Posted on 08/31/2009 11:59:21 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
AMD's 'Bulldozer' core design will incorporate some kind of simultaneous multithreading (SMT) technology, it has emerged. But it's not going to be like Intel's HyperThreading the smaller chip maker has insisted.
This week, AMD showed off its 'Magny Cours' chip architecture, a design that crams in six of the cores found on its 'Istanbul' chips, each with 512KB of their own L2 cache and 6MB of shared L3 cache.
An architecture roadmap revealed at the Hot Chips conference shows the 45nm processor - out next year in its initial form - will soon evolve into a 12-core beast with 12MB of L3. It'll gain a four-channel 1333MHz DDR 3 controller along the way - Istanbul has a two-channel controller the peaks at 1066MHz DDR 2.
It's not clear whether the 12-core Magny Cours will use the Bulldozer core from the word go, or get it in a subsequent revision.
Either way, Bulldozer itself will deliver the ability to handle multiple threads simultaneously, EE Times reports after a chat with Pat Conway, principal member of technical staff at AMD.
He didn't say much more - and AMD has subsequently stated for the record that it has made no formal announcement on adding SMT to Bulldozer - though he did indicate AMD's approach will operate "in a different fashion than HyperThreading".
HT allows a second thread access to core resources that have not been called upon by the first thread. That's not always possible, which is why HT delivers a performance boost generally well below that of adding a further physical core: improvements of 15-30 per cent and up to 80 per cent, respectively.
Intel's approach isn't the only one, and SMT is implemented in a number of different ways in MIPS, IBM Power and Sun Sparc processors. ®
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The Magny-Cours Opterons also make use of a new Socket - G34 (1974 pins).
If I want to play high resolution games on the internet or simulators on my computer at home, which processor is better.
I feel like a 6 year old reading an OSHA manual with this article. The only thing I got that 6M and 12M is really fast.
I believe Intel chips currently hold the perceived price/performance crown. The i7 series chips are extremely powerful and relatively inexepensive.
Until about 2 years ago, AMD chips were the best bang for the buck.
Right now if you want high performance, high-end chips from either Intel or AMD will do you fine, but you’ll want to invest in a powerful video card. nVidia graphics cards incorporate hardware PhysX now, which may allow it to function as a hardware physics engine for certain simulators.
In the end, getting the performance you want out of simulators and games is dependent upon the processor, graphics processor, memory, and disk access speeds of your hardware, and how well they work together.
It’s not as simple as recommending a processor and calling it good. :)
Try compressing a 1080p video file with MPEG 4, you will find that your chip is not that fast.
When you come down from that price level and start looking at the total cost AMD does compete with Intel and I think its a bit better price performer....but I don't need a high priced graphic card....just need the ATI Integrated graphic card and the 785 chipset on some of the newer AMD motherboards....
AMD's Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition
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With the 965 BE, AMD has simplified its product lineup. The 800 series Phenom II X4 is gone, as are the DDR2-only Phenom II X4 940 and 920. Most of the 700 series is also done with. Yields are clearly improving and much of the die harvesting is clearly no longer necessary. AMD ought to get rid of the Xn suffix and just use simple model numbers at this point. For more information on the Phenom II architecture, see our launch article.
The second product launch is rumored to happen next month. It’s the introduction of Intel’s Lynnfield processor. The affordable Nehalem, available in both Core i5 and Core i7 flavors, promises to start at just $199 with motherboards in the low $100s.
I just bought an AMD Phenom II x64 Quad Core running at 3.2 ghz. This chip will easily overclock to 4.0 ghz without resorting to water cooling. At just under $200 I wouldn’t say an equivalent Intel I7 is relatively inexpensive at $570. AMDs ATI graphic cards now out perform nVidia at a lower cost too.
Gawd i’m old, I still remember playing with my trusty Commodore 64, can you imagine, 64k TOTAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And as I think back, we were able to do some pretty amazing things with that little 64k too.....
Extremely powerful, yes. Relatively inexpensive, not always.
Intel owns the high end right now, but where the performance overlaps, AMD is still a better deal.
The AMD Phenom II x4 965 can sometimes match and sometimes outperform a Core i7 920, but it's cheaper and the supporting hardware (mobo, ram) is cheaper.
Slap that baby in with a good HSF, a pair of SLI nVIDIA GTX 275s, and 8-12GBs of DDR3 RAM and you'll have one screaming machine that doesn't completely smash you bank account.
Kolibri - a desktop operating system in under 3 MB (by Jesse Smith)
It's written in assembler.
And depending on the Game...the benchmarks referenced at #10...indicate the AMD 965 can compete.
heh—I was reading the same article. I may fire up a VM to try it out.
I have a fondness for assembler in anything.
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