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AMD Announces "Duron" Processor
Intoxicated Duck writes: "ZDNet reported that AMD announced it's Duron processor this morning. Looks like they're trying to compete with the Celeron. Wait! wasn't the Celeron supposed to compete with AMD?" What about overclocking?
...you will call it a Moron chip.
Damn, don't the marketing guys think of this stuff?
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Much bloodwine was used in the creation of this ultimate tool - many of our warriors were killed infiltrating the evil Intel and stealing the Pentiumgram Schematics. With this station we will be the ultimate power in the universe! (oops, wrong storyline)
Even the High Counsel likes it's smooth black design and holographic technology. The Duron sisters also appreciate it's diabolical looks! You will buy one today or DIE. KAPLAH!
If these were set up in a Dual-CPU configuration would you have to pronounce it Duron-Duron?
128k on-die cache sounds great to me. Any benchmarks yet?
:)
I'm in the market for an Athlon, at least this summer, and it's great to see AMD get the business, but if I could get an extra $100 of purchasing power with one of these, I'd happily get a sweet video card or a larger hard drive as well as a chip that performs about as well as the Athlon I would have gotten.
In the meantime, I suggest the name for the "new" competing Intel counterpart soon to be marketed should be the Caveon, as in "Caveat Emptor"...
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
The amazing Duron (tm) non-stick processor. So hot you can fry an egg on it! And its patented non-stick coating means no scraping and easy cleaning.
The product namespace is getting so crowded that we're eventually going to end up driving Dodge Urethras and using computers with the new Pederast Pro processor.
And I might as well say it now
Duron, ron ron. Duron ron.
;)
In a bold move that some industry pundits perceive as a reaction to AMD's announcement of their Duron processor, Intel has announced the development of the Sherwin Williams processor, which combines the tried-and-true P6 core found in the Celeron processor with new enamel- and latex-based semiconductor technologies that the company claims will provide for "A more colourful computing experience".
In Soviet Russia, Jesus asks: "What Would You Do?"
the Press Release is here. And the FAQ is here. The Spitfire has come a long way baby ;)
The article doesn't give the complete story.
They omitted the fact that the Duron will be extended to allow 2-way SMP.
The new processor will be known as the "Duron Duron". The motherboard chipset required to support it will be known as "Da-Doo Ron Ron"
Here is Anand's Comdex '99 coverage, which is an excellent resource for those wanting to know more about AMD's future.
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Oscarfish.com: tropical fish with attitude. Way t
I remember Celeron and now we'll have to use Duron,
If this this tendency continues soon we'll have a chip named pr0n.
You can't handle the truth.
Hehehe, the string "5x86-133pr75" caught my eye and it took me a while to realise it wasn't leet speak!
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Fuck the system? Nah, you might catch something.
I don't normally bitch about slashdot, it's a pretty good shop, but I must admit, I agree with this... Sometimes i'm suprised by the submissions they end up posting, when I /know/ a better one was submitted, and rejected, not necessarily mine, but someone elses.
Ah well, what can you do though, really?
OK, I'm something of a processor new junky. I follow this kind of stuff with an unhealthy devotion, so I figured I'd explain to everyone what this is before /.'s general ignorance about the subject (From my perspective anyway. Remember, I'm obsessed with this stuff.) starts to show through.
.18 process, it's just that the basic layout has been improved), and added 64K of L2 cache. Yeah, I know, 64K sounds tiny, but it's really not that bad. The most important thing about this cache is that it is an exclusive cache. In most processors, the L2 ends up duplicating the information in the L1 and only uses the amount of cache beyond the size of the L1 for additional data. For example, a Celeron has 32K of L1 and 128K of L2, however 32K of that L2 is simply holding the same information as is in the L1, giving you a total effective cache size of 128K. The Duron is different. Being based on the Athlon core, it has 128K of L1 plus the 64K of exclusive L2, which holds entirely unique data. This gives you an effective total cache size of 192K, 50% more than the Celeron which is the Duron's primary competitor. Plus, the Duron is based on the Athlon core, which is simply a lot better than the PIII core.
What is the Duron? Essentially it's AMD's answer to the Celeron. Right now their answer to the Celeron is the K6 series, but the K6 core has short pipelines and is not very optimized for high clockspeeds. The bottom line is that the K6-2 currently maxes out at 550 mhz (and in limited quantities) and it's not likely it will ever get much higher. The K6-2+ and K6-3+ (mobile chips only, with 128K and 256K on-die L2 respectively and the additional 3DNow! instructions which were added when the Athlon came out) currently max out at 500 mhz, and I doubt they'll ever get past 600 before they are phased out. Even 600 is a reach.
