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Finally, Details on AMD's Hammer CPUs

Posted by timothy on from the wham-goes-the-hammer dept.

breadbot writes: "AMD has released details (PDF) of their 64-bit xHammer (for values of x such as Claw and Sledge) line of x86-compatible processors. Extreme Tech has some commentary as well. Glueless SMP, integrated memory controller -- risky, exciting stuff, but it leaves VIA only a South Bridge to build. Oh, and I wonder who will make the HyperTransport/Integrated AGP 8x chips ..."

13 comments

  1. yummy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    yummy, 8x agp, awwwwwwwwww

    fp

  2. Very cool.. ;) by cmowire · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I have to say it's impressive.

    I think they were stealing pages from the future of the DEC Alpha (It also was to have the northbridge integrated). It actually makes sense to do a good northbridge inside of the CPU, especially because that's the part that, if it isn't right, causes the most trouble. Via knows that story well, as they always manage to get beaten for raw chipset performance, if all things are equal otherwise.

    The best part about this is they don't have to wory as much about developing SMP chipsets. Via doesn't generally bother with making SMP chipsets. So if they are going to develop their own SMP chipsets, they might as well make it easier on themselves while they are integrating the northbridge anyways.

    I just want one of those systems with 4 or 8 CPUs and a boatload of RAM. Does anybody know what the various OS support will be like?

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    Gentoo Sucks
    1. Re:Very cool.. ;) by CTho9305 · · Score: 0

      the disadvantage (possibly) is that it does not leave room for northbride improvement...

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      My server
    2. Re:Very cool.. ;) by addaon · · Score: 1

      Nonsense. I change my processor far more often than I change my motherboard, where my classical north bridge lives. This actually makes improvements easier, and more likely.

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      I've had this sig for three days.
    3. Re:Very cool.. ;) by CtrlPhreak · · Score: 2

      the disadvantage (possibly) is that it does not leave the room for northbridge improvement..

      Nonsense, the integrated northbridge allows for the transfer of functionality to an external northbirdge if someone would implement one. The only thing is how can you beat a northbridge running at the full cpu clock?

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      WikiAfterDark.com It's a sex wiki, go now!
    4. Re:Very cool.. ;) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I personally think the newest coolest thing about the upcoming hammers series is that in multiprocessor systems, a crossbar-switch will be implemented, capable of 2 gigacommands/s. I have been drewling over this for use in PC architecture for a very long time (as it is done in SGI Origins, and Cray Supercomputers). This technology has the capacity to make the hammer series architecture have insanely low latency, and plain ass massive bandwith. Anyone want video textures from a firewire camera on a wall in quake? Probably not, but it might be possible.

    5. Re:Very cool.. ;) by leviramsey · · Score: 1

      Well, Compaq has been an investor in AMD for years. They licensed the Alpha bus to AMD for the Athlon. Perhaps other things were licensed.

  3. Targeted marketing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I love the fact that there was a big fat Intel Xeon ad right in the middle of the article.

  4. Dumb as a box of hammers.... by gatkinso · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...sorry - I couldn't resist.

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    I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
  5. Via by _pi-away · · Score: 1

    The less Via builds the better, my experiences with their handiwork have been far less than satisfactory.

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    "The crows seemed to be calling his name, thought Caw."
  6. OS Support by Jason+Cwik · · Score: 1

    OS support should be fine, since it runs standard IA32 instructions natively.
    One thing I noticed is that this sounds similar to NUMA. I wonder if we're going to start seeing patent infringements coming out of the woodwork...