AMD 'Venice' Core Shows Big Drop in Power Needs

dtjohnson writes " Lost Circuits has carefully measured the power consumption of four recent Athlon 64 cores and has found that power consumption has been dramatically reduced in the new 'Venice' core from the relatively-low (compared to Intel P4) numbers of the original 2003 'Clawhammer' core to less than 30 watts under load and less than 10 watts for Windows at idle. This huge power reduction was apparently accomplished by a combination of 90 nm die shrink, Silicon-on-Insulator technology, and something called 'dual-stress liner technology' As Lost Circuits points out, power consumption worldwide has been exploding as more CPUs come online and the CPU power requirements increase so a significant power reduction will reduce the burden on electrical grids everywhere."

Comments

Re:It keeps getting better

[Sebastopol]

Um, what exactly is Intel following? Obviously not AMDs abyssmal earnings, piss-poor fabrication, complete lack of OEM support (compilers, chipsets, etc.)...

64-bit instructions? You mean AMDs massive marketing-hype program that forced Intel to release a completely unnecessary technology? Ooooh! One feature! I'm so impressed!

Yes, a win for AMD on the tech-hype front. Kudos. Didja notice how that something everyone who bashes Intel for doing is suddenly interpreting as portent of salvation.