AMD to Ship Industry’s First Native x86 Quad-Core Processors In August

[Dashken]

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA. — June 29, 2007 — Continuing to lead the shift of mainstream enterprise computing to energy-efficient processors, AMD (NYSE:AMD) announced today that Quad-Core AMD Opteron™ processors, code-named “Barcelona,” are planned for shipment in both standard and low power versions at launch later this summer. This would be the first time AMD has made both standard and low power parts immediately available as part of a new processor launch.

Additionally, AMD today updated its projected timing on “Barcelona” availability and provided additional product details. AMD expects that the processors will begin shipping for revenue in August 2007, with systems from AMD platform partners beginning to ship in September 2007. Due to its enhanced architecture – it is the world’s first x86 CPU to integrate four processing cores on a single die of silicon – Quad-Core AMD Opteron™ processors can deliver significant performance and performance-per-watt enhancements over existing processor architectures yet are designed to be backwards compatible with existing AMD Opteron platforms.

With planned availability at launch in a range of frequencies up to 2.0Ghz, AMD expects its native quad-core processors to scale to higher frequencies in Q407 in both standard and SE (Special Edition) versions.

Designed to operate within the same thermal envelopes as current generation AMD Opteron processors, AMD estimates that the new processors can provide a performance increase up to 70 percent on certain database applications and up to 40 percent on certain floating point applications, with subsequent higher frequency processors expected to significantly add to this performance advantage.

“More than ever before, customers are expecting energy-efficiency and performance-per-watt leadership as much as absolute performance. With this new reality of computing, greater performance at the expense of greater power consumption is no longer an option,” said Randy Allen, corporate vice president, Server and Workstation Division at AMD. “AMD has prioritized production of our low power and standard power products because our customers and ecosystem demand it, and we firmly believe that the
introduction of our native Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor will deliver on the promise of the highest levels of performance-per-watt the industry has ever seen.”

Source: http://www.amd.com

[ZuePhok]

omg, this company is full of it.

[Conquest]

i tot i just read what was dual core all about last nite...

[cookerjc]

this company now having a great loss this half year...

[Chai]

LMAO, I read the AMD fanboys somewhere.

They were saying The AMD's 'true' quad-core will triumph Intel's quad core. But honestly, from what I can tell now, even Intel's 'fake' quad core will most likely be maintaining the lead...

[Adrian Wong]

Well, that's what they told us recently. Will try to post about it tomorrow, but IMHO, no matter how superior AMD's monolithic (true) quad core design is, end-users generally buy according to perception and/or price.

AMD will have to work hard at undoing all the damage Intel's marketing has been wreaking on the public's perception of AMD processors. They also need to be OUT already. It's been forever since they announced it.

[Chai]

Originally Posted by Adrian Wong

Well, that's what they told us recently. Will try to post about it tomorrow, but IMHO, no matter how superior AMD's monolithic (true) quad core design is, end-users generally buy according to perception and/or price.

AMD will have to work hard at undoing all the damage Intel's marketing has been wreaking on the public's perception of AMD processors. They also need to be OUT already. It's been forever since they announced it.

I just can't see how is AMD's quad core going to be faster than Intel using current architecture, maybe in a real multi-threaded application, but how many are they now? And they seem to have problems scaling up the speed.

[ZuePhok]

simulated benchmark!? helllooo??? why don't you simulate a dick instead!? PTUIK!!!

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by Chai

I just can't see how is AMD's quad core going to be faster than Intel using current architecture, maybe in a real multi-threaded application, but how many are they now? And they seem to have problems scaling up the speed.

I can't say for sure, not until I have the opportunity to test them. They do have a totally different cache design for one thing. Instead of having two separate 4MB L2 caches, they will use four separate 512KB L2 caches and a shared 2MB L3 cache.

The new Barcelona also have VT-specific enhancements that they claim are better then Intel. Great for certain workstation and server uses, but I don't think that many people will be into virtualization.

[Chai]

Originally Posted by Adrian Wong

I can't say for sure, not until I have the opportunity to test them. They do have a totally different cache design for one thing. Instead of having two separate 4MB L2 caches, they will use four separate 512KB L2 caches and a shared 2MB L3 cache.

The new Barcelona also have VT-specific enhancements that they claim are better then Intel. Great for certain workstation and