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AMD Announces 65-nm Chips, Touts Power Savings

Several readers wrote in about AMD's entry into the 65-nm manufacturing generation. The company introduced four chips to be manufactured with 65-nm process in the first quarter of 2007 to replace existing 90-nm chips in their lineup. AMD is playing up the power economy of its line, claiming that even its existing 90-nm parts consume less than 50% the power of Intel's Core 2 Duo, averaged over a typical day's usage, while the new 65-nm chips will be even stingier with power. Next stop, 45-nm. The article says that AMD has a goal of catching up within 18 months to Intel's lead on the way to 45-nm technology.

234 comments

  1. Great, but where is the CPU with by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Five blades, err... cores.

  2. That's all fine and dandy.... by emor8t · · Score: 0

    ...but I plug my laptop in a majority of the time. I'll admit to being a AMD Fanboy, but my new system's going to be conroe based. I can't justify loosing out to the competition by supporting a chip that far behind.

    1. Re:That's all fine and dandy.... by TheSHAD0W · · Score: 3, Funny

      You might change your behavior if your laptop's battery lasted longer. What if it could go 12 hours without plugging in?

      I have the reverse problem; HP made a few laptops with full-power Pentium 4 CPUs a couple of years ago, and I got one. It's nice and fast, but its battery life is roughly 23 seconds.

    2. Re:That's all fine and dandy.... by cmckosaurous · · Score: 5, Funny

      At 23 seconds I would call you lucky. With my Sony, the battery only lasted 16 seconds before it exploded! Now THAT is poor battery life.

    3. Re:That's all fine and dandy.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's nice and fast, but its battery life is roughly 23 seconds.

      How come the batteries on that sucker don't explode?!

    4. Re:That's all fine and dandy.... by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 1

      In what way are these new 65-nm chips behind? I feel that, now that AMD's and Intel's chips are on the same scale, we can finally compare the cores on an equal footing. My feeling is that AMD's might win. At any rate, given that Core 2 was just a little ahead of AMD's 90-mm CPUs, Intel's certainly won't lead by far.

      --
      Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
    5. Re:That's all fine and dandy.... by elphins.son · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I got one of those too... first laptop model I could find with a built in 10-key. Works great when I can leave it plugged in, but when traveling... can't even get half of a movie finished before I run out of juice.

    6. Re:That's all fine and dandy.... by cHiphead · · Score: 1

      I feel your pain, I still have mine and its definitely a powerhouse machine but useless while mobile. Initially my zd7140us got 2.5hours of battery life, lately it struggles to go 1.75 hours, mostly 1.5 or less with wifi on.

      Now I have a work-provided Dell Latitude D620 with dual core intel and 2 gigs o delicious ram and it has a decent 3.5 hour battery and still runs circles around my old hp in performance. Plus I can go the 2nd battery route with this one if needed.

      Cheers.

      --

      This is my sig. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    7. Re:That's all fine and dandy.... by paulpas · · Score: 0

      Those batteries were the wild ride of making. Live fast, die young...

      They must have procured the Dean-Ion batteries on accident.

      --
      -PMP-
    8. Re:That's all fine and dandy.... by Gilmoure · · Score: 4, Funny

      Luxury. My laptop would run out of power 45 minutes before I started it, explode, stab me to death with bread knives and then dance about on my grave singing Hallelujah. And that was if we were lucky!

      --
      I drank what? -- Socrates
    9. Re:That's all fine and dandy.... by Simon80 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That's funny, cause 2 years ago I got a 2.2Ghz A64 3400+ in a 15.4in lappy, and it gets over 2 hours of battery life. Then again, it underclocks to 800MHz when unplugged because the manufacturer said so.

    10. Re:That's all fine and dandy.... by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      I have a Dell Inspiron 9100. Full P4 hyperthreaded. I'm not sure what Dell claimed, but I can't make it through a single DVD movie before it's gone, and that's with the upgraded battery.

    11. Re:That's all fine and dandy.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      The chips aren't behind. AMD is behind. The semiconductor manufacturers keep scaling down based off the leader which has always been way ahead of AMD. (NOTE: we are speaking of manufacturing leadership based on the smallest feature in the chip (not necessarily the performance of the CPU (and it matters even if there isn't a performance imporvement (which there usually is) because you can make more for the same amount of money and if they are better, then you can sell them for more too))). AMD is behind because Intel sold more than 40 million microprocessors on the 65 nm manufacturing nade before AMD sold even one. So they are little behind.

    12. Re:That's all fine and dandy.... by dorianh49 · · Score: 1

      You try and tell the young people of today that... and they'll never believe you.

      --
      Gravity is a contributing factor in nearly 73 percent of all accidents involving falling objects. -Dave Barry
    13. Re:That's all fine and dandy.... by CryoPenguin · · Score: 1

      Then again, it underclocks to 800MHz when unplugged because the manufacturer said so. What does the manufacturer have to do with anything? I also have a 2.2GHz A64 3400+ laptop, and mine underclocks to 800MHz when unplugged because /etc/cpufreqd.conf says so. But if I want a speed boost at some cost in battery life, I can change that.
    14. Re:That's all fine and dandy.... by Simon80 · · Score: 1

      Seriously, google it, I have an M6811, and when I unplug it it magically turns into an 800MHz box, cpufreq be damned, lol.. I can still play quake3 or watch movies when it's like that though :)

    15. Re:That's all fine and dandy.... by dhalsim2 · · Score: 1

      You must have a less recent model than I do. My laptop's batteries last until a rootkit is successfully installed allowing hackers access to my machine, then the batteries explode, destroying the game system that I paid four digits and got mugged for.

    16. Re:That's all fine and dandy.... by tom17 · · Score: 1

      I don't believe you

    17. Re:That's all fine and dandy.... by IpalindromeI · · Score: 1

      You had it easy. In my day, we didn't have batteries, so I had to do all of that myself. And play Taps at the funeral.

      --

      --
      Promoting critical thinking since 1994.
  3. Idles at 3.8W? by tomstdenis · · Score: 1

    Dang.... nice.

    Looking forward to my next laptop being a 65nm Turion X2 in about 2-3 years :) (when my current laptop dies or just looks old).

    Tom

    --
    Someday, I'll have a real sig.
    1. Re:Idles at 3.8W? by joshetc · · Score: 4, Informative

      Extremely nice. Most people dont account for the integrated memory controller reducing the power consumption of the northbridge either. As a whole Turion notebooks should be extremely power stingy.

    2. Re:Idles at 3.8W? by Bilestoad · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Why, because you think Intel are going to stand still while AMD move to 65nm? By the time AMD actually ship 65nm, Intel will be shipping 45nm. And I call bullshit on AMD's power claims, at least until independent reviews have verified them. Intel's new core specifically designed for power efficiency and manufactured with a 65nm process uses more power than a 90nm has-been from AMD? Excuse me for feeling skeptical.

    3. Re:Idles at 3.8W? by 80+85+83+83+89+33 · · Score: 3, Informative
      the best part from the article:

      AMD's argument goes like this: modern desktop and notebook processors constantly scale up and down between full speed and an idle state, which AMD has branded "Cool 'n' Quiet". At a given time, pushed to full load by an application, AMD's chips run hotter and consume more power. But across a typical computing day - where a user might check his email or surf the Web - the processor idles more often then not. At idle, AMD's 90-nm Athlon 64 X2 consumes 7.5 watts. Its latest 65-nm chips idle at 3.8 watts. By comparison, the 65-nm Core 2 Duo idles at 14.3 watts.

      [...]However, directly comparing the two chips' power load, in a real-world computing environment, over the course of a day, would be a daunting task, Huynh acknowledged.


      i can't wait till the hardware sites test a laptop version....
      --
      i disable sigs
    4. Re:Idles at 3.8W? by Firehed · · Score: 3, Informative

      So Intel is shipping 45nm? According to Bit-tech, these 65nm AMD chips are shipping today.

      I agree, take things with a grain of salt until we see reviews. But you sound a little too skeptical of AMD to not be working for Intel.

      --
      How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
    5. Re:Idles at 3.8W? by rrhal · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Intel seems to get a bit of a pass on the whole memory controller thing. When you see people compare power usage you rarely see the memory controller on the Northbridge added onto the Intel ledger.

      Bottom line is we get very fast efficient chips for cheap.

      --
      All generalizations are false, including this one. Mark Twain
    6. Re:Idles at 3.8W? by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 1

      ``As a whole Turion notebooks should be extremely power stingy.''

      Well, there's still the display and the moving parts to be accounted for.

      --
      Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
    7. Re:Idles at 3.8W? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A while back I was deciding between:

        $85 for mobo + mobile sempron
      $160 for mobo + Via C7

      This for an 'always on' fileserver kind of thing, where basically I want it to not draw much power when idle. Of a total ~60 watts for the system I'm glad I went with the couple watts AMD vs the 0.1 watt Via. Core2 would have been >20% of the power vs <7% for the AMD. That's pretty significant to me.

    8. Re:Idles at 3.8W? by Lonewolf666 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I remember a test in the German C't magazine where complete computers were tested. Everything being equal except mainboard and CPU. The CPUs were AMD Athlon 64 vs. Intel Core2Duo

      Under load, the Core2Duo machines used a bit less power. Idling, the AMDs were better. The overall differences were pretty small compared to the total power consumption, so I'd disregard them for a typical desktop that does NOT run 24/7.

      And BTW, avoid the old Pentium 4/Pentium D. Those are really inferior.

      --
      C - the footgun of programming languages
    9. Re:Idles at 3.8W? by Lonewolf666 · · Score: 1

      Correction: the AMDs were Athlon 64 X2, it was a test of dual core vs. dual core.

      --
      C - the footgun of programming languages
    10. Re:Idles at 3.8W? by joshetc · · Score: 2, Informative

      Of course but some of AMDs changes in the last year have made a HUGE difference on the notebook front. DDR2 consumes much less power than DDR1, catching them up to intel as far as that goes. Then theres their new 65nm proccess with much less power drawing parts. After notebooks start coming with flashmedia for most hard drive duties we should start to see smaller screens and ultra low power notebooks that last as long as cell phones when in use.

    11. Re:Idles at 3.8W? by Andrzej+Sawicki · · Score: 2, Informative
      And I call bullshit on AMD's power claims, at least until independent reviews have verified them.
      Tom's Hardware good enough for you?

      http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/09/25/green_machi ne/
    12. Re:Idles at 3.8W? by darkwhite · · Score: 1

      No, most people doing serious testing actually measure wall plug power, which takes into account everything in the case. With laptops, that just means total battery life. And last I heard, Intel's mobile chips still beat Turions.

      --

      [an error occurred while processing this directive]
    13. Re:Idles at 3.8W? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      keep in mind that the E6400 performs about 30% better than the X2 3800+ and 10% better than the X2 4600+

      http://images.tomshardware.com/2006/12/02/intel-se parated.jpg

      While AMD certainly has a power advantage during idle, under load Intel retains the performance/watt title.

    14. Re:Idles at 3.8W? by timeOday · · Score: 3, Informative
      No, most people doing serious testing actually measure wall plug power, which takes into account everything in the case.
      I wouldn't measure power consumption on a laptop that way, for a few reasons:

      1) That would take into account the efficiency of the transformer, which doesn't impact battery life.
      2) Many laptops run in a high power/performance mode when plugged in.
      3) At least be sure to take the battery out of the laptop so it's not charging while you're measuring!

    15. Re:Idles at 3.8W? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Power consumption shouldn't be the only issue. The fact that the standard core 2 buries anything that AMD has out now, and has for this long, is unforgivable. I used to only buy AMD, unfortunately that streak ended a couple days ago when I finally upgraded my personal machine to a Core 2. Sorry AMD....you've waited too long.

    16. Re:Idles at 3.8W? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Tom's Hardware? No, and not good enough for anyone with a clue!

    17. Re:Idles at 3.8W? by Bilestoad · · Score: 1

      My old Pentium 4 uses less power at idle too. So does my cell phone. Actually, when idling, this glass of water in front of me uses less power than the AMD chip too.

      The only meaningful measure of a CPU's power consumption is its performance AND its power consumption under load. A CPU taking twice as long to perform some task but using half as much power is not even equal, because you have to wait. Marketing people may grasp at idle figures when it's the only category they come out on top in. The Core 2 Duo is not only using less power at full load it's getting a shitload more work done. The tests of the AMD 4X4 CPUs released this week show a range of CPUs getting almost as much work done as the competition, but using about double the power - integrated memory controller or not. Sorry, but I don't think even a 45nm shrink can help them there.

      I hope AMD come back because competition is good for all of us, I like buying faster and more efficient for cheaper. But they are not in the same ballpark right now, not even playing the same game. They're a year or more away from a return to the glory of the Pentium D/Athlon X2 days.

    18. Re:Idles at 3.8W? by Patrik_AKA_RedX · · Score: 1
      Most people dont account for the integrated memory controller reducing the power consumption of the northbridge either.
      Yeah, but when I tell people that, they give me that funny look, avoid eyecontact and back away slowly.
    19. Re:Idles at 3.8W? by Lonewolf666 · · Score: 1

      It depends on your usage. Most desktops are idling 90% of the time, but you don't want to shut them down and reboot all the time. So power consumption when idling is meaningful too.

