Slashdot Mirror
AMD Opteron Due In April
updog writes "Here's an article from Infoworld claiming that the new 64-bit AMD Opteron is ready to launch on April 22. Some of the notable features of the new chip are an address space capable of addressing up to 1 Terabyte of memory, the ability to link up to 8 processors without any external chips, and backwards compatibility with existing 32-bit applications ..." PapaFSmurf, meanwhile, links to a disclaimer-heavy article posted at amdboard.com which says that 64-bit Athlons may arrive in June rather than September as previously expected.
I think you're confused. Only Intel chips make the internet faster.
AMD's enchanted April
AMD's 64-bit alternative
By Tom Yager March 14, 2003
After years of hype, the AMD Opteron 64-bit processor will debut in April. The company and its shareholders might curse the rotten timing, but the current contracted market is actually the perfect setting for AMD's new technology. While other chipmakers scramble to adapt, AMD seems to have designed current business challenges and priorities into its architecture. Considering how long Opteron has been in engineering, AMD is either very smart or very lucky. Opteron may be an opportune solution for customers looking to consolidate their servers and reduce operating costs.
The advantages of AMD's new design are many. The most talked-about feature is the CPU's support for 64-bit applications. Unlike previous 64-bit processors, Opteron implements the full x86-32 instruction set. Software that runs on a Pentium III or AMD Athlon now will run unmodified on Opteron. Opteron-based servers will likely spend the majority of their time running the 32-bit Windows and Linux programs that businesses use today.
Software written to exploit Opteron's 64-bit capabilities will break through the barriers that prevent the x86 from running extremely demanding server and technical applications. A vastly expanded address space (up to 1TB of physical memory), a larger set of high-speed registers, and new instructions will take affordable servers to a higher level of performance. Running in 64-bit mode, an Opteron application can crunch through mountains of in-memory data and perform blazingly fast data transfers to network and storage devices.
Unlike other x86 processors, the Opteron CPU has the inherent ability to link up to eight processors without specialized chips. Every processor has three HyperTransport bus controllers for fast connections to other CPUs and devices. Instead of using an external memory controller, which complicates system design and adds latency, AMD links memory directly to each CPU. The design has plenty of headroom to accommodate faster memory and I/O devices. The only speed limit is the 19.2GB per second capacity of each chip's combined HyperTransport channels, which exceeds the top speed of the most capable PC server bus.
In systems that require more than eight processors, Opteron will rely on external chipsets to provide communications between CPUs. The fact that HyperTransport is already on the chip simplifies the engineering. Systems running two- and four-CPU configurations -- which account for most x86 server sales -- will ship in 2003. How soon larger systems appear depends entirely on market demand.
Answering critics
The chief criticisms leveled against the platform by Intel and critical analysts -- mainly that Opteron is immature technology and that Microsoft is dragging its feet porting Windows to it -- will prove groundless. The well-respected and thoroughly debugged Athlon x86 processor is the foundation of the Opteron chip. The remarkable HyperTransport bus that AMD uses to tie Opteron chips to each other and to I/O devices is already in widespread use. The DDR (double data rate) memory that AMD has chosen for its first implementation is inexpensive and readily available. AMD's chipset implements standard PCI-X and AGP ( Accelerated Graphics Port ) peripheral buses. System manufacturers and customers will have relatively few adjustments to make.
The Windows question is slightly trickier, but it isn't an issue Intel should press too hard. Yes, the sole 64-bit version of Windows runs on Itanium and Itanium 2. However, Microsoft has repeatedly stated that it strongly prefers AMD's 64-bit architecture to Intel's. Opteron is not stuck in the same spot as Intel at the launch of Itanium. Intel had to wait for Microsoft to announce its Itanium-specific port of Windows . Opteron already runs 32-bit Windows at full speed, while other 64-bit CPUs must use emulation to run most Windows software. Microsoft's engineering task, which it needn't hurry to accomplish, is to
No, I ma not making a joke. Yesterday, Friday March 15 2003 I bought my new Soyo KT400 Dragon motherboard and a AMD 2600 Athlon with 333 bus. I have been cutting edge for 24 hours.
I never will win.
On a more positive note, any body know of motherboards for these monsters yet?
Great people don't need people to complete them, great people complete other people. -- Matthew Pawlikowski.
The Opteron is being launched on the 22nd of April. It was code named Sledgehammer, and is what Newisys and others are using. It is the server version of Hammer.
Athlon 64 is coming out in September. It is the desktop and mobile version of Hammer that was codenamed Clawhammer.
ignorance is bliss. googlefiberatx.com
I think they sound like Decepticons personally but maybe that's just too much time spent watching Transformers as a kid.
Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
Windows is still going to use the swap file.
Yes, much like the original 68k (68000, 68010) chips could only address 16 meg, but the instruction set was 32 bit and therefore able to go to 4Gig with subsequent chips without any problems (well, except the Microsoft-written AmigaBasic used the 8 upper bits as flags and therefore broke when the 68020 wanted to actually treat those bits as part of the address....horrible, horrible kludge).
Anyway, future opterons will be able to address a larger amount of memory without modifying the instruction set, and let's face it, by the time 1 TB of memory is affordable/useful, that original opteron is going to be long surpased.
No, the ceiling is not stupid.
Limiting the physical memory to 40 bits reduces the cost of building other system components, such as chipsets and motherboards, dramatically. Further, 1TB of RAM is sufficient for the current market. That is 1000 1GB parts, to give it some perspective.
As customers begin to approach 1TB requirements, AMD only has to implement more lines. No need for any segmentation hacks. The ISA needs no modification. This is a pragmatic and wise design decision.
64 bits of address space is still very useful without having actual RAM to back it up. It means you can map large quantities of storage into RAM directly. For example; if you have 10TB of disk, you can map all of it into a single virtual address space and address it with simple offsets. Obviously this is useful for large databases.
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
What makes the Opteron a server chip is the presense of three hypertransport links, the bus used for communication between multiple CPUs and other components such as the motherboard chipset. The Athlon64 will have only one. This is important since hypertransport, unlike say PCI, uses point-to-point links. The AGP and PCI bridges could be on separate hypertransport links and in theory we could see things like gigE controllers directly attached to the hypertransport bus.
Also, last I heard, the Opteron will use Dual DDR memory, while Athlon64 will have to make do with single-channel DDR. Recall that both Hammer chips (SledgeHammer, aka Opteron, and ClawHammer, aka Athlon64), have the memmory controller integrated onto the CPU.
For both of these reasons, the Opteron and Athlon64 sockets are incompatible (Socket 754 vs Socket 940). There's an old review with plenty of information here