AMD QuadCore K8L "Barcelona" news and editorial

[Sharktooth]

Check it out: http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTE3NCwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

[Sirber]

nice!

will make dual core more affordable :D

[Blue_MiSfit]

Indeed.

Somewhat unrelated, but still about quadcore, the MacPro works with the new quad core intel processors :) AnandTech did an experiment where they dropped in 2 engineering sample quad core xeons and it worked perfectly, Mac OS X reported 8 cores and everything LOL

Still, it's some pretty tricky hardware surgery to access the processors, surely warranty voiding territory.

Sorry for being OT, it's cool though :D :D !!

~MiSfit

[Sharktooth]

another interesting article on K8L: http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/editorial/amd-guiseppe-amato-conf-part1.html

[Sirber]

do they use AM2 socket?

[Sharktooth]

Probably AM3 however it's compatible with AM2.
You can plug an AM3 CPU into an AM2 socket.

[Blue_MiSfit]

How bizarre... Why even call it AM3 then??

[foxyshadis]

Why call it Windows XP? I mean, you can run software made for XP on 2000, after all, even if it's without themes...

The chip just has some kind of compatibility logic for DDR2 signals, maybe it has to slow it down and adjust the timing too, since DDR3 is quad-speed while DDR2 is dual.

[Sharktooth]

The AM3 CPUs will support both DDR2 (AM2) and 3 (AM3).
Since AM2 and AM3 are pin-to-pin identical the CPU can be flawlessly plugged in both sockets.

[UofC]

AMD is being good to it's patrons by not making a new die for every CPU. This tactic will allow people to upgrade without buying a whole new system.

I use quads at work and must admit the technology is not there to support 4 CPUs. Benchmarks look good but in the real world it's like a porsche in a swamp.

[Blue_MiSfit]

Very nice... I have done too many socket upgrades over the past 5 years....

Socket A was with us for so long!! Then I got 754, and now 939. I will have to get all new everything when I get a new system, oh well :)

~MiSfit

[Sharktooth]

Some other news.
Since DDR3 are not quite ready for mass distribution AMD is pulling socket AM3 in favour of AM2+ (same as AM2 with DDR2 support but with enhanced HT 3.0 links up to 4GHz).
The AM3 CPUs will still be compatible with AM2+ and AM2 sockets.
The FX CPUs (for enthusiats) will inherit the Opteron Socket F (1207 pins) and SMP support for the 4x4 platform (dual quad core), while there will be Athlon 64 X4 CPUs for the desktop market.
All the new CPUs will be based on the new K8L "Altair" tech that will get over 40% speed improvment over the actual K8 tech (AMD words, so keep it as a rumor).

[Shinigami-Sama]

now if they were affordable enough for me actualy afford one of those systems when they're realized...

they seem like they're continuing the usual insertion of high effeincy
wonder how they'll stack when all is said and done

[Sharktooth]

Well, on the paper K8L architecture should be pretty fast, faster than actual Core 2 architecture. However only time will tell since this is a transitional phase for AMD. The real "Big Stuff(tm)" will come in 2008 when there will be unified chips with CPU and GPU on the same silicon.
That will be a revolution in everyday computing...
Think a multicore CPU + some dedicated cores for physics and graphics... and they all share data on the same bus and the same cache...

This could be interesting too: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060918-7763.html

[Sharktooth]

"Barcelona" unveiled: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2027634,00.asp

[foxyshadis]

So with these changes, SSE2/3 should perform about as well in comparison to SSE as on Intel chips, whereas up to now SSE and SSE2/3 have been nearly equivalent speed on Althons. Cool.

The other improvements also sound pretty hot, especially unaligned access, which ought to make a few assembly coders very very happy.

[Sharktooth]

Yes, and the good news is the K8L core will be used for both Athlon64 x2 (Antares) and x4 (Altair) as shown in this roadmap: http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=4140