      Now if you really need performance, I would recommend a Core 2 Duo too.
      If your usage is strictly limited to Office and web surfing, I'd recommend an AMD Sempron on Socket AM2. Cheap, low power usage (AFAIK lower than Celerons with similar performance) and more than sufficient for typing letters.

      An example where AMD is still in the running:
      Personally, I (living in Germany) might look for a new computer come next spring or so. Some required features are

      1)reasonable performance, but not necessarily a high end machine
      2)ECC RAM for reliability
      3)reasonable price (I'm willing to pay a bit more for quality parts, but not the premium on the latest and most powerful).

      For 1) an Athlon 64 X2 4200+ or faster would do. That includes all models of the Core 2 Duo. Actually, the Core 2 Duo E6300 costs about the same as the X2 4200+ and is somewhat faster. Advantage Intel.
      2) requires the mainboard to play along. On the AMD side, I found a suitable ASUS board for 84 euros a while ago. On the Intel side, only boards with the expensive 875 chipset seem to support ECC (and not all of them). Suitable ones seem to start around 200 Euros. This leads to
      3) an advantage of about 120 euros for AMD, unless prices for ECC capable Intel boards come down in the next months.

      So, do I pay 120 euros more for a tad more processing power? That is far from clear-cut.

      --
      C - the footgun of programming languages
  4. Technology, progress. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    When do we say enough is enough and just stop this cancerous shrinkage? How small do transistors really have to be?!

    1. Re:Technology, progress. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      I'm way ahead of the game, my transistors are -30nm. I had to do some funny things with space time, but they work. Until you observe them anyways. Next up, I'm going for inm chips.

    2. Re:Technology, progress. by HappySqurriel · · Score: 1

      When do we say enough is enough and just stop this cancerous shrinkage? How small do transistors really have to be?!

      We can say enough is enough when I have more processing power than I know what to do with it in a laptop that is small, lightweight and has 18 hours of battery life. Ultimately, I think we'll get there in 10 to 15 years.

    3. Re:Technology, progress. by Amouth · · Score: 1

      when gates are a few atoms wide.. when to make it smaller they need to use sub atomic particals as building blocks.. even at 45 nm the interconnects are only a few atoms wide.. when they get to 1 atom wide.. i think that will be a safe stopping point.. but till then.. the smaller the better.

      --
      '...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
    4. Re:Technology, progress. by lixee · · Score: 1
      When do we say enough is enough and just stop this cancerous shrinkage? How small do transistors really have to be?!
      We can say enough is enough when I have more processing power than I know what to do with it in a laptop that is small, lightweight and has 18 hours of battery life. Ultimately, I think we'll get there in 10 to 15 years.
      I expect that we'll hit the atom barrier before that.
      --
      Res publica non dominetur
    5. Re:Technology, progress. by WilliamSChips · · Score: 1

      Why don't you just borrow Time Lord technology and use it?

      --
      Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
    6. Re:Technology, progress. by theshowmecanuck · · Score: 1

      The nano-transistor uncertainty principle anyone? They are very fast and power efficient when processing... but when you process you won't know what the answer will be?

      --
      -- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
    7. Re:Technology, progress. by ajlitt · · Score: 5, Funny

      Just stay away from (-30+i)nm chips. They're way too complex.

    8. Re:Technology, progress. by databoing · · Score: 2, Informative

      Keep in mind, though that 1 atom wide for Si is 111pm (that's 0.111nm for those who dont know their units), so we're talking about ~400 atoms wide at 45nm. We've still got a little breathing room. I'm still waiting for Carbon Nanotubes to replace the Si interconnects.

    9. Re:Technology, progress. by ArcherB · · Score: 3, Funny

      I'm way ahead of the game, my transistors are -30nm. I had to do some funny things with space time, but they work. Until you observe them anyways. Next up, I'm going for inm chips.

      Great! This guy has Schroeder's Notebook!

      --
      There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
    10. Re:Technology, progress. by eudean · · Score: 2, Interesting

      When it stops being profitable to continue scaling transistors. The reason we scale is because it makes chips cheaper, faster, just plain better, meaning Intel and AMD (and others) can sell it for lots of money. If scaling no longer achieves that goal, you'll see it end in a heartbeat (just like you saw clock speed ramping come to a halt once it wasn't selling like it used to).

    11. Re:Technology, progress. by Chris+Burke · · Score: 1

      "Next up, I'm going for inm chips."

      Feh, those are imaginary.

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    12. Re:Technology, progress. by MrHanky · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but extremely lightweight.

    13. Re:Technology, progress. by Bender_ · · Score: 2, Interesting


      I think while being smartassy and all you completely forgot that the atomic radius is not equivalent to lattice spacing in crystals.
      Your numbers are way off.

    14. Re: Technology, progress. by John.P.Jones · · Score: 1

      Not really, in nature (-30+i)nm cores always appear along side (-30-i)nm cores in what we call conjugate pair processors.

    15. Re:Technology, progress. by Impeesa · · Score: 1

      When do we say enough is enough and just stop this cancerous shrinkage? How small do transistors really have to be?!

      At roughly the 10nm mark (if I recall correctly), at which point a MOSFET will no longer exhibit transistor-like behaviour due to quantum tunneling across the body.

    16. Re:Technology, progress. by BytePusher · · Score: 1

      What are the right numbers Mr. Even-Smartassier?

    17. Re:Technology, progress. by AI0867 · · Score: 1

      we _had_ laptops that had 18+ hours of battery life, then we threw out the battery life for more processing power.

    18. Re:Technology, progress. by Gilmoure · · Score: 1

      Gosh! What about -40?

      --
      I drank what? -- Socrates
    19. Re:Technology, progress. by Gilmoure · · Score: 1

      Your mom looked in my shorts!

      --
      I drank what? -- Socrates
    20. Re:Technology, progress. by jackstack · · Score: 1

      oohhh nooo.... he reversed the polarity!!!!!!!!!!!!

    21. Re:Technology, progress. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    22. Re:Technology, progress. by Drooling+Iguana · · Score: 1

      No, I don't want any bloody Jelly Babies! Stop offering them to me!

      --
      ... I'm addicted to placebos
    23. Re:Technology, progress. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Great! This guy has Schroeder's Notebook!


      Gerhard Schröder designed a notebook? Does Erwin Schrödinger know about this?
    24. Re:Technology, progress. by StikyPad · · Score: 1

      That's no laptop, it's a piano.

    25. Re:Technology, progress. by Targon · · Score: 1

      Let me guess, you work in the auto industry where the same design with MINOR changes is pushed out year after year with no improvements. In the computer industry, progress is being made, and process technology advances are a part of that.

      The key is that by shrinking, the amount of power required goes down, which means you can either add more features, cache, or you can increase the speed of the chip.

    26. Re:Technology, progress. by smoker2 · · Score: 1
      I'm way ahead of the game, my transistors are -30nm. I had to do some funny things with space time, but they work. Until you observe them anyways. Next up, I'm going for inm chips.

      Great! This guy has Schroeder's Notebook!

      So do I - The outcome depends on whether I pipe cat through more or less.
    27. Re:Technology, progress. by smoker2 · · Score: 1
      When do we say enough is enough and just stop this cancerous shrinkage?
      Danger Will Robinson !

      Oxymoron Alert !

    28. Re:Technology, progress. by Have+Brain+Will+Rent · · Score: 1
      --
      The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny - Aesop
    29. Re:Technology, progress. by ArcherB · · Score: 1

      Thanx for the correction. I guess that's what I get for relying on a quick Google search to confirm the name.

      --
      There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
    30. Re:Technology, progress. by databoing · · Score: 1

      According to your informative post below, we've only got connects 200 atoms wide, not "a few" as the GP was asserting. The point still stands, the atoms are not *that* constrained.

  5. this is great news from AMD by matt328 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It will probably drive down the costs of the Core 2 so many of us can justify buying one.

    --
    Check out the cave on the east side of lake Hylia. Strange and wonderful things live in it.
  6. Cooler is better. by Kenja · · Score: 2, Informative

    I went from a pair of 2.8ghz xeons to a pair of Opteron 250HEs and its a world of diference.

    --

    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
    1. Re:Cooler is better. by MSFanBoi2 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I went from over 500 Opeterons to just over 400 Xeon 5100's and got:

      Better peformance

      Better power utilization

      Better BTU consumption

      And last but not least... saved some cash...

    2. Re:Cooler is better. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Since when are trolls insightful?

      Or do all mods have broken troll detectors today?

  7. Nice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    65 nautical miles per hour? That's pretty fast for a ship.

  8. 18 months is, like, a generation by Junior+J.+Junior+III · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So if AMD doesn't catch up with Intel by that timeframe, they'd be pretty much screwed, wouldn't they?

    Hopefully we can see some Socket AM2 65nm stuff in the retail channel soon.

    --
    You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
    1. Re:18 months is, like, a generation by Chris+Burke · · Score: 3, Informative

      Not really screwed, especially if they fail to catch up but do narrow the gap. AMD has always been behind Intel in terms of process technology. AMD has gotten ahead on some specific process tech, like copper interconnect and SOI, but in terms of overall process shrinkage and quality of process, Intel has always been ahead. AMD has been more behind in the past, but also a lot closer, sometimes only months behind Intel. Basically, they are familiar with this situation.

      65nm was a particularly bad node for AMD in terms of Intel's lead. Their plan for 45nm seems to be shaping up better with Fab 36, so I expect them to be closer though probably not caught up.

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    2. Re:18 months is, like, a generation by LehiNephi · · Score: 5, Informative

      AMD has consistently been a step behind Intel in the die-shrinking competition. The fact that AMD's chips run as cool as or cooler than their equal-performing Intel counterparts even at the larger process is a credit to good engineering.

      Of course, since Intel will also be moving forward over the next 18 months, they might end up still in the lead. Making a huge turnaround like they did (from Netburst to Core) in such a short time is remarkable. Creating an architecture and setting up the process and designing a generation of chips takes a looooong time. Kudos to Intel for that. Now the ball is in AMD's court, and they have to respond.

      At the high end, of course, Intel rules. What about processors that normal people buy?

      I was recently looking at a Core2Duo review, and noticed something interesting. At each brand's bottom end (E6300 vs. X2 3800), Intel outperformed AMD. The problem in my mind, however, is that Intel's bottom-end starts at a higher price point than AMD's. Very smart marketing move by Intel. However, If you match the processors price-to-price, the E6300 matches up against the X2 4200 (both currently around $180), and there is relatively little performance difference. In other words, the price/performance metric really isn't in anyone's favor.

      Another smart (but a little slimy) marketing move Intel has made is in the power dissipation numbers. AMD quotes their CPU's maximum dissipation, and Intel quotes a power figure for some arbitrary (under 100%) CPU load. Intel looks good here....until you actually measure a system's power draw at the outlet, and find that again, there's not that much difference. This may (and probably will) drastically change as AMD's 65nm parts get out, but we'll have to wait and see.

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    3. Re:18 months is, like, a generation by darkwhite · · Score: 1

      In other words, the price/performance metric really isn't in anyone's favor.

      That just isn't true. There are 4 consumer Core 2 Duo models. For every one, you cannot buy an AMD CPU for the same price or cheaper that won't be beaten in most workloads, and the closest performing AMD CPU will have much lower performance per watt.

      Don't get me started on the mobile and 2-8 core server market, Intel has completely decimated AMD's offerings there for now.

      I do agree with you about TDP though. I'm not sure about the methodology or the official definition, but the official figures from the two vendors don't match up. That doesn't prevent us from measuring overall power and concluding that at the moment, Intel is kicking AMD's butt.

      It looks like AMD is back to underdog mode until their next architecture is out, although Opteron sales will sustain a bunch of inertia.

      --

      [an error occurred while processing this directive]
    4. Re:18 months is, like, a generation by Courageous · · Score: 1


      Don't get me started on the mobile and 2-8 core server market, Intel has completely decimated AMD's offerings there for now.
      ---------------

      8 core? Haven't seen any evidence there. At 8 cores, you're talking 4 sockets, where AMD's four busses and the linear increase in bandwidth rules the day... aren't you?

      I'd think if you're looking at an Intel Quad Core, you could only be comparing it to an AMD four-socket/8 core, which I'd be surprised to not see pretty far in the lead due to the memory bandwidth issues.

      C//

    5. Re:18 months is, like, a generation by darkwhite · · Score: 1

      No. At 8 cores, you'll be well advised to buy 2 sockets with 2 quad-core Clovertowns. Which will still wipe the floor against all but the 2.6+ GHz Opterons on all but the most memory-intensive workloads, and have about twice or more the performance/watt of any Opteron. AMD is quite screwed everywhere except on 8-socket servers.

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    6. Re:18 months is, like, a generation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They'd better move quickly. . .Intel is getting close to ramping 45nm already, and they're not having to use immersion lithography for it like everyone else is. Even for 32 nm node they're having to use immersion on probably only a couple of layers.

    7. Re:18 months is, like, a generation by darkwhite · · Score: 1

      (sorry, didn't read the whole comment before replying)

      On most workloads I'm concerned with, Intel's new dual-FSB, quad-channel chipset (5000P) provides enough of a performance parity against AMD's on-die controllers to make the overall performance very competitive against AMD's 4-sockets. Most public benchmarks I've seen on these configurations are pretty ridiculous, using non-parallelizable or I/O-bound consumer software. Granted, my workloads are not terribly memory intensive, so if you're looking for a database server that has to juggle the whole database in RAM continuously, AMD might still be the killer. On the other hand, even when I think about desktop workstations, I'd rather not have a 4-socket monster on my desk and take the slight performance hit using Intel's quad-cores. And of course Intel's 2x quad core is very substantially cheaper than AMD's 4x dual core.

