Posted on 02/12/2007 9:21:54 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
The cores inside Barcelona, the quad-core chip coming from Advanced Micro Devices later this year, are going to lead independent lives when it comes to power consumption.
The processor, which AMD will discuss at the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) next week in San Francisco, will sport a new version of AMD's PowerNow technology that will let all four cores simultaneously operate at different speeds, depending on their work loads, to curb power.
If one of the cores is running a 3D simulation, for instance, it can crank past 2GHz, while the other three can slumber at 1GHz. The cores can run at one of four different speeds.
In current AMD dual-core processors, the two cores can run at slower-than-maximum speeds, but they move in tandem. By making the speed of each independent, AMD has cut the average power consumption of Barcelona by about 10 watts, said Brent Kirby, product manager for servers and workstations at the chipmaker.
ISSCC is one of the premier events every year for semiconductor designers and researchers. At this year's conference, IBM plans to describe a Power 6 processor that can exceed 5GHz, while Intel will go into more detail about the 80-core processor it showed off last fall.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.com ...
Just three weeks after its last round of price cuts, AMD is cutting prices once again. Prices on AMD’s high end CPUs saw the most dramatic cuts with the Athlon 64 X2 5400+ dropping almost $220 in price.
The price cuts published on AMD's website today begin with the Athlon 64 X2 5600+, currently the top-end processor in the range, falling in price from US$505 to US$326, while the next highest model, the 5400+ is reduced even further from US$485 to US$267.
Waiting for the Quads here.
From the report:
Additionally, the memory controller and the processor cores can be independently powered up or down. Thus, the memory controller will work at high levels if one core demands it. This safeguards against performance declines, Kirby said.
As a result, Barcelona, although it has twice as many processor cores as current high-end Opterons, can fit into the same servers. Barcelona chips will have a thermal envelope--or maximum power consumption--of 68 watts, 95 watts and 120 watts, depending on the model. (Faster chips consume more power generally.)
Of course the operating systems has to support multiple processors and manage them properly....not possible with basic Windows,,,,need the right Linux kernel...etc...
I love AMD for one reason; it provided the competition necessary to wake up Intel.
From :
Hardware Roundup Also, 38 budget coolers tested
Mammoth CPU comparison guide posted
**************************************************
The Desktop CPU Comparison Guide
******************************************************
There are so many CPU models that it has become quite impossible to keep up with the different models or even remember their specifications!
Therefore, we decided to compile this guide to provide an easy reference for those who are interested in comparing the specifications of the various desktop CPUs in the market, as well as those already obsolescent or obsolete.
Currently covering over 580 desktop CPUs, this comprehensive comparison will allow you to easily compare up to 18 different specifications for each and every CPU!
We hope it will prove to be a useful reference. We will keep this guide updated regularly so do check back for the latest updates!
*******************************************************
Newbie's Guide To Overclocking
Gonna do some reading....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.