On the other end of the spectrum there is the Athlon. The Athlon is a brand new core that is extremely well optimized for high clockspeed. These things reach high clockspeeds so well that AMD has to underclock them to meet their contracts with OEMs (who request a certain number of processors at each clockspeed). Obviously the Athlon is where AMD's future lies, but they are considerably more expensive to manufacture than the K6 series. The combination of a large die size, the need for externel L2 cache chips, and the slot packaging adds to the price. Furthermore, AMD is finally making good money selling Athlons for the high end. They don't want to simply cut Athlon prices to sell them for the low end. AMD needs something else for the low end market.
Enter the Duron. The Duron used to have the codename of Spitfire while it was in development, so if you've heard that name before you know what it is. Basically, AMD took the Athlon core, optimized it a bit more to shrink the die and lower power consumption somewhat (although it's still made with a
The Duron itself will be released in a "Socket A" package sometime in June. Socket A is just like Slot A (which the Athlon uses), only it's a socket. The reason for the socket is because sockets are cheaper and the lack of external L2 makes a slot unecessary. The launch of the Duron will be preceded by a couple weeks by the launch of AMD's "Thunderbird" processor. The Thunderbird is just like the Duron only with 256K of exclusive L2 cache, giving it a total effective cache size of 384K. This processor should offer a real performance boost over the regular Athlon and will eventually completely replace it. Indeed, Thunderbird is just the code name. It will simply be called "Athlon" when it's released. The Thunderbird will be available for both slot A and socket A motherboards, giving those who already own a slot A motherboard an upgrade path.
I hope I didn't leave anything out.
I am not an idiot. Please use my name to email me.
"That's right, I'm quoting myself."
-Upsilon
As for overclocking potential, my (not so humble) opinion is that it will be a hell of an overclocker. Look at the K7 - err Athlon, and this is basically a K7 with on die cache. Rumors were that the release of Spitfire - err, Duron, was delayed because it was actually beating the Athlon in benchmarks. So like the Celeron the clock speeds will probably lag behind the Athlon.
As long as they overclock as well as I think they will, I know I'm getting one. As a hardcore overclocker (and op in #celeron, efnets biggest overclocking-based channel) I think getting a chip that's gonna run at 900mhz or 1ghz for less than 200 bucks is about as good as it gets. Don't be scared by the 'value cpu' label. This is the K7 core with faster cache, albiet less of it.
Bottom line? They'll probably be faster than a P3 at the same clockspeed, for at most half the price. And that's without even putting overclocking into the picture. Don't you love competition?
- tred
The name is lame :-(
;-)
For an English speaker this Latin-derived name may associate with "durable", but for the Russian speakers it will probably associate with "durak", that means fool in Russian.
As for me, I like the idea of dual Thunderbird better
Tigers respect lions, elephants and hippos. Maggots respect no one. (C) S. Dovlatov
Intel is proud to announce it's newest line of processors, created to combine the speed of AMD with the iMac style of computer, The MD 20/20/86. The MD will come in grape, banana and fruit punch.
Warning! Use of these processors in multiple cpu combinations, especially if flavors are mixed may cause your computer to be blurry-eyed, slow, late-rising and generally hungover in the morning.
I remember when Athlons were new; I bought one. And a motherboard. And suffered the consequences.
I think I'll wait until this new 'duron' has been on the market a couple of months before checking it out. Just to give the motherboard manufacturers a chance to get things right.
---------------- Take the red pill
Why has the computer industry returned to a Ghz verison of the 80's? ,what type of motherboard will you have to buy? Why dont we just all go back to SPARCs and APLHAs fo as similar as the chips are getting now. I say Phah! on the whole industry!
Sure the technology is better, but everything is becoming more and more proprietary hardware! Doesnt anybody remeber the goold old Pentium days, where you could buy a S7 motherboard, and then decide on a P5, Cyrix, Amd, or whatever the hell else you wanted for a processor.
If one sucked, you could go by the other and plug it in, or if a better one came out you could by that. Now if you want cheap performance, you can buy a S370 and get a celeron, but if you want to upgrade you would have to buy a new motherboard. I mean come on at least the non-propritary software advocates should complain about this.
I say open-source the hardware and go back to the good-ole days of mix'n and match'n! I say not only is Intel at fault but AMD as well. What about IBM
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In all seriousness, isn't AMD having horrible supply problems already?
It depends what you mean. AMD is having far less trouble turning out it's high end chips (ie Athlons above 800MHz) than Intel is with its equivalently clocked PIIICu's, as evidenced by the chip availabilities. From the look of things, it's the K6-2/3 line which is pretty much already spoken for, so if you want one of those, you are probably going to have to search for it. On the other hand, you might as well get a low-end Athlon or a budget Duron anyway and you get the advantages of a 21164-derived FPU which scrags any Intel processor and a nine-way instruction scheduler. Oh, and against the Celeron, both the Athlon and the Duron have 200MHz buses in contrast to the 66MHz one on the Celery. Take your pick ... it's not hard ... I'll not rush you ...
Cheers,
Toby Haynes
Anything I post is strictly my own thoughts and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the opinions of IBM.
This isn't the same as the question answered in the FAQ -- a moderated queue would address all of the problems mentioned there.
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It's a pr70 according to AMD, and according to comparisons between it and the old P60 I once had, the P60 is faster.
What I'd like to know is why'd they release the 133 (and then orphan it) when the 120DX4 chips were selling like hotcakes?
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..but it's the first thing that really jumped into my mind when I saw the name.
#include
Imagine the marketing! With your new AMD chip, you can crunch your numbers blazingly fast, allowing you enough time to paint the town pink!
... or something along those lines.
Ok. So it's been a long week.
I never managed to get a stable overclocked 5x86.. Not even the one I had on the specially equipped PTC mobo.. What clock/multiplier/voltage?
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No way!
It's "Durandal" from the Marathon series!
It will soon take over each of its users and trasform them into time-travelling space marines!
Pope
Freedom is Slavery! Ignorance is Strength! Monopolies offer Choice!
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
If I were to release a processor to compete with the Celeron, I would call it the Asparagon.
I have noted that the K6-III has disappeared from the stores, and this explains it. It is a matter of product positioning. The K6-III had more cache, and fit the SS7 socket, but had a larger die than the K6-2. Why spend acres of silicon in on line 25 in Austin making K6-III parts, with a larger margin on the cheaper K6-2, when a new middle line processor is in the works.
Ah, economics... The new part needs shelf space by itself, so kill off the neato part nearest it.
Free the mallocs!
But then, in some areas it's coming back together again. The new VIA/Cyrix CPU will use Socket370, and possibly later on both SSE and 3dNow! (thus making programmers' lives easier) Also, since the Alpha and AMD CPUs use the same bus, there has been talk of making them able to use the same motherboards as well. That would be interesting!
However, in a way it doesn't matter as much. Yes, I do own lots of machines and enjoy swapping parts between them. However, what with CPUs having to improve their voltage/bus attributes in order to get better performance, many times a new CPU in an older board won't be doing its best anyway. I really don't mind CPUs being tied to the board so much, so long as my PCI cards, RAM, keyboards, etc. are still interchangeable. I don't think than CPU designers should have to limit themselves to several-year-old socket technology. Plus, if we try to get them all to use the same socket, then the advantage obviously goes to the mfr. who designs it--and the chances of getting AMD, VIA, and Intel together to design something are rather slim.
If everyone behaves themselves and uses as little processor specific assembly code as possible, then we should even be OK when the CPUs start to have different instruction sets...though a lot of things will REALLY go crazy then (Sledgehammer vs. Merced vs. lots of older CPUs still hanging around).
WMBC freeform/independent online radio.
2 more tidbits.
Thunderbird will be manufactured with copper
interconnects at the new Dresden Fab.
Duron (Spitfire) will be manufactured with
aluminum interconnects at the Austin Fab.
Those who can do. Those who can't sue.
Maybe the AMD chip will be just a little slower than the Intel chip for a little less money. Then, Intel will come out with a chip that costs even less, but runs a little slower. Then, AMD comes roaring back with a chip...
Pretty soon, both Intel and AMD will be shipping out little pieces of cardboard with smaller and smaller corrugation. "Now, the Intel Celeron 7000 is just a little slower than the Celeron 6500, but what are you going to do, use both Megahertz at the same time?"
I respect your right to post your opinion on this subject in the Slashdot forum. However, there is a lot that needs to be said in defense of the Slashdot admins. The following important facts are never considered in posts like yours:
They are only human, they also make mistakes.
There are several different admins, not just one of them. Sometimes they don't each know what the other admins have reviewed or posted recently. One admin may accept a story another rejects.
Guestimating the amount of crap they must have to filter out on a daily basis, I figure their record is pretty good.
They probably gauge the importance of a topic on how many submissions they get. Being the first submitter gets you nothing. If you are the first one (or the only one), you probably won't get the credit unless it's earth-shattering news.
If you feel slighted by having them reject your stories, you really need something better to do with your time (unless you are a journalist ;) ).
If you're looking to make an impression on the /. community do it with well written posts rather than with story submissions.
I do agree with you though about the double posting of stories (IBM supercomputing, patents). The last few have been only characterizable as gross errors.
The opinions I post here have nothing to do with my employer.
"Zorak" - there is no such a word (or it's some archaic word I don't know).
;-)))))
As for the "brak", it has two meanings:
1) Marriage
2) Flaw, defect, defective merchandise.
Looking at the divorce statistics, you should admire the wisdom of the Russian folk
Tigers respect lions, elephants and hippos. Maggots respect no one. (C) S. Dovlatov
I mean, what were the AMD guys thinking??? I love AMD, and I even bought a K6-2 knowing that a Celeron would have been faster, out of loyalty to AMD and dislike for Intel. But, "Duron"? Isn't that the name of a popular brand of paint? I believe it's "Duron Paints and Wall-Coverings" or some such. http://www.duron.com So, they've named their new processor after paint. Wonderful. Don't tech guys ever go into hardware stores? What is Joe Average going to buy, a computer with a fast-sounding Celeron processor, or one that sounds like it doubles as a listing in a paint chip catalogue. AMD, I love you, but call it something else.
;-) Come on, AMD, wake up and change it before it's a marketing nightmare. Joe Average doesn't want a computer that's named after paint he can buy at any hardware store, and Joe Average is the main consumer for this value chip.
What was wrong with the code-name "Spitfire," anyway? The only other thing called a "spitfire" is an old type of fast sportster. It's a cool name, and counters "Celeron" quite nicely. A consumer sees "Celeron" and "Spitfire" chips and they sound competitive--remember that AMD needs John Q. Public to buy the chip, not just Slashdotters who know what they're buying beyond name. But, an average joe sees "Celeron" versus "Duron," and it's fairly obvious which one sounds better. Guys want fast, not just durable, and impressions count in selling any product.
Again, I hate to put too much emphasis on just a name, but, it's a marketing nightmare. It's a paint company name, and it sounds slow instead of showy. Gee, sounds like it should be the name for the new Cyrix chip, eh?
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws."--Tacitus, *The Annals*
All of my computer's problems are caused by its being infested with the spirits of 75-million-year-old dead space-aliens.
Fortunately, the upcoming Elron(tm) processor will take care of those pesky dead space-aliens once and for all.
Now if only the Elron(tm) processor didn't cost $100,000, it'd be nice...
Who developed the Pentium?
;-)
A guy named Pentovski, a russian that came from Elbrus. Intel reigned the market several years.
Who developed the Athlon?
A guy, dunno his name, that came from the Alpha team. But of course it's the _whole team_ that matters... and didn't we hear rumors that a lot of good people were leaving Intel last year?
Indeed I have yet to see their first decent product this year
Elbrus rules!
Somebody fund these people and shake the CPU market!
A consumer sees "Celeron" and "Spitfire" chips and they sound competitive--remember that AMD needs John Q. Public to buy the chip, not just Slashdotters who know what they're buying beyond name. But, an average joe sees "Celeron" versus "Duron," and it's fairly obvious which one sounds better. Guys want fast, not just durable, and impressions count in selling any product.
I dunno, but when I hear "Celeron" I think of our favorite water based vegetable, then I think about that vegetable on a motherboard, and the water leaking out and shorting my board, then I just get mad, intel is trying to ruin my hardware! Damn intel! Damn you to hell!
-- iCEBaLM
It's true! Durex Avanti condoms are made of it. Look here to find out about them.
perl -e 'fork||print for split//,"hahahaha"'
They made a song about this chip in the 60s...
:)
Da Duron-ron-ron Da Duron-ron...
My journal has hot
Spitfire is the name of a british WWII era airplane.
I too dislike the name Duron, it rhymes with moron. and celeron... "sell and run" it sounds so cheap...
Zetetic
Seeking; proceeding by inquiry.
Elench
A specious but fallacious argument; a sophism.
How about "Duren", meaning bad, evil, nasty, ugly, etc. I personally like "durman" meaning drug/narcotic, but that's a little further removed.
"If one is really a superior person, the fact is likely to leak out without too much assistance" -- John Andrew Holmes
I wonder if the people at AMD did that intentionally, as a geek-effect. :) Hey, everyone loves LotR, right?
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CAIMLAS
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Interesting - dúr means "stupid" in Irish as well.
In Welsh, "duron" is the last five letters of the word for "dictionary". But that's a bit more tenuous I suppose.
perl -e 'fork||print for split//,"hahahaha"'
They are only human, they also make mistakes.
;) ).
/. community do it with well written posts rather than with story submissions.
Right, so let's have moderated story submission and cancel out human error.
There are several different admins, not just one of them. Sometimes they don't each know what the other admins have reviewed or posted recently. One admin may accept a story another rejects.
Moderated story submission, so there's just one queue we're all looking at.
Guestimating the amount of crap they must have to filter out on a daily basis, I figure their record is pretty good.
Moderated story submission, so we can all help out.
They probably gauge the importance of a topic on how many submissions they get. Being the first submitter gets you nothing. If you are the first one (or the only one), you probably won't get the credit unless it's earth-shattering news.
Moderated story submission, so the importance of a topic can be more accurately gauged.
If you feel slighted by having them reject your stories, you really need something better to do with your time (unless you are a journalist
Moderated story submission, so we have no one to pin blame on for being rejected.
If you're looking to make an impression on the
Ok.
First, make it work, then make it right, then make it fast, then, make it bloated!