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    8. Re:18 months is, like, a generation by TubeSteak · · Score: 1

      Fab 36 (in Germany) will "be substantially converted to 65nm in Fab 36 by mid-2007."

      The Fab AMD is building in upstate NY will be churning out 32nm chips by 2010.

      Though IIRC, Intel plans to have 32nm ready around the same time, if not earlier.

      --
      [Fuck Beta]
      o0t!
    9. Re:18 months is, like, a generation by MojoStan · · Score: 1
      Another smart (but a little slimy) marketing move Intel has made is in the power dissipation numbers. AMD quotes their CPU's maximum dissipation, and Intel quotes a power figure for some arbitrary (under 100%) CPU load. Intel looks good here....until you actually measure a system's power draw at the outlet, and find that again, there's not that much difference.
      Your observation about price/performance at Intel's low-end Core 2 Duo price (E6300 vs X2 4200+) is interesting and seems accurate. Good catch.

      However, there appears to be a very significant difference in power usage (at the outlet) that favors Intel's platform at all price/performance levels. The Tech Report's recent review of Intel's quad-core CPU showed the Core 2 Duo systems drawing way less power than comparable Athlon x2 systems. For example, the E6300 system drew 153 watts at load while the x2 4200+ drew 191 watts. The E6700 system, which clobbers AMD high-end CPUs in price/performance, only drew 156 watts at load while high-end Athlon 64 x2 CPUs drew 200 watts and the FX-62 drew 230 watts.

      Also, what's up with the AMD x2 3800+ EE system (35W TDP) drawing the same power at load (153W) as the Intel E6300 (65W TDP)? I doubt the AMD motherboard (NVIDIA 590 chipset) is drawing about 30W more than the Intel motherboard (975X chipset).

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    10. Re:18 months is, like, a generation by LehiNephi · · Score: 1

      That's interesting--anandtech's review of the Core 2 Duos indicated that power consumption was really about the same across the board. The AMD EE chips were the least-power hungry, with just about every other chip all in a small span. Methinks someone's test procedures aren't quite accurate--not quite sure which ones, though.

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    11. Re:18 months is, like, a generation by Cyno · · Score: 1

      4+ socket monsters are not meant for desktop/home use.

      It remains to be seem what AMD has up their sleeve. They better have something good for their own sake, because as you showed, Intel today has more or less consumed the desktop market and might own up to 4-socket class servers with price/performance/watt. But AMD has 65nm up and running and I heard rumors of a two-die quad core design a few months back. If they bring out a quad core chip today it will easily compete head-to-head with Intel's QX6700 and clovertowns, until Intel can fix the FSB.

      I know some articles claimed AMD's new desktop quad FX thing disappointed, but actually they do compete with the QX6700 clock-for-clock and would be the only option for "cheap" desktop 8-core, if AMD brings a quad core chip to market soon. I wouldn't count them out just yet.

    12. Re:18 months is, like, a generation by darkwhite · · Score: 1

      I want AMD to succeed as much as the next guy - I definitely appreciate the fact that they spent the last 20 years working hard to gain superiority over a much larger competitor. But I think Hector Ruiz (the AMD CEO) must feel like Yamamoto, the Japanese WWII admiral who allegedly said, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve".

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    13. Re:18 months is, like, a generation by ben+there... · · Score: 1
      However, If you match the processors price-to-price, the E6300 matches up against the X2 4200 (both currently around $180), and there is relatively little performance difference. In other words, the price/performance metric really isn't in anyone's favor.

      I'd personally rather buy an LGA775 core-capable motherboard right now than an AM2 or 939. It appears to be more future-proof, whether it's an Intel 965 or 975, or an nForce 570i or 580i. It costs more, but I'd rather buy a good one now, along with an E6400, then upgrade the CPU when the prices come down on the high end.
    14. Re:18 months is, like, a generation by Courageous · · Score: 1

      Performance per watt, possibly, yes. Performance? Let's take a trip to www.spec.org:

      Acer Altos R520 (1.86 GHz Intel Xeon Processor E5320) 8 cores, 2 chips, 4 cores/chip 77.3 78.2
      Hewlett-Packard Company ProLiant BL45p G2 (AMD Opteron (TM) 8218) 8 cores, 4 chips, 2 cores/chip 154 166

      The public performance figures do not appear to back you up. Do you have some of your own?

      C//

    15. Re:18 months is, like, a generation by darkwhite · · Score: 1

      E5320 is a 1.86 GHz chip. 8218 is a 2.8 GHz chip - top of the line, an overclocked Opteron that AMD added after Intel started making good server CPUs again. An apples-to-apples comparison would be 8218 vs. X5355 (2.66 GHz and a faster FSB). That's 43% faster clock speed and some effect from a faster FSB. This will still be behind the 4-socket system by a bit, but I never said quad-cores will scream past dual-cores, I said they offer a hell of a lot more value for my workloads, particularly in rack density and heat.

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    16. Re:18 months is, like, a generation by darkwhite · · Score: 1

      ... well, I guess I did say that, so I concede that AMD still has some performance parity left in the 4-core market, if discounting all factors other than the number of cores.

      AMD still rocks - without K8, we would not have Intel offering anywhere near the performance for money that we have today. And all my CPUs at home are AMDs, since they were bought before Conroe came out.

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    17. Re:18 months is, like, a generation by Courageous · · Score: 1

      When I click on the Dell page, I cannot buy anything faster than a 1.86GHZ quad core Intel chip. Nor has anyone submitted benchmarks. I think you'll have to admit that "can I buy it from Dell?" is sort of the definitive IT reality in many corporations today. I.e., of the systems that I can buy today, if I am going to have 8 cores in them, AMD is (likely) the better buy.

      I agree, though, that those would be some fast ass chips. Who's selling them? Would be fun to buy some for our labs. :)

      I suspect that you are underestimated the impact of memory bandwidth on end server systems, but be that as it may. Agree with you on general principle that Intel has a significant lead right now, is doing very interesting things. Makes me wish I'd sold my AMD at $45. :)

      AMD will take back power on their 65nm leap, I predict. Whether or not it will be power-performance, I do not know. Possibly. AMD's process, on an nm-to-nm basis, is better than Intel's because of SOI.

      Other possible (future) advantage for AMD is Pacifica. Assuming that they can get it out before Intel comes out with a second generation VT.

      Intel seems to have figured out that concentration of firepower on Itanium was gigantically stupid. A good thing, wouldn't you say?

      Joe.

    18. Re:18 months is, like, a generation by Courageous · · Score: 1

      4 socket market. I currently have 20 Dell 1955 Blades with Two 5160's each. That 2 sockets, 4 cores, all running 3.0GHZ. This is one fuckin' ass kicker of a blade set! I mean, like, I go to type compile, and I get output before I hit return. :)

      Joe.

    19. Re:18 months is, like, a generation by darkwhite · · Score: 1

      yeah, I meant 4-socket.

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    20. Re:18 months is, like, a generation by darkwhite · · Score: 1

      Yeah, 20 blades with 40 5160s does good for some nice bit crunchin' :)

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  9. Of Course.. by sylvainsf · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Intel will be holding still for 18 months while AMD catches up.

    1. Re:Of Course.. by EasyT · · Score: 1

      I suspect they meant they'd be caught up with wherever Intel is at that point, not merely catching up with where Intel is now.

    2. Re:Of Course.. by sylvainsf · · Score: 1

      That's assuming they know where intel is going to be in 18 months.. My comment was mainly to show the absurdity of playing catchup as a plan. They need to differentiate their product, not catch up with the same specs.

    3. Re:Of Course.. by Prof.Phreak · · Score: 1

      Intel will be holding still for 18 months while AMD catches up.

      Considering how they've sat still during the Pentium4 years... I wouldn't be surprised.

      --

      "If anything can go wrong, it will." - Murphy

  10. not to mention... by TheSHAD0W · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That if you actually use it as a laptop, you won't have a problem with it burning your, er, "parts".

  11. Great! by corychristison · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I've been in the market for upgrading my system. Currently, I've been running an AMD XP 2500+ [Barton Core], 1GB generic DDR Memory, Seagate 120GB hard drive and a random AGP 8X video card I found laying around [literally].

    This is great news for me. I knew that if I had waited long enough that something nice would come from AMD. I've been waiting for something I can keep turned on all day without draining my pocket too much. I will definitely purchase an X2 65mn processor. I'm not one for paying enormous amounts of cash for a "high end" machine. I just want something newer than what I have. I'll probably give this machine to my youngest brother for something to learn on. He has a system, but is a really old Celeron. Older than this machine.

    Also, hopefully this will launch off some nice new Laptops and HTPC machines. I'm currently looking at a Westinghouse LVM-37w3 and a nice cool HTPC to drive it would be a dream. :-)

    1. Re:Great! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      This is Slashdot, not Santa Claus. Please stay on topic.

    2. Re:Great! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > I've been in the market for upgrading my system. Currently,
      > I've been running an AMD XP 2500+ [Barton Core], 1GB generic
      > DDR Memory, Seagate 120GB hard drive and a random AGP 8X video
      > card I found laying around [literally].

      You found a video card laying around? Wow. Normally, the Ethernet cards are the promiscuous ones. :)

    3. Re:Great! by Pojut · · Score: 1

      ::tries to remember what a one of the drawers in his workstation looks like:: Let's see...got a GeForce MX440, a Voodoo 5500, a Monster 3D(!), a Canopus Pure3D(!!!), an ATI 9800 PRO, and a BFG 6800.

      Anyone care to donate a couple mobos? We could have a killer Warcaft II LanParty (the 9800 and 6800 could EASILY do WarIII...the others? Most likely not...)

  12. nanometers != knots by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    parent AC is knot funny

    1. Re:nanometers != knots by Gilmoure · · Score: 1

      Wood you stop needling him?

      --
      I drank what? -- Socrates
  13. We'll see when it's out. by geekoid · · Score: 1

    until then we get to read about AMD fanboys talking about how much better this is then Intels current line up. Completly ignoring that fact that Intel has plans for the next 18 months as well.

    Wait and see what happens, in the mean time buy the chip that you need now.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    1. Re:We'll see when it's out. by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

      "Catch up" means "We're moving faster than them, we've accelerated our research, we should have an intersection point in this timeframe."

    2. Re:We'll see when it's out. by WuphonsReach · · Score: 1

      until then we get to read about AMD fanboys talking about how much better this is then Intels current line up. Completly ignoring that fact that Intel has plans for the next 18 months as well.

      As long as the two of them remain mostly neck-n-neck (as they are right now if you ignore the extreme ends of the product lineups), I'm happy.

      Competition is good.

      Cheaper multi-core for everyone!

      --
      Wolde you bothe eate your cake, and have your cake?
    3. Re:We'll see when it's out. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Intel and AMD were equal (8088, 8086, 80286)
      then Intel was ahead of AMD (80386 vs legal tie ups)
      then AMD was ahead of Intel (Am386 vs i386, Am486 vs i486)
      then Intel was ahead of AMD (Pentium vs K5, Pentium Pro/P2 vs K6/K6-2/K6-3)
      then AMD was ahead of Intel (Athlon/Athlon XP vs Pentium 3/Pentium 4, Opteron vs Itanium/Xeon)
      now Intel is ahead of AMD

      See a trend?

    4. Re:We'll see when it's out. by Prof.Phreak · · Score: 1

      Intel has plans for the next 18 months as well.

      One would've thought the same right after they released Pentium IV.

      --

      "If anything can go wrong, it will." - Murphy

  14. Depends on the Architecture by segedunum · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Intel have stolen a march at the moment, basically because they had to, but because they've seen huge improvements by revamping their architecture and going to 65 nm. AMD have been behind in going down to 65 nm (it takes a lot of effort to get the processes in place), but I was always intrigued as to what would happen if they took their existing Athlon 64 architecture, improved it and ran it through a 65 nm process. I guess we'll find out, but I'd expect Core Duo's apparent lead to be pretty short lived. There's nothing inherently brilliant in their architecture, other than them stealing a march on AMD in terms of 65 nm and adding cores like there's no tomorrow, that suggests they're going to have a lead anything like AMD had with the Athlon and Opteron over the ill-fated Pentiums. Cores is the new gigahertz.

    AMD still leads Intel by a country mile on budget processors as well. I've heard a lot of price/performance arguments from the Intel camp, but it's just crap basically. The fact is that AMD still produces the most unbelievably cheap processors around, and they're not exactly miles behind the expensive stuff either. Processors like the Sempron have done an awful lot to give people budget, but fast systems.

    Quite frankly, on a level playing field I think we're going to find out that Intel's Cores are not quite as good as a lot of people have been raving. AMD's architectures are just a whole lot better.

    1. Re:Depends on the Architecture by geekoid · · Score: 1

      AMD fanboi much?

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    2. Re:Depends on the Architecture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Quite frankly, on a level playing field I think we're going to find out that Intel's Cores are not quite as good as a lot of people have been raving. AMD's architectures are just a whole lot better.

      Fanboy. DIAF.

    3. Re:Depends on the Architecture by segedunum · · Score: 0

      Alas I have something to back that up. Pentium and Xeon versus Athlon and Opteron. All Intel have done is made the chips smaller and added cores, which is their new selling point.

      Nuff said.

    4. Re:Depends on the Architecture by Tumbleweed · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Quite frankly, on a level playing field I think we're going to find out that Intel's Cores are not quite as good as a lot of people have been raving. AMD's architectures are just a whole lot better.

      You know, that's what a lot of people said before the Core Duo came out, and they were proven quite wrong. I was as surprised as anyone, but I learned the lesson: wait for the actual chips to be tested.

      Once Intel puts the memory controller on-die like AMD has, it's going to *really* hurt AMD. HyperTransport doesn't seem to have any advantage at all on the desktop, so AMD's only real tech advantage right now is that on-die mem controller. Perhaps once we all have 8+ core chips on our desktops, you might see some HT advantages, but I believe I read somewhere that Intel has plans for on-die memory controllers and an answer to HT in the wings for 2008, though obviously that's just rumour at this point.

    5. Re:Depends on the Architecture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "nothing inherently brilliant in their architecture" eh?

      here's an activity for you. get an athlon64 x2 and a core 2 duo, run them at the same mhz speed with the same ddr2 speed/timings, and compare how much faster the core2duo is clock for clock.

      it's faster. it does more work per mhz. it's more efficient.

      this has nothing to do with 90nm or 65nm. amd isn't changing anything about their cpus, they're just shrinking them. that means less heat, possibly more mhz, but it won't change the fact that intel does more per mhz than amd.

      so we have 2 facts - intels do more work per mhz, and run at higher mhz than amd to boot! it won't be until amd's k8l is released that they'll actually improve their core architecture and be on semi-equal footing with intel again.

    6. Re:Depends on the Architecture by Dr+Kool,+PhD · · Score: 1

      Fanboi alert. Have you checked Pricewatch in the past six months? Intel is kicking AMD's ass in price, performance, and price/performance at almost every price level.

    7. Re:Depends on the Architecture by MSFanBoi2 · · Score: 1

      Um, no, you really need to check your facts. You are quite simply misinformed.

    8. Re:Depends on the Architecture by fitten · · Score: 3, Interesting
      but I'd expect Core Duo's apparent lead to be pretty short lived. There's nothing inherently brilliant in their architecture, other than them stealing a march on AMD in terms of 65 nm and adding cores like there's no tomorrow


      Obviously you haven't read anything about Core2. Core2 is, on average, 20% faster at the same clockspeed as AMD's Athlon64. If you liked the fact that AMD's Athlon64 was comparable to the Pentium4 at 2/3 the clock speed, then you simply must like Core2's being faster at ~80% of the clock speed of the Athlon64... while still being on the obsolete, much maligned FSB architecture that AMD spends so much time and money poo-pooing over their obviously-so-much-better IMC+HT technology.

      AMD still leads Intel by a country mile on budget processors as well.


      Well... when you can't lead in performance, you try to lead somewhere else. Yes, the launch of Core2 parts drove AMD to cut the prices of their processors by 50% or more in order to stay competitive. Had they not done that, they would be selling nothing right now because even a fanboi couldn't justify buying AMD at the complete destruction that equal priced CPUs from AMD would get compared to the Intel parts. So, AMD dropped back to attempt to remain king of the bargain market until they could release something that would put them back into the performance game, which Intel currently owns (not counting the obviously boutique, one-off 4x4 deadend attempt to save face that AMD marketing released).

      I have three Athlon XP and four Athlon64 machines at home (and no Intel other than two laptops). This migration of socket requiring a new CPU and all has bitten me already. My S939 parts barely lived a year (two years given the entire lifetime) and already AMD is requiring me to buy a new motherboard *and* CPU if I wish to upgrade because they're already killing off S939. Many of the already existing S775 boards for Intel will upgrade the CPU to Core2 (perhaps with a BIOS flash). It makes me kind of wonder how long Socket AM2 is going to last given that they're already talking about S1207 and some future move to DDR3 (yet another socket change?) Currently, for me to upgrade my AMD machines, I have to buy a CPU + motherboard because even the S939 X2s are EOL'd. I've thought about buying some upgrade AMD CPUs but I'm not going to do it. Core2 offers too much performance increase with the promise of socket compatible quad core very (very) soon. I believe AMD is requiring S1207 for quad core, so if you bought AM2, you're already EOL'd because of the change for DDR3 and quad core. AM2 was dead before it was released, it seems.
    9. Re:Depends on the Architecture by karnal · · Score: 1

      Amen.

      I've purchased AMDs ever since I got rid of a Pentium 133 (aside from "donated" machines). But over my Thanksgiving break (took some vaca) I put together a Core2Duo; upgrading from an Athlon XP 2800+/Geforce 6600gt.

      I put together 3 lists of items. A single core AMD 4000+ s939, a dual core 4800+ AM2 and an Intel e6600. Single core price was 1000$; both duals were just under 1300$ (with GeForce7950gtko)

      I went with the Intel. From what I can tell, it's been a good buy; however, I'm kind of kicking myself for not buying a Raptor to go with it - I can tell that disk access is a majority of what holds back anything on this system... and upgrading the 2800+ just didn't make sense...

      --
      Karnal
    10. Re:Depends on the Architecture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      troll?

      either way, amd can't match intel's core 2 architecture (be it desktop or server versions) for any benchmark, and won't be able to until the k8l comes out. and even that's not for sure, no one's seen benchmarks of it.

      intel chips are running cooler and faster than amd's. desktop and server. it's just a fact of life right now.

    11. Re:Depends on the Architecture by Tmack · · Score: 1

      "nothing inherently brilliant in their architecture" eh?

      here's an activity for you. get an athlon64 x2 and a core 2 duo, run them at the same mhz speed with the same ddr2 speed/timings, and compare how much faster the core2duo is clock for clock.

      it's faster. it does more work per mhz. it's more efficient.

      this has nothing to do with 90nm or 65nm. amd isn't changing anything about their cpus, they're just shrinking them. ......

      Trollish, fanboish, but Ill bite anyway. DUH! AMD is slower MHz to MHz, they dont claim otherwise! Thats why they went to CPU ratings as opposed to raw MHz on their model names. They did that years ago. Get over it. AMD's architecture allows them to run on much less power (thus cooler) than the equivalent Intel. They might not always have THE FASTEST CPU EVAR!! but neither does Intel, the lead swaps back and forth. As for "just shrinking them", isnt that all that intel is doing too? Oh yeh, they are also cramming another peice of silicon into the same package to add cores... AMD is putting all the cores on the same piece. They also have the memory controller on board, something that Intel is probably working towards since it dramatically increases memory bandwidth to the CPU. Evaluate the CPUs based on how they perform for your specific needs at the prices you can get them for, and you end up with "The Best CPU" for you. Thats what I do, and sometimes Intel wins, sometime AMD does. I currently run an older P4 as my desktop, and a dual AMD MX as a workstation, and a few multi-cpu/core Opteron based SUN servers.

      blah

      tm

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    12. Re:Depends on the Architecture by tomstdenis · · Score: 1

      Obviously you haven't read anything about Core2. Core2 is, on average, 20% faster at the same clockspeed as AMD's Athlon64.

      No it isn't. consider this....

      The Core 2 Duo has caught up, and in certain applications beat the AMD64 design, but in terms of IPC it's not really better. Where the C2D shines is power efficiency. My E6600 (2.4GHz) is running happily at 3.42GHz without overvolting or other fooling around. At this speeds I can compile, and run any crypto test I throw at it through my daily chores faster than any AMDX2 on the market. For a hell of a lot less than what the AMDFX series cost.

      I imagine the AMD 65nm part is suitable for overclocking and in 2007 we'll see 3+GHz high IPC parts be standard in retail.

      Tom

      --
      Someday, I'll have a real sig.
    13. Re:Depends on the Architecture by LehiNephi · · Score: 1

      One minor correction--the memory controller does not increase memory bandwidth per se, but it does significantly reduce latency, as well as the complexity and power consumption of the Northbridge.

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    14. Re:Depends on the Architecture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and the outcome with a better compiler, i.e. msvc or intel?

      or any kind of vector optimizations? ....

      it's amazing that your benchmark is the only one i've been able to find that shows an amd advantage clock for clock. and i've looked.

    15. Re:Depends on the Architecture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      er..

      fact: intel runs faster than amd, mhz for mhz
      fact: intel runs cooler than amd, mhz for mhz
      fact: you haven't been keeping up with your cpu architectures

      amd went to cpu ratings instead of mhz because they were FASTER than intel at that point. their 1.6ghz cpus were beating intel's 2.4ghz cpus and it was hurting them in the world of dimwitted consumers.

      intel is not 'just shrinking them', if you looked up what they changed about the core2duo cpu architecture itself (doubled sse/sse2/sse3 throughput, doubled cache bandwidth, more instruction decoders, improved op fusion, etc.) it was a major overhaul.

      i was responding to the parent's misinformation about intel doing 'dumb shrinks' and amd having the better architecture, which right now is completely and utterly untrue. the improvements amd is incorporating into their upcoming native-quad-core k8l chip are the same ones intel made earlier to their core2duo - sse throughput, cache access width, out-of-order load/store ops, etc.. intel got there first, amd is playing catch up, and i'm sick of misinformation being pushed around.

      when k8l comes out, if the benchmarks show it beating intel and intel fanboys start griping and whining that amd copied them or whatever other nonsense they come up with, i'll point out the facts to them as well - amd has (may have) the better product, so suck it up.

    16. Re:Depends on the Architecture by Pulzar · · Score: 3, Informative
      Many of the already existing S775 boards for Intel will upgrade the CPU to Core2 (perhaps with a BIOS flash).


      That's actually not true... As Intel introduced new CPUs going into the 775 socket, they started using more and more of the pins that were originally "reserved" -- so, in order to support a new CPU, certain additional pins would have to be tied high, low, to calibration resistors, etc. What that means is that while *older* 775 CPUs will run fine on new motherboards, the new 775 CPUs will not run on old motherboards, even with a BIOS flash.

      For example, my 775 board running a P4 3GHz will only take P4s up to 3.4GHz or so, since the faster ones were new 65nm cores with slight pin changes. Pentium D, and newer Cores are also in the excluded category..
      --
      Never underestimate the bandwidth of a 747 filled with CD-ROMs.
    17. Re:Depends on the Architecture by thePowerOfGrayskull · · Score: 1

      While it would be nice to think this is correct, the fact is after looking over a period of weeks, I can't find /any/ benchmarks other than yours that support this claim. (Yes, before some ninny points out the obvious, I'd been researching before you posted this, in preparation for a new laptop purchase -- otherwise it couldn't have been weeks.)

    18. Re:Depends on the Architecture by Chris+Burke · · Score: 1

      This migration of socket requiring a new CPU and all has bitten me already. My S939 parts barely lived a year (two years given the entire lifetime) and already AMD is requiring me to buy a new motherboard *and* CPU if I wish to upgrade because they're already killing off S939.

      Which is funny, because for years this was a commonly cited problem with Intel's platform, while AMD's Socket A was long-lived and stable. One would expect a company to copy their competitor's successes, but to copy their mistakes? I'd wager that this is a temporary glitch in AMD's roadmap and that they are going to try to re-stabilize. I bet they were just flummoxed trying to work out their socket strategy in the face of having to address several markets they weren't serious competitors in prior to K8 and of having to deal with their changing memory interface needs -- Socket 939, for example, only existed because they realized they wanted dual-channel memory in the client space, but the 940-pin Opteron package wouldn't support unbuffered DIMMs. Oops! So 939 was a hack, and I'm not surprised it's short lived, though certainly it sucks for those hoping to upgrade -- a.k.a. the do-it-yourself hobbyists that have been AMD's main supporters since K7. Double oops!

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    19. Re:Depends on the Architecture by tomstdenis · · Score: 1

      It's amazing that you think most benchmarks aren't skewed by corporate greed or rampant fanboy loyalty.

      Also vector optimizations are not well suited to most crypto tasks. Raw ALU power is which is why there is a huge diff from the Pentium 4 to any of the other chips.

      If you're really that naive, get yourself an AM2 and C2D setup and time shit yourself.

      Tom

      --
      Someday, I'll have a real sig.
    20. Re:Depends on the Architecture by tomstdenis · · Score: 1

      I own all of those boxes. [well the E6300 is an E6600 now].

      The Core 2 Duo *is* a nice chip, but in terms of raw ALU performance it's no better than an Opteron (hint: it's a similar 3-pipe ALU). The FPU is a bit faster because it's natively 128-bit, but that's about it. The extra cache mostly makes up for the lack of a memory controller.

      Where the C2D *does* shine is power consumption. Compared to the 90nm parts from AMD the C2D parts are much cooler, take less power, and are way easier to overclock.

      Most benchmarks today are fabrications designed to peddle people over to highly advertised ladden web pages. I seriously doubt if more than half of all published benchmarks ever took place.

      Tom

      --
      Someday, I'll have a real sig.
    21. Re:Depends on the Architecture by Tmack · · Score: 1

      One minor correction--the memory controller does not increase memory bandwidth per se, but it does significantly reduce latency, as well as the complexity and power consumption of the Northbridge.

      To expand... when speaking of single cpu, yeh, it doesnt make much difference (even with multiple cores) since there is still only one controller, but when looking at multiple CPU's on the same board, you effectively have now 4 memory controllers, giving each CPU full bandwidth to the ram, while a multi-cpu Intel system has to share the same bus/controller. When comparing something like a Dell Xeon quad to a Sun quad Opteron (with dual-core option on each cpu) this becomes a rather important feature, specially when looking for a good database server (and damn are these SUNs fast!).

      tm

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    22. Re:Depends on the Architecture by thePowerOfGrayskull · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately, since my best box is an X2 4800, I can't answer any of that directly. All I (and most people) have to go by are the various published benchmarks. And unfortunately, stating that they're fabrications doesn't prove the fact. I would be interested in seeing something that supports that.

    23. Re:Depends on the Architecture by tomstdenis · · Score: 1

      Support? Sure => http://libtomcrypt.com/ltc113.html

      Oh wait... you saw that already ... hmmm ...

      Look sparkles!!! Believe what you want. Just keep in mind the "diversity" of tests they run, like "Content Creation" and "Multimedia" and ...

      It's been QUITE a while since the last benchmark included things like thread creation, compile times, crypto operations, etc.... I wonder why that is ... Also keep in mind the scale. Often you'll see huge differences in the bars and it could amounts to a 1% difference in performance (which any stats class would tell you could be lost in the noise).

      I'm not saying all benchmarks are shite, just that most aren't very thorough or scientific. They just run [or claim to] a suite of boxed tests and post the results. They don't actually crack out the standard deviation and other stats to tell you what the results actually mean.

      And if you're "best box" is an X2 4800+ then shut your gob, that's a decent processor. What are you doing where you're really hurting for more performance anyways?

      Tom

      --
      Someday, I'll have a real sig.
    24. Re:Depends on the Architecture by thePowerOfGrayskull · · Score: 1

      It's been QUITE a while since the last benchmark included things like thread creation, compile times, crypto operations, etc.... I wonder why that is .. True enough; but wouldn't there be possible legal issues in deliberately misrepresenting a product while posing as a 'neutral' party?

      Often you'll see huge differences in the bars and it could amounts to a 1% difference in performance Also true, I've found that the pictures are pretty but the numbers tell a lot more.
      And if you're "best box" is an X2 4800+ then shut your gob, that's a decent processor. What are you doing where you're really hurting for more performance anyways?
      Software development, and NWN2 building and development. I've actually no complaints about the desktop, I'm just shopping around for a new laptop that can handle the work (and the 3d load that NWN2 puts on it), so that I'm not glued to my office all night. I have a two year old AMD64-3700 that literally won't even run the game or tools (admittedly a function of the video card, and not the processor); but I'm frequently running enough CPU-intensive tasks -- and waiting for a sluggish computer -- to justify a dual-core to myself.
    25. Re:Depends on the Architecture by sweetpapa · · Score: 1

      I wish S939 had a longer lifespan but hey, AMD engineered the Athlon64 well enough that at least I was able to upgrade my Athlon64 3800+ to a X2 4800+ by just replacing the chip. I'd say AMD's platforms are twice as long lived as Intel's. AM2 platforms are supposed to be able to accept AM2 and AM3 CPUs. That's good platform longevity!!

    26. Re:Depends on the Architecture by AcidPenguin9873 · · Score: 4, Interesting
      I'm not going to be stupid and claim that all of Intel's performance gains in C2D come from this, but consider:
      1. Intel puts twice as much L2 cache on their dies as does AMD for their high-end parts. The high-end Intel part has 4MB, the high-end AMD part as 1MB per core for a total of 2M.
      2. Intel's L2 cache architecture is "shared", meaning that when you're running a single-thread benchmark, the single core on which the benchmark is running basically has access to the entire 4M L2. This is significant because it now means the single core running on an Intel part has 4M of L2, whereas on AMD it has 1M. This is quite a nice feature for Intel's single-thread performance.
      3. In 32-bit x86 mode, there are 8 general purpose registers (GPRs). That means spill/fill code (which certainly hits in L2 and almost certainly hits in L1) is a lot more common. In other words, memory ops are more common. Intel, with the C2D, introduced a more aggressive out-of-order memory architecture, basically allowing any memory op, even with an unresolved address, to execute out of order, fixing it up later if there was a problem. This really, really helps with memory ops, especially the common spill/fill ones going to the (cached) stack. In 64-bit AMD64/EM64T code, there are more GPRs for the compiler to play with, so you have less spill/fill code and fewer memory ops, which mitigates C2D's advantage here. That's one of my theories on why 64-bit performance of AMD vs. Intel chips is closer (the other, which isn't a theory, is Intel's lack of a 64-bit-capable IOMMU, causing the OS to use bounce buffers for DMA to high-addressed main memory).
      What I'm basically saying here is, C2D's larger cache and more-aggressive load/store architecture are really helping it for certain apps. My guess is that the libtomcrypt benchmarks are run in 64-bit mode (mitigating Intel advantage point #3 above) and either a) fit entirely in the L1 or L2 of both processors, nullifying any cache advantage C2D has, or b) fit in *neither* of the L2 caches, and is significantly larger than 4MB, which lets AMD's faster on-die memory controller make up for its lack of L2.
    27. Re:Depends on the Architecture by uiucryan · · Score: 1

      Socket 939 is not totally dead. Check out the 939 based opteron x2's. The you can get a new opteron 165 x2 for about $150 and it screams after a little overclocking. I just picked one up from newegg and could not be happier.

    28. Re:Depends on the Architecture by evilviper · · Score: 1
      Core2 is, on average, 20% faster at the same clockspeed as AMD's Athlon64.

      Only if you cripple the AMD chip, and run it in 32-bit mode. In 64-bit mode, it performs FAR better.
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    29. Re:Depends on the Architecture by segedunum · · Score: 1

      When Intel can sell me a Core chip for the price of a Sempron, give me a call.

    30. Re:Depends on the Architecture by archen · · Score: 1

      You're upgrade ability will depend on what you want to upgrade. AM3 will use DDR3 RAM so current AM2 processors will not work in this socket (which is pin compatible if I recall correctly). You will however be able to plug AM3 processors into an AM2 board. The processor memory controller works with both DDR2 and DDR3.

    31. Re:Depends on the Architecture by segedunum · · Score: 1

      intel chips are running cooler and faster than amd's. desktop and server.

      Better performance? By a lot of benchmarks yes, but it's not as big a gap as a lot of people want to make out. Cooler? No evidence for that whatsoever, unless you read Intel's marketing literature. Their Pentiums alone took down the National Grid.

    32. Re:Depends on the Architecture by segedunum · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Once Intel puts the memory controller on-die like AMD has, it's going to *really* hurt AMD.

      Like I said. AMD has a better architecture.

      Perhaps once we all have 8+ core chips on our desktops, you might see some HT advantages, but I believe I read somewhere that Intel has plans for on-die memory controllers and an answer to HT

      Like I said. Better architecture. HT works much better as memory sizes grow, and guess which way memory sizes are going?

    33. Re:Depends on the Architecture by segedunum · · Score: 1

      fact: intel runs faster than amd, mhz for mhz

      Many benchmarks show just how Intel have improved in terms of performance, and have a slight lead in what those benchmarks show. However, Intel still has no memory controller on the die. They still have nothing to rival HT. But megahertz for megahertz. Sorry, no facts there.

      fact: intel runs cooler than amd, mhz for mhz

      No evidence for that either, unless you read Intel's marketing literature. The fact is, considering that Intel had such a poor reputation for this (deserved) they had to make it look good.

    34. Re:Depends on the Architecture by Tumbleweed · · Score: 1

      AMD has a better architecture for somethings, less so for others, and for right now, and for probably the next 12-24 months, Intel has better performance (on the desktop). AMD's architectural superiority will go away once Intel gets an on-die memory controller and something to compete with HT - which is very conveniently timed by Intel to be around the time that advantage would actually come into play (on the desktop). For now, AMD may have architectural supriority, but it lacks the actual real-world performance advantage (in a big way). AMD is going to have to do a hell of a lot more than just a die-shrink to surpass Intel again, and Intel isn't sitting still. By the time AMD's 65nm process is mature, Intel will start to churn out 45nm chips, so it'll start all over again, and by then, Intel will be looking at on-die memory controller and their own HT tech. AMD is going to have to some up with something HUGE, and K8L ain't it.

    35. Re:Depends on the Architecture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "But megahertz for megahertz. Sorry, no facts there."

      No facts where? you mean here: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx? i=2802&p=4

      Heck, just look at the difference between an Intel E6600 and an AMD X2 4600+ They have the EXACT SAME CLOCKSPEED (2.40GHZ), and the E6600 utterly decimates the latter.

      "intel runs cooler than amd, mhz for mhz -No evidence for that either"

      Where exactly are you looking for your evidence? AMD fanboy message boards? How about trying *any* of the major tech review sites for once?

      http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/07/14/core2_duo_k nocks_out_athlon_64/page8.html#_versus_amd_athlon_ 64_fx62

      Note the passage: "Of course we took AMD's current processor top model, the Athlon 64 FX-62, and ran the same series of temperature tests. We measured a processor temperature of 64C under high load and 31C for idle operation with Cool & Quiet activated. Both is considerably hotter than with Core 2 Extreme."

    36. Re:Depends on the Architecture by fitten · · Score: 1

      So when AMD was trouncing Intel in 32-bit (and 64-bit) mode, it was AMD's strength... Now it is their weakness? Also, running 64-bit programs doesn't automatically mean massive performance increases... it isn't like it runs 2x as fast because 64 = 32 * 2. For reasons why, there are numerous discussions on the 'net as to why.

    37. Re:Depends on the Architecture by Chris+Burke · · Score: 2, Informative

      Intel puts twice as much L2 cache on their dies as does AMD for their high-end parts. The high-end Intel part has 4MB, the high-end AMD part as 1MB per core for a total of 2M.

      Back when Itanium was sporting both impressive SpecFP scores and also gigantic caches, I wondered what would happen if you put a cache that size on a mainstream x86 part -- specfp is really more about cache size and memory bandwidth than it is about the floating point execution units, so I never bought the specfp rating as being due to an inherent advantage of itanium. Well, now we know.

      While not very exciting architecturally, big caches are certainly a good way to boost performance. Intel gets those huge caches because of two things: First, they have the fab tech and fab capacity to produce gigantic chips with good yield and still make money. Second, Intel has the smallest cache cell size in the industry. So they are uniquely positioned to put big caches on mainstream parts, and they are taking advantage of it.

      Intel, with the C2D, introduced a more aggressive out-of-order memory architecture, basically allowing any memory op, even with an unresolved address, to execute out of order, fixing it up later if there was a problem.

      Slight correction on a very fine post: Memory ops that have their address are allowed to go out-of-order even if there are older ops which do not have their address (meaning in the case of an out of order load and a store without its address a possible forwarding case that will have to be fixed once the store gets its address). It doesn't make any sense to have a memory op go without its address, because you couldn't really do anything with it (without something like an address predictor).

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    38. Re:Depends on the Architecture by Wiz · · Score: 1

      For #3, you are certainly correct about the IOMMU issue. There is a good reason why they suffer more so in 64-bit mode, the Core 2 Duo chips support "macro-op fusion" (I think, something like that anyway!) in 32-bit mode ONLY, so this performance advantage is lost in 64-bit mode which further degrades performance.

    39. Re:Depends on the Architecture by evilviper · · Score: 1
      So when AMD was trouncing Intel in 32-bit (and 64-bit) mode, it was AMD's strength... Now it is their weakness?

      What are you talking about? 32-bit was never faster than 64-bit mode.

      Also, running 64-bit programs doesn't automatically mean massive performance increases...

      There are never any guarantees. However, the VAST MAJORITY of programs benefit, and CPU-intensive applications in particular almost always benefit from it.

      --
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    40. Re:Depends on the Architecture by StikyPad · · Score: 1

      It depends on the chipset. nForce4 boards aren't forward compatible, but AFAIK, all 865 and 875 chipset motherboards will accept a 4 core. I can't get the Asus page to load right now, but I'm pretty sure I remember seeing that all of their Core 2 Duo motherboards will support the Core 2 Quad.

    41. Re:Depends on the Architecture by WuphonsReach · · Score: 1

      S939 was killed because of the shift to DDR2. A downside of having the memory controller on the CPU.

      Pretty sure the next-gen quad-core AMD CPUs will be compatible with the AM2 socket. At least, they've said so as recently as Sep 2006 interviews.

      --
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    42. Re:Depends on the Architecture by fitten · · Score: 1
      Not as much as you may think, and in some cases, it most definitely can be worse, but that depends on the application and how it was written. The easiest case to cite would be the simple case of increased register pressure due to expanded data types. This is where an application was written (let's say in C) where it has a lot of data that is stored in long data types when the dynamic range of the data being stored could be held in 32-bit values (could also use lots of pointers, the same thing happens). Imagine a huge array of these values, exactly large enough to be held in 9/10 of the cache, in 32-bit mode. In 64-bit mode, that array just doubled in size, because a long in 64-bit is 64-bits wide, where it was 32-bits wide when compiled in 32-bit mode. In 32-bit mode, the data can be entirely contained in the cache. In 64-bit mode, the cache will not hold it and you'll be force to do lots of main memory reads. The 32-bit program will be faster because it is cache bound where the 64-bit program would be main memory bound. Granted, this type of behavior is easily avoidable by a programmer who knows the pitfalls and limits the datatypes being used to efficiently contain the dynamic range of the data being stored (efficiency may also take into account any penalties of misaligned reads, not just purely dynamic range, so even though the data is 0-2000, you may want to use a 32-bit integer anyway to prevent misaligned reads/writes). This is nothing new... We were dealing with these things back in the very early 1990s when we got a bunch of SGIs in that had the R4000 processor line in them.

      So...
      What are you talking about? 32-bit was never faster than 64-bit mode.
      is certainly a false statement (not to mention, that I've seen 32-bit faster on the same code and can easily construct samples of (non pathological) code which demonstrate 32-bit compiled x86 code that runs faster than the same code compiled in x86-64 mode.

      I've written (and helped write) and profiled a number of 32-bit/64-bit applications and have compared the performance in each mode. Sometimes it's a win, sometimes it's about equal, sometimes the 32-bit compiled version wins. Most of the time, the benefit is less than 10% except in specific cases where lots of temps are being used, where you can take advantage of the increased number of registers (but that would also help in 32-bit mode if they were available, unfortunately they aren't) or where you're actually using 64-bit integers (remember, the FPU has been 64-bit for a long time already so don't much of a gain there unless you can use the extra registers).

      Writers of applications like Cinebench9.5 have already stated that their gains were as much as being able to "throw away" all the 'compatibility' code (SSE vs FPU and having to support both and such), because x86-64 doesn't support it, so that the x86-64 code is much more clean plus the benefits of using the additional number of registers for calculations. Granted, this *is* an inherent benefit on the x86 systems from moving from x86 to x86-64 but it isn't necessarily a generality that you can extend to all 64-bit environments.

      There are never any guarantees. However, the VAST MAJORITY of programs benefit, and CPU-intensive applications in particular almost always benefit from it.


      OK, you've got me here... a 1% to 10% speed improvement *is* most certainly showing that many programs do benefit from the x86-64 architecture over the x86 architecture.
    43. Re:Depends on the Architecture by fitten · · Score: 1

      Similarly, I found my workload to be dominated by a few intensive applications (some of which I was writing) which made my single-core Athlon64 cry out in pain. I upgraded to an AMD X2 and saw an almost doubling in my productivity in such situations... not that I'm unfamiliar with SMP (and some large SMP machines and how they give benefits)... it's just the first time I've actually decided to buy one for my personal use at home.

    44. Re:Depends on the Architecture by toddestan · · Score: 1

      Well... when you can't lead in performance, you try to lead somewhere else. Yes, the launch of Core2 parts drove AMD to cut the prices of their processors by 50% or more in order to stay competitive. Had they not done that, they would be selling nothing right now because even a fanboi couldn't justify buying AMD at the complete destruction that equal priced CPUs from AMD would get compared to the Intel parts. So, AMD dropped back to attempt to remain king of the bargain market until they could release something that would put them back into the performance game, which Intel currently owns (not counting the obviously boutique, one-off 4x4 deadend attempt to save face that AMD marketing released).

      I don't think that you understand "bargain market". At the moment, Intel is still trying to push Pentium 4's and Prescott based Celerons against AMD's Sempron and Sempron 64. AMD has nothing to worry about here.

  15. but what socket? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Are they going to release this for the 939 socket? There is a huge amount of people out there with these boards, and they are still making CPUs for them even though AM2 is the latest and greatest. I personally am running 939 as long as I can because I can't afford to replace all of my DDR with DDR2.

  16. Nope. by geekoid · · Score: 1

    It will give you every answer possible, except that one your looking for.

    --
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    1. Re:Nope. by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      The only problem is not so much that the negation function is not polynomial time, so much as that the length of input is not bounded.

      :-)

      --

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    2. Re:Nope. by theshowmecanuck · · Score: 1

      And it is a chief component in the Improbability Drive.

      --
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  17. I hereby trade mark the term by p3d0 · · Score: 1

    "nansistor"

    --
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    I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....
  18. Nice chip but... will we get to see the benefit? by theshowmecanuck · · Score: 4, Interesting
    "With the Vista rollout, it's more and more important to multitask and multicore without a super loud box -- that's the end goal," Huynh said.

    Is anyone as tired of software companies eating up the gain in hardware performance as me? And for what? How about someone writing better software, not just new software. I got sick of buying new hardware just to open the same document because the O/S or new Office suite was bloated/full of shit/required way more horsepower just to do the same task. No Vista for me. I'll stay will XP and Linux on my (older) machines. And if MS forces people to go Vista, I'll go Linux or BSD. If I get new hardware, it will be to make these systems faster, not make new software, doing the same job, run the same speed.

    --
    -- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
  19. Not just more cores by brokeninside · · Score: 1

    HT also shines as memory sizes grow larger. One of the problems with the current generation of workstations is that few have enough (and fast enough) memory and memory bandwidth to keep a single core, let alone several, at 100% utilization all of the time. A dual core duo system with four cores, however, would benefit immensely with something like HT and multiple banks of memory.

  20. Diffenciting their products.... by DrYak · · Score: 1
    They need to differentiate their product, not catch up with the same specs.


    Like adding a massive parallel vector coprocessor with the Fusion ?
    up, that'll definitely differenciate them from Intel. And that's also why they need to catch-up with 45nm soon, in order to be able to cram all this on a single die.
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  21. 18 months? by abshnasko · · Score: 3, Funny

    The article says that AMD has a goal of catching up within 18 months to Intel's lead on the way to 45-nm technology. How are they already 18 months behind when they were ahead 4 months ago?
    1. Re:18 months? by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 1

      Intel Leapt Ahead.

      4 months ago the Core2 had not been released.
      Now AMD has to deal with an extremely overclockable Core2 Duo and Core2 Quad.

  22. Great by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 1

    Great. Smaller manufacturing processes are the root of all good. Well, in microchip land, anyway.

    --
    Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
  23. Re:Nice chip but... will we get to see the benefit by Retardican · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It doesn't matter, eventually linux will be the same.

    I have a 500MHz Pentium III laptop I use, which was fine with Windows 2000. After they EOL'ed it, I switched to Linux. I am currently running Xubuntu (Ubuntu with Xfce), but as even Firefox and Thunderbird are getting bloated, it's sluggish. I even maxed out the ram (576MB), which helped a little, but I'm going to have to replace it soon.

    Any suggestions on laptops with decent linux driver support that wouldn't crap out after 3 years? I'm spoiled by these old Thinkpads.

    --
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  24. Errr... by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 1

    FTFA:

    ``AMD's 90-nm/65 watt Athlon 64 X2 chips consumed 47.6 percent the power of a 65-nm Core 2 Duo chip, the company said. A 35-watt X2 consumes 73.3 percent of the power of the same Core 2 Duo.''

    So the 35-Watt X2 consumes 1.53 times as much power as the 65-Watt X2? Something is wrong there...

    --
    Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
    1. Re:Errr... by Brian+Stretch · · Score: 2, Informative

      So the 35-Watt X2 consumes 1.53 times as much power as the 65-Watt X2? Something is wrong there...

      A 65nm 65W X2 idles with lower power consumption than a 90nm 35W X2. At full CPU load the 35W X2 would still have the edge. Since your average desktop PC spends most of its time idling this is not insignificant.

    2. Re:Errr... by tomstdenis · · Score: 1

      AMD ratings are max TDP not average.

      For example, an Opteron 885 idles at 1GHz and consumes ~32W even though it's a 95W part.

      Tom

      --
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    3. Re:Errr... by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 1

      ``A 65nm 65W X2 idles with lower power consumption than a 90nm 35W X2.''

      Why? If they just manufactured the same core on a 65-nm process that they did on a 90-nm process, they would end up with a lower power consumption (at all speeds), right?

      --
      Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
  25. No price difference by All_One_Mind · · Score: 1

    Well the good news is that the 65nm processors will not cost more than their siblings. For example, the Athlon 64 X2 5000+ in both 90nm and 65nm will sell for $301 in quantities of 1000.

    1. Re:No price difference by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's bad news - it means you wont easily be able to confirm which you're getting from some online suppliers.

  26. Re:Nice chip but... will we get to see the benefit by Non-CleverNickName · · Score: 1

    "What Andy [Grove] giveth, Bill [Gates] taketh away."

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  27. About time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's about time AMD is getting down to 65nm. Intel has been on 65nm for a long time now and Intel is almost down to 45nm soon.

    I am very pleased that AMD are touting power efficiency.

    Intel already has a quad-core CPU. AMD don't have any quad-core CPU, they just have dual dual-core systems.

  28. They went to CPU ratings for the opposite reason by brokeninside · · Score: 2, Interesting
    With the Athlon series, AMD went to CPU ratings because, clock for clock, an AMD part was significnatly faster than an Intel part at the same clock speed. They had a hard time getting people to reject the ``megahertz myth'' that a faster clock was always a fast chip. And, in fact, this very myth came back to bite Intel in the ass and is part of the reason (but certainly not the only reason) that Merced died a much deserved death.

    But other than that, I pretty much agree. As has been said for many eyars, brand loyalty is a socially acceptable version of battered spouse syndrome. Products should always be objectively evaluated for suitability to a task. Sometimes one chip is better for a certain task. Sometimes another chip is better. Sometimes the CPU doesn't really matter at all.

  29. Ok look, you can have it one of two ways by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Features or efficiency. That's just how it goes. If you want software that does more nifty shit, you have to be willing to throw more horsepower at it. Lynx uses less memory, disk, etc than Firefox, however you certainly aren't going to see me switching. It's not like there is some magic programmers could use but don't to write fast, feature rich software.

    Now maybe you long for the days of spartan computing, maybe you want to do nothing but scroll text really fast. That's fine, there's stuff out there to accommodate you. However that's not what most of us want. I want a feature rich system, I want my computer to be everything, do everything. Well for that I need hardware, and I'm willing to pay for it.

    It would be like trying to compare frame rates between Ultima 1 and ES4: Oblivion. When you get down to it, Ultima 1 probably has a frame rate as fast or faster than Oblivion. Ultima 1 wouldn't have any trouble running at 30fps or more, even on 286 hardware. Oblivion can run under 30fps, even on an 8800GTX. However you are dealing with a totally different level of graphics. Ultima 1 was made to run in CGA which is 2D, 2-bit (4 colour), 320x200. Oblivion is full 3D with amazingly high geometry, 128-bit FP colour, 2560x1600 with anti-aliasing. Despite the speed being around the same, there is a difference.

    While games are teh most pronounced difference, it's still there with other apps. Comparing Office to an old text mode Wordperfect app is meaningless. Ok, maybe for what you do you don't notice any difference, but many of us do. As a simple example, take a highly accurate, learning, in-line spell checker. I love that feature. Well, guess what? That takes resources. You couldn't do that on a really old computer, it just lacks the resources.

    So if you are happy with what you have now, great, stick with it, but don't get mad that people want to find ways to use the new power. I do not buy a new graphics card to get higher and higher frame rates, 60fps is enough thanks that's all my screen does. I buy it for more an more features, at the same framerate. Likewise with processing in my computer. Everything is plenty fast now, my computer responds near instantaneously for normal tasks. So what I want is for my computer to do more. I want it capable of doing more complex things. In 1996 my computer played little postage-stamp sized videos, and used nearly 100% CPU to do it. Now it plays fullscreen HD videos and uses nearly 100% CPU (well ok, of one of the cores) to do it. I'm not pissed that it hasn't changed, I'm pleased with the increase in quality, the increase in features.

    1. Re:Ok look, you can have it one of two ways by theshowmecanuck · · Score: 1

      I don't see a big difference in usefulness say from office 2000 to Office 2003 or XP or whatever it is now. And when the new edition for Vista comes out, I doubt that I will see any other difference except that I understand it will have a new GUI which will piss me off since I have to learn how to use something that worked fine the way it was before (if it ain't broke for Christ's sake, don't fix it)... except if I want to use it, I'll have to buy a more powerful machine to do the same thing I am doing now. I am not a neo-Luddite. I know that GUI's offer better general productivity than working on the command line which is why for instance in Linux I like KDE (Gnome is fine for those who like it, I don't personally). Command lines are good when needed and I can write a ksh script with the best of them... the right tool for the job etc. But tell me what Vista does that is so much better than XP that it requires such powerful new hardware in order to give it the same general performance and usability as a 2005 box running XP. I mean if games is your thing then fine, I understand better hardware can give a better experience. Except when the software makers insist on doing everything they can to slow down the new equipment. Maybe just the fact that it say Silent Hunter III would no longer take 5 minutes just to start the game would be enjoyable (on an Athlon 2600... not the fastest but not slow either)! :-) That kind of thing. I don't buy games hardly any more because of this kind of shite.

      --
      -- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
    2. Re:Ok look, you can have it one of two ways by danpsmith · · Score: 1
      I want a feature rich system, I want my computer to be everything, do everything. Well for that I need hardware, and I'm willing to pay for it.

      It's understandable that you would want new and better features. But the fact remains that a lot of software companies are somehow purposelessly bloating their code. Microsoft is a fine example of this phenomenon. The parent wasn't making a point about text vs. GUI which is obvious a great software (and therefore requires a great hardware) leap forward. The parent is talking about insignificant or non-existent leaps forward in functionality or features that still require significant hardware upgrades. Abode, IMHO fits into this category as well. It seems that every subsequent version of Photoshop eats your CPU more and more while the functionality remains roughly the same. There have been leaps forward in the software, but in some version numbers there was hardly any difference between versions except pretty much for performance.

      A good example of this is how I can run linux with a full on 3d desktop (XGL) perfectly smoothly, however, if I want to run Windows Vista I'll need a new video card for the same thing. It's bloat for bloat's sake or laziness. Those who believe in conspiracy theories would have a case in saying that it's purposeful for Windows to become more bloated everytime to chew up hardware and keep people upgrading. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't some sort of agreement of this nature between software and hardware makers. A word document shouldn't require a 3ghz dual core processor to open but you know that with MS being the way they are, it will soon become that way.

      --
      Judges and senates have been bought for gold; Esteem and love were never to be sold.
    3. Re:Ok look, you can have it one of two ways by Deliveranc3 · · Score: 1

      Sure there is, better data structures, Gui's that don't use buttons (difficult to implement which is why they are rarely used), less modular code (think less message parsing), better modular code(think reusable data structures or other elements), compiling with better optimizations etc.

      The problem is that these things require something even more valuable then memory, disk space or processing power. Programmer time, time which could be spent wiping out bugs.

  30. Not a contradiction by Lonewolf666 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I take it those 2.8GHz Xeons were based on the old Netburst Architecture (P4).
    AMD did better with the Opteron, but the new Xeon 5100 are Conroe-based.
    Conroe vs. Netburst = massive improvement ;-)

    --
    C - the footgun of programming languages
    1. Re:Not a contradiction by Orestesx · · Score: 1

      Bzzt! Your geek card has been temporarily suspended for improper use of =.

  31. No by homer_ca · · Score: 1

    The good stuff is AM2-only: 65nm and virtualization extensions.

  32. THE FUTURE IS COMPLETELY SOLID STATE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'd rather see less dense microprocessors. The problem is this big chip manufactuerers make these super dense mammoth race car processors, it concentrates heat in one place, requiring a CPU fan, which is a mechanical component that can and will eventually fail.

    I would rather have a motherboard with a CPU design distributed, where the surface area is spread out in such a way, that is completely solid state without any moving parts to fail, namely, a CPU does no require active cooling.

    The future lies in completly 100% solid state devices. What does this philosophy mean?

    No CPU fans, no power supply fans, no harddrives (flash memory instead), no noise, no moving parts whatsoever. Distributed or minimized waste heat.

    Reliability and shock resistance skyrocket. You can seal them inside waterproof and dust proof and fire proof boxes.

    I've implemented these kind of computers, at critical network points, and literally you can plug them in FOR YEARS and forget about them.

    They are absolutely silent. And absolutely low powered. And totally reliable. All of which, is a very beautiful thing from an engineering standpoint.

    These guys need to hire me on their team, because the definition of what is going to be expected in computers is going to radically change in the near future. Computers are going to go under, they are going to become *embedded* in everything with no expectaions of mainenance to them at all and installed in harsh environments. They either work or they fail after decades of use (or preferably, never), and then you replace them.

    Reliability is CORE, and to achieve it, computers are going to have to abandon all cruches and become purely solid state devices entombed in indestructible plastic modules.

    How often have you ever reformated the drive on your wrist watch? Had to reinstall an OS on your cellphone? Had to replace the CPU fan on your calculator?

    I often wondered, why in heck weren't motherboards encased in protective plastic casing, and the same for ISA / PCI / AGP / PCI-x cards. Putting a comptuer together today has become like putting together lego blocks. And each component should be as equally durable and interchangable based on standards as a lego block.

    Einstein
    http://anarchy-tv.com/

    1. Re:THE FUTURE IS COMPLETELY SOLID STATE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think the point with these "race car processors", is that you can drive (haha) them fanless at a lower speed and still get a resonable performance.

    2. Re:THE FUTURE IS COMPLETELY SOLID STATE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would rather have a motherboard with a CPU design distributed, where the surface area is spread out in such a way, that is completely solid state without any moving parts to fail, namely, a CPU does no require active cooling.

      visit reality much?

      whenever there is a need for high performance computing there is a need for high performance cooling and heat transfer. The cost (in latency and dollars) of distributing processing elements throughout a system and packaging them separately is way more than the 2 dollar OEM heat sink and fan option. The future may be solid state, but the largest heat producers today aren't your hard drive, it's the PSU, CPU and GPU. When you invent light based computing that doesn't cause heat, then you can talk about how AMD needs to hire you.

      Why don't you build an X86 compatible system out of discrete components and get back to us about how you showed the world?

    3. Re:THE FUTURE IS COMPLETELY SOLID STATE by brucmack · · Score: 1

      This is really a strategy that has no use for general purpose computing until such a point where speed increases are irrelevant. As it is now, a reasonable upgrade cycle is still 3 years or so, and how many systems fail in that time frame?

      If we get to the point where we have all the power we need for a long period (10 years or so), and sure, making ultra-reliable components becomes an issue.

      And FWIW, I've had to flash my Nokia 9300 three times in a year and a half and I've seen studies that have estimated that about 50% of all cell phones are manufactured with some minor defect that causes problems later on. Wrist watches and calculators, sure, but the cell phone industry is still pretty immature, IMHO.

    4. Re:THE FUTURE IS COMPLETELY SOLID STATE by cthulhu11 · · Score: 1

      "Solid-state" AFAIK was coined decades ago to distinguish spiffy new transistorized products from ones with vacuum tubes, so I think your use of that term here is misleading. I can see the appeal of No-Moving-Parts hardware, but do note that a physically large CPU chip will be expensive because of decreased yield per wafer, and probably slower because of the timing constraints of longer signal paths. I also suspect that unlike the original Mac ("clever venting") a successfully fanless machine could be had by substantially underclocking the CPU and other components, much like a light bulb's lifetime can be extended by driving it with reduced voltage. Flash: number of writes foo. I've yet to be convinced that modern flash has a long enough lifetime for active filesystem use -- maybe it does, but the arguments I've seen don't seem to discuss the interaction of real filesystem behavior with the granularity of flash writes.

    5. Re:THE FUTURE IS COMPLETELY SOLID STATE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Had to reinstall an OS on your cellphone?

      No, but if you run a Windows-based cellphone then you probably wish you could :-p

  33. I am an AMD fanboi, BUT by Pojut · · Score: 1

    I was EXTREMELY pleased and happy when Intel finally took over the CPU market again with the claim of most powerful consumer CPU. AMD had been at the top for a slight bit too long...after all, what good is competition in a free market if one side is ALWAYS better?

    This means AMD is trying even HARDER to make a better chip...it will release, and in a way I am hoping that it STILL isn't better than Intel. Intel continues down it's path and continues to hold the crown for the next couple years.

    Then, AMD reclaims it, pushing innovation and the need to claim to have "the fastest" will be reheated again. And next time, who knows...maybe ANOTHER upstart will come around (although I doubt that) that will challenge BOTH Intel and AMD.

    I am an AMD fanboi. I have bought nothing but AMD CPU's since the days of the K6, regardless of the power of other procs on the market. And yet I am still very happy Intel is holding the crown. Nothing breeds innovation like having the knowledge that the OTHER guy took the number one spot from you.

    1. Re:I am an AMD fanboi, BUT by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 1

      So you reward AMD for mediocrity by buying AMD? Why would you do that to yourself when you can get more performance from Intel? Why the undying loyalty? And how much for you to transfer said loyalty to Apple? :P

    2. Re:I am an AMD fanboi, BUT by tomstdenis · · Score: 1

      Now who is the fanboi... I wouldn't call the AMD chips mediocre. Even if they were [say] 5% slower than Intel, that's still ridiculously fast given that most people rarely stress their processors. I doubt that my parents box ever ramps up from the low 1GHz power setting for instance...

      AMD processors are cheaper, and the integrated memory controller makes motherboards cheaper (my experience has been by ~10-20$).

      Not to mention that the Opterons smoke Intel in HPC applications. FSB == bad.

      Tom

      --
      Someday, I'll have a real sig.
    3. Re:I am an AMD fanboi, BUT by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 1

      Read carefully.

      He said he ALWAYS buys AMD. Always means even when AMD does produce mediocre product.

      I don't impugn their current offerings.

    4. Re:I am an AMD fanboi, BUT by Pojut · · Score: 1

      well, if you really must know...

      EVERY SINGLE Intel chip I have owned has had problems with it within two months of buying it. EVERY SINGLE AMD chip I have bought still functions (including my original K6) That is your answer.

      Is this the same experience as everyone? No of course not. But I buy based on my personal experience. Sorry for being logical.

    5. Re:I am an AMD fanboi, BUT by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 1

      Your response is logical but your original post was not. If you had said, originally, "I always buy AMD because they have been the most reliable CPU for me, regardless of performance," then it would have made perfect sense.

      You reward AMD for reliability, not for performance.

    6. Re:I am an AMD fanboi, BUT by TrancePhreak · · Score: 1

      EVERY SINGLE AMD chip my friends have bought has need to be replaced. EVERY SINGLE INTEL chip me and my friends have bought has lasted more than two generations of chip releases and still function to this day.

      --

      -]Phreak Out[-
  34. (I'm gonna burn in hell for this . . .) by mmell · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    1Q2007 . . . hmmm . . . so it'll run Duke Nukem Forever? Just askin'.

    But imagine the energy savings on a Beowulf cluster of those things!

    1. Re:(I'm gonna burn in hell for this . . .) by Orestesx · · Score: 1

      if (UID>100000) { print "Don't make two slashdot jokes in one post"; } else { print "ahahaha"; }

  35. Smart buyers! by Bob-taro · · Score: 1
    I was recently looking at a Core2Duo review, and noticed something interesting. At each brand's bottom end (E6300 vs. X2 3800), Intel outperformed AMD. The problem in my mind, however, is that Intel's bottom-end starts at a higher price point than AMD's. Very smart marketing move by Intel. However, If you match the processors price-to-price, the E6300 matches up against the X2 4200 (both currently around $180), and there is relatively little performance difference. In other words, the price/performance metric really isn't in anyone's favor.

    That's exactly what you would expect in a demand-driven market: the price is based on actual performance. Maybe buyers really do know what they're doing after all. I guess most chips are bought by either OEMs or computer nerds and neither group is going to be fooled by marketing terms or misleading specs.

    --
    Prov 9:8 Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you; rebuke the wise and they will love you.
  36. AMD resorts to marketing hype by Sebastopol · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I love when AMD has to invent specific test conditions to win via marketing.

    "Testing all day."

    "Typical usage model."

    *yawn*

    Get back to us when you have a better design, and not a better marketing department.

    --
    https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
  37. AMD spin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "But AMD's sales team is also attempting to convince customers that even its older "Rev. F" 65-watt, 90-nm chips actually consume less power than Intel's Core 2 Duo components, with the delta even more magnified when its new 35-watt, 65-nm chips are compared.

    AMD's argument goes like this: modern desktop and notebook processors constantly scale up and down between full speed and an idle state, which AMD has branded "Cool 'n' Quiet". At a given time, pushed to full load by an application, AMD's chips run hotter and consume more power. But across a typical computing day - where a user might check his email or surf the Web - the processor idles more often then not. At idle, AMD's 90-nm Athlon 64 X2 consumes 7.5 watts. Its latest 65-nm chips idle at 3.8 watts. By comparison, the 65-nm Core 2 Duo idles at 14.3 watts. "


    Ok, so AMD's spin is that their old processors take less power so long as you don't use them?


    Not to mention the fact that they don't know the difference between power and energy, this just sounds pathetic.



  38. Re:Nice chip but... will we get to see the benefit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    use opera seriously, it has lower footprint than alternatives.

  39. Re:Nice chip but... will we get to see the benefit by darkwhite · · Score: 1

    T or X series Thinkpads still rock. My T40 is almost 4 years old, has taken a lot of abuse and I have no intention to replace it.

    --

    [an error occurred while processing this directive]
  40. Re:Nice chip but... will we get to see the benefit by gdamore · · Score: 1

    The best example I can think of is (on Solaris, but it applies to Linux and Windows as well) is the web. NCSA Mosaic (yes I used it) was a nice, clean browser, that had very few features. No tabs, no flash, no java, no javascript, etc. It was great at displaying hypertext though, and even supported some simple features like inline graphics and various fonts etc. (And could use helper applications for things like audio, postscript, etc.) Back in 1993 this configuration ran comfortably on a Solaris machine with as little as 16 MB. (On Linux, even as little as 8 MB.)

    Fast forward to today. Now we have tables, flash, java, and that "goodness" (for some value of "goodness"). Oh yeah, and caching, lets add that to boost speed up. And alpha blended PNGs, and ... and... etc. So now firefox typically is consuming ~1GB RAM, and I periodically have to restart it just to convince it to give me back some memory.

    Is this annoying, hell yes!

    Do I want to go back to using NCSA Mosiac? Hell no! (There is Opera, but well, that's another issue ... it crashes fairly consistently for me.)

    A lot of these features add little value beyond aesthetic appeal, but we've become used to them, and frankly, most users are unwilling to go backwards to get them.

    I will remind everyone that FreeDOS 1.0 is available, and you can download older versions of Linux and such, so that you can run your ancient software on the latest platforms, and see it go blazingly fast. But even so, most people won't like the result -- the masses want eye-candy, and ease of use, and .... and all that stuff sucks up machine resources like crazy. :-)

    FWIW, I think some of my "largest" contributions to projects I've worked with have been "negative lines of code". I.e. by simplifying a project or removing redundant/duplicate code, I've probably removed many thousands of lines of code from the operating systems projects I've worked on. But program managers and marketdroids dont' care about that -- they can't sell "runs in 20% less memory than the last version" as easily as they can sell whatever new feature they're hyping.

  41. 'only' 18 months? 65 nm was less! by Anonymous+Freak · · Score: 1

    Intel introduced the Pentium Extreme Edition 955 chip on the 65 nm process in December of 2005, and in a volume processor, the Core Duo, in January 2006. If AMD will have their 65 nm processor in Q1 '07, that puts them 12-15 months behind.

    If they're 18 months behind on 45 nm, then they have a real problem... That actually puts them farther behind Intel than they are now.

    Unless they mean they plan on being at 45 nm within 18 months of TODAY. Which, if Intel's roadmaps holds accurate as well, would have AMD only about 6 months behind Intel.

    Unfortunately for AMD, Intel is not only getting their 45 nm process done, they're also working on their next-generation core, Nehalem. Which means that by the time AMD comes out with 45 nm of their current architecture, Intel might already be onto a more efficient core.

    --
    Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
    The purpose of that site was not known.
  42. Performance per watt by Espectr0 · · Score: 1

    Sure, performance per watt can be better, but i tend to look at absolute values instead when i measure current.

    I have an "old" athlon 64 3400, which handles my current load fine. How much power does it consume at idle and under full load? My guess is that it consumes less than these new chips, or very close. If someone has found out these values, please post them.

  43. Re:Nice chip but... will we get to see the benefit by PitaBred · · Score: 1

    I'm running a 14", Core 2 Duo T7400 with 2GB of RAM, everything (including OpenGL/Beryl and wireless, bluetooth is detected but I haven't tested it) running perfectly and natively under Kubuntu 6.10 on a Compal HGL-30 from powernotebooks.com.

  44. what? no. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    AMD cut prices by an average of 50% on processors using 732/939 sockets in order to push AM2 out the door, not to compete with Intel on ticket price. you seem to know about this push in your second paragraph, but completely ignore it as the cause for the price cut. was it some other-worldly coincidence to you that they happened at the same time?

  45. Re:Nice chip but... will we get to see the benefit by mcrbids · · Score: 1

    I got sick of buying new hardware just to open the same document because the O/S or new Office suite was bloated/full of shit/required way more horsepower just to do the same task. No Vista for me. I'll stay will XP and Linux on my (older) machines. And if MS forces people to go Vista, I'll go Linux or BSD. If I get new hardware, it will be to make these systems faster, not make new software, doing the same job, run the same speed.

    Golly shucks, I sure agree with you! All this newfangled crap is sooooo worthless. Why, my 80486 SX/33 with 8 MB of RAM runs MS Windows 3.11 and WordPerfect just dandy, thank you! I've stayed away from them overpriced Pent - eh, what's that again?

    What is this "Vista" you speak of?

    --
    I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
  46. except...... by Saint+V+Flux · · Score: 0

    AMD had a powerful lead over Intel for several years (from when the 939 Athlon64's came out until the Core 2 Duo's came out). Other than AM2 and going to a 90nm process, AMD hasn't really changed their design in 5 years. Which means that they've probably got something pretty damn good in the works.

  47. I'll still buy AMD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I just like AMD stuff. I've had 4-5 Intel chips that have broken down either from overclocking or general wear-and-tear, but never an AMD.
    Plus the AMD logo is cooler.

    1. Re:I'll still buy AMD by Gilmoure · · Score: 1

      I 'wood'n't know about that. Oops, time to clock out; I have to 'leaves'.

      --
      I drank what? -- Socrates
  48. Re:Nice chip but... will we get to see the benefit by theshowmecanuck · · Score: 1

    Why would you make veiled personal attacks on my intelligence when I make the point that new programs should be coded in a way to not only add benefit, but do it efficiently so as to not require a more powerful system? Or another way, programmers should not always rely on better and faster hardware in order to release new code.

    Or did I miss something? Are you really running Windows 3.1 still? No no, I get it. You were being clever! Now wasn't that cute of you.

    --
    -- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
  49. Re:what? no. by fitten · · Score: 1
    Wierd... AnandTech has reviews of the AM2 in May 23, 2006.
    Same for AMD.

    Meanwhile, a price drop was announced by AMD around July 14 specifically stating the following:

    Sunnyvale (CA) - A spokesperson for AMD confirmed to TG Daily that customers should expect AMD to announce a substantial price drop in its highest performance desktop processors, including Athlon 64 X2. The price drop should be announced at or about the time that Intel announces the release of its next-generation Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme processors - an announcement which is now expected before the end of the month.
  50. Desktop Boards? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Anybody knows if there will be any desktop boards for the TurionX2?

    Couldn't find any Turion X2 boards now, and I would really like a microATX one...

  51. Re:Nice chip but... will we get to see the benefit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the macbook, it's well priced for a core2 system good chassie and linux supports all hardware on it now,
    well the webcam is not perfect yet. ok so it is not a gamer system with the intel gfx card but it has really god open source drivers

  52. Intel will be shipping 45nm when AMD starts 65nm by Glasswire · · Score: 0

    ...and by the time AMD starts 45nm, Intel will be shipping 32nm. AMD isn't going to catch up to Intel, if anything Intel's new 2yr process cycle is going to cement AMD being at least one process gen behind.

    Sorry fanboys, facts are facts.

  53. power consumption by deviceb · · Score: 1

    consumption is a much larger issue this time around for my nue laptop. I just got a new HP Turion X2 that has a battery life of about 2 hours. If i am working, less then a hour. -Not even a full movie i bet..

    My last HP notebook about 7 years ago got about 4.5 or 5 hours even with the modem running~~
    A recent review i read noted the Panasonic Toughbooks being one of the best (i agree, dope machines in deed) They were getting about 4 hours. All the other duel core get approx. 2 hrs or worse. -Now i'm finding myself tethered by a power cord more than a network cable, and that is just fuct./ (!) -very interested in the wireless power info these days.

    also solar/inverter manual crank/peddle/pump push/pop whatever...

    --
    Kill your TV
  54. Re:Nice chip but... will we get to see the benefit by mcrbids · · Score: 1

    My point is this:

    Do you remember when Windows 2000 was "good enough"?

    Do you remember when Windows 95 was "good enough"?

    Do you remember when Windows 3.x was "good enough"?

    Do you remember when DOS 5.0 was "good enough"?

    I remember all of these stages. The point is not that older software is more or less efficient, or that you are mentally deficient. (I don't actually think you are, BTW) The point is that the bar is constantly changing.

    In a year or two, you'll probably be using Windows Vista. Just like you'll probably be driving a different car, and the jacket that you have today that's "good enough" will fall prey to newer stock.

    It IS stupid to declare that the newer thingy represents no improvements - what you are really saying is that "Windows XP meets the bar" without acknowledging that the bar will change. New games come out that require DirectX upgrades. Office documents require newer versions of Office. Browsers come out that no longer work with your "old" Windows XP. Printer drivers come out that no longer support Windows XP.

    Over time, the utility of your O/S becomes mitigated by a thousand minor factors, as it had long ago with Windows 3.11.

    --
    I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
  55. Re:Nice chip but... will we get to see the benefit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Any suggestions on laptops with decent linux driver support that wouldn't crap out after 3 years? I'm spoiled by these old Thinkpads.

    Um, a new Thinkpad? I haven't heard anything negative about the new T60 or the X series machines. Yeah, I'm a little nervous about the Lenovo switch as well. But so far they seem to be catching on to the idea that they need to keep the quality up.

  56. AMD 65nm available now, just not in large qty by Smackintosh · · Score: 1

    AMD is supposed to ship 45nm in 18 months...and if Intel ships 45nm towards end of '07, that leaves AMD roughly 6 months behind. AMD has been used to lagging Intel in process technology, so I don't see how this is anything new.

    It was very interesting that despite Intel moving to 65nm earlier (i.e. Presler, Pentium D), AMD still held the performance crown for quite a while afterwards, despite the fact that it was a 90nm implementation...the K8 design was simply that much better. Now that Intel finally got off their ass, they've got the better design with C2D. Needless to say, '07 will be an interesting year for microprocessors.

  57. Looks like it's the chipsets by MojoStan · · Score: 1
    anandtech's review of the Core 2 Duos indicated that power consumption was really about the same across the board. The AMD EE chips were the least-power hungry, with just about every other chip all in a small span. Methinks someone's test procedures aren't quite accurate
    That's also interesting. Note that Anandtech's review used the ATI RD580 chipset (CrossFire XPress 3200) for the AMD CPUs and the Intel 975X chipset for the Intel CPUs. In contrast, the Tech Report's review used the nForce 590 chipset and Intel 975X.

    A Tech Report article on AM2 chipsets shows that the nForce 590 chipset consumes about 20 watts more than the ATI RD580 (CrossFire XPress 3200) chipset at load. However, the power-hungry nForce 590 chipset has more integrated features: 2 gigabit ethernet chips (RD580 has none), 6 SATA ports (RD580 has 4), and more RAID options. That's probably why most high-end CPU reviews I've seen have used the nForce 590 chipset.

    An Anandtech article shows that the Intel 975X chipset consumes about 3-5 watts more than the more current P965 chipset for certain apps, but unfortunately they don't have "load" comparisons. The P965 chipset lacks SLI support, so that's probably why reviewers are using 975X.

    So a comparison of platforms that "most people buy" should probably use the Intel P965 chipset and the nForce 570 Ultra chipset. It's too bad review sites tend to use the SLI uber-chipsets.

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  58. You're exactly right! by Dr.+Spork · · Score: 1
    You're exactly right about all this. It's not that I have buyer's regret about my E6300, but I would have been almost as happy with an X2 4200, and I surely would have had a better mobo than my terrible MSI P965 Neo-F. As a lifetime AMD buyer I fell for some serious hype and bought into thinking that I'd be dumb to not buy a Core2. It's not that I'm kicking myself, but the grass on Intel's side is not as green as the hype said it was.

    Most disappointing to me is that the heat dissipation of the E6300 really isn't better than AMD, despite the 65nm and the Pentium M heritage. I suspect that this is because SOI prevents a lot of electon leakage. This makes me think AMD's SOI 65nm will be a whole lot more efficient than Intel's non-SOI.

    But for someone who needs a low-end dual-core, the 4200 and the E6300 are about the same on every apples-to-apples comparison, so take a look at motherboards and let that make the decision for you. If you go with Intel, make sure you get a mobo that can overclock. The 6300 can take it.

  59. only 2x256kb L2 cache? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The AMD processor pricing page seems to indicate that these chips have a total of 512kb cache (2x256kb?), whereas the 90nm Athlon X2's have 1024Mb (2x512kb) cache. Is this true?

    I suppose such a move would make sense for reducing power and cost.

  60. how about brand disloyalty? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hmm. Well, boycotting isn't the same as disloyalty, but I sure don't care to support intel's marketing tactics. And, as noted, since AMD compares well at actual price points, both for speed and power, I'm not really taking a hit for the boycott.

  61. Re:Nice chip but... will we get to see the benefit by Zeio · · Score: 1


    All this is a big yawn. Two important metrics: Frame rates and http://www.spec.org/cpu2006/results/ / http://www.spec.org/cpu2000/results/ .

    Also, you want to save big on power, try making mass storage solid state or holographic. Who cares about faster CPUs at the moment when memory needs to get faster and less latent and less reliant on pipelining and more geared towards faster random access and throughput along with faster mass storage without moving parts.

    AMD: Losing in SPEC after having a huge lead and having the superior HyperTransport architecture (direct descendant of the EV7 bus from Alpha's glue-less SMP).

    AMD is now a partner with WildTangent, what a joke. http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35 085

    Also, AMD bought ATI and is seriously de-focused - I'm deeply saddened that Intel wont be getting the same level of competition as before because it seems to me AMD/ATI are not headed in the right direction.

    PS: Ever notice Intel "VIIV" is VI IV or 6 4 in roman numerals? Lol, right.

    I'm no Intel shill, but these new Conroe/Woodcrest CPUs, well, try them out. You'll see.

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  62. Why do you hate the Blue Man Group so much? by brokeninside · · Score: 1

    Nothing Intel does with regards to marketing is different in kind than AMD's approach. They may differ in the extent to which they push a specific strategy, but they both have the same sorts of plans on the table.

  63. It may be wise to withold judgement by brokeninside · · Score: 1

    The history of the general purpose CPU marketplace has shown time and again that sometimes next generation processors aren't all they're made out to be. Itanic, anyone?

    1. Re:It may be wise to withold judgement by dfghjk · · Score: 1

      Itanium was not a "next generation processor", it was a first generation processor of a radical and an entirely new architecture.

      "The history of the general purpose CPU marketplace has shown time and again..."? Name an example of a next generation design taking a step backwards besides NetBurst. Hardly time and again, it's occurred only once and Intel eventually aborted it.

  64. Intel's 8088, 80186, 80486DX2, AMD's K5 by brokeninside · · Score: 1

    Itanic was certainly marketed as a next generation chip. But rather than argue whether it was or not, I'll just point out that aside from the example you yourself listed there are many others as listed in my subject line. Those are the ones I can think off the top of my head.

    1. Re:Intel's 8088, 80186, 80486DX2, AMD's K5 by dfghjk · · Score: 1

      AMD's early designs were not followons to Intel designs.

      All the other examples were, in fact, improvements on previous Intel processors.

      Itanium was never marketed as a future generation of x86. You need to brush up on your history.