open.

Along with negative reviews from early users, an unfinished activation service surfaced that could provide a free activation code to any user. This vulnerability was fixed in December 2012.

Microsoft Chief Marketing Officer Tami Reller (English) in an interview, she said that some key elements of Windows 8 will be changed when the updated version of Windows 8.1 is released. This was seen by some media as a de facto admission of the company's failure to release Windows 8. But Windows 8.1, by inertia, was also received negatively, especially after the end of support for Windows XP.

Technical requirements

Additional requirements to use some OS features:

• To use touch capabilities, you need a tablet computer or monitor that supports multi-touch technology.

• To access the Windows Store, which requires an Internet connection, you need a screen with a resolution of at least 1024 x 768 pixels.

• To pin apps, you need a screen resolution of at least 1366 x 768 pixels.

• Internet access required (charges may apply from ISP).

• Secure boot requires firmware that supports UEFI version 2.3.1 Errata B and has a Microsoft Windows Certificate Authority in the UEFI signing database.

• For optimal performance, some games and programs may require a video adapter that is compatible with DirectX 10 or later.

• Some features require a Microsoft account.

• Separate software is required to view DVDs.

• BitLocker To Go requires a USB flash drive (Windows 8 Pro only).

• BitLocker requires Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 1.2 or a USB flash drive (Windows 8 Professional only).

• The Hyper-V client requires a 64-bit system with Second Level Address Translation (SLAT) capabilities and an additional 2 GB of RAM (Windows 8 Professional only).

• To watch and record TV in Windows Media Center, you need a TV tuner (Windows 8 Professional and Windows 8 Professional with Windows Media Center only).

• Free Internet TV content varies by geographic location. Some content may incur additional charges (Windows 8 Professional and Windows 8 Professional with Windows Media Center). [ ]

Editorial

There are 7 known editions of Windows 8:

• Windows 8 “Single Language” is completely similar to Windows 8 (Core), but the ability to change the language is disabled. Comes with laptops and netbooks.
• Windows 8 “With Bing” is a version of Windows 8 in which the default search engine in the Internet Explorer browser is Bing, and it cannot be changed. Comes with some laptops.
• Windows 8 (Core) is the basic version for PC, laptop and tablet users. Comes with laptops and netbooks.
• Windows 8 "Professional" - version for PCs, laptops and tablets with features for small businesses.
• Windows 8 “Professional with Windows Media Center” - differs from “professional” by the presence of Windows Media Center
• Windows 8 Enterprise - a version for enterprises with advanced features for managing corporate resources, security, etc.
• Windows RT - version for tablets based on ARM architecture, runs applications only from the Windows Store.

Additionally, three versions of Windows 8 were released for the European market: Windows 8 N, Windows 8 Pro N, and Windows 8 Pro Pack N. These versions lack the Windows Media Player, Camera, Music, Video applications.

The press periodically publishes articles about the meetings and decisions made by the G8. But everyone knows what is hidden under this phrase and what role this club plays in How and why the G8 was formed, who is part of it and what is discussed at the summits - this will be discussed in this article.

Story

In the early 70s, the world economy faced a structural economic crisis and at the same time relations between Western Europe, the USA and Japan began to deteriorate. To resolve economic and financial issues, it was proposed to hold meetings of the leaders of the most industrially developed countries. This idea arose at a meeting of top officials of the governments and states of Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, the USA and Japan, which took place from November 15 to 17, 1975 in Rambouillet (France).

The initiator of this meeting was the French President Giscard d'Estaing, and from now on they decided to hold meetings annually. In 1976, this informal association accepted Canada into its ranks and turned from the “six” to the “seven”. And 15 years later Russia joined and the now famous “Big Eight” emerged. This term in Russian journalism appeared as a result of journalists incorrectly deciphering the abbreviation G7: in fact, it did not mean “Great Seven” (“Big Seven”), “Group of Seven” (“Group of Seven”). Nevertheless, the name stuck and no one calls this club anything else.

Status

The G8 is a kind of unofficial forum of leaders of the listed countries, which takes place with the participation of the commission. It is not an international organization and does not have a charter or secretariat. Its creation, functions or powers are not fixed in any international treaty. It is more of a discussion platform, pool or club in which consensus is reached on the most important issues. The decisions made by the G8 are not binding - as a rule, they are only a fixation of the participants’ intentions to adhere to the developed and agreed line, or they are recommendations to other participants in the political arena. As for the issues discussed, they mainly concern health, employment, law enforcement, social and economic development, environment, energy, international relations, trade and counter-terrorism.

How and with what frequency do meetings take place?

According to established tradition, the G8 summit is held annually. As a rule, this happens in the summer. In addition to the official leaders of countries and heads of government, these meetings are also attended by the President of the European Commission and the head of the country that currently holds the EU presidency. The location of the next summit is planned in one of the participating countries. The 2012 G8 met at Camp David (USA, Maryland), and this year's 2013 meeting is scheduled for June 17-18 at the Lough Erne golf resort, located in In exceptional cases, the G20 is meeting instead of the G8. : the meeting is taking place with the participation of Spain, Brazil, India, South Africa, South Korea and several other countries.

The G8 is an informal forum of leaders of leading industrialized democratic countries, whose members are Russia, the USA, Great Britain, France, Japan, Germany, Canada, Italy, and the EU is also represented and fully participates. The G8 member countries account for 49% of world exports, 51% of industrial production, and 49% of IMF assets. Within the framework of the G8, approaches to current international problems are being coordinated.

The history of the G8 (formerly the G7) began in November 1975, when, on the initiative of French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the first meeting of the leaders of six countries took place in Rambouillet (France), which Canada joined a year later. Since 1977, meetings are attended by representatives of the EU leadership (the European Union at G8 summits is always represented by the President of the Commission of the European Communities and the President of the European Council).

The first Russian contacts with the Group of Seven took place during the Soviet era. On July 17, 1991, a working meeting between USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev and the G7 leaders took place in London on the sidelines of the summit. Subsequently, the leaders of the Group of Seven countries adhered to a similar format for holding meetings with the Russian president.

The formation of the G8 began in 1994 at a summit in Naples, Italy. Its first part took place in the G7 format, and the second in the G8 format with the participation of the Russian president as an equal partner.
The summit in Lyon (France) in June 1996 was held in three stages: the first (in the G7 format) was devoted to the consideration of a number of international economic issues, the second and third - to the discussion with the participation of Russia of the entire range of global and foreign policy problems.
As an equal partner, Russia was admitted to the G8 at the summit in Denver (USA) in 1997. In the final communiqué, the partners acknowledged that Russia is “completed its historical transformation into a democratic state with a market economy.”

The G8 is not an international organization. It is not based on an international treaty and does not have formally defined admission criteria, charter or permanent secretariat. The G8 decisions are in the nature of political obligations of the participating states.
G8 summits are held annually in alternating partner countries, and the country hosting the summit serves as G8 chair for the calendar year. It organizes the summit, ministerial, expert and working meetings, develops a schedule and ensures coordination of all current work of the G8.
Discussions between heads of state and government take place in a narrow circle (only Sherpas, personal representatives of the leaders, are allowed). When making decisions, the principle of consensus applies.

For a number of years, the G8 summits have been accompanied by anti-globalist protests. Thus, the G8 summit in July 2001 in Genoa (Italy) served as the occasion for one of the loudest anti-globalization actions in the history. 120 thousand people took to the streets. As a result of clashes with the police, protester Carlo Giuliani was killed - he became the first victim of anti-globalist protests. Later, Susan Bendotti, a native of the French city of Nice, died under the wheels of a car. 200 people were injured of varying severity, hundreds were arrested.

During the G8 meeting in St. Petersburg in July 2006, the “counter-summit” of anti-globalists gathered about one and a half thousand participants. To hold events, the anti-globalists were given a place that was chosen by them - at the Kirov Stadium. The “counter-summit” included a “social forum”, a symposium on educational issues and a seminar on the protection of social rights.
Anti-globalists expressed gratitude to the Russian government for providing them with the opportunity to visit St. Petersburg during the G8 summit and hold their alternative meeting.

In 2010, in Huntsville, Canada, a “free speech zone” was created specifically for protesters a few kilometers from the place where the heads of the G8 met. But there was no activity of anti-globalists.

In 2011, in France, anti-globalists spoke in Le Havre, 40 kilometers from the summit site, and did not create any serious problems for the organizers.

In 2012, the G8 summit took place without numerous anti-globalization protests and was not marked by riots or clashes with the police.

On June 11, 2013, in London, pickets of anti-globalists and anarchists protesting against the G8 summit in Northern Ireland took place in the central squares of the British capital. Protesters periodically blocked traffic, creating numerous traffic jams.

For various offenses, including disobedience to the police and attempts to impede the movement of traffic by law enforcement officers. One of the anti-globalists tried to jump from the roof of the building, but was captured by the police who arrived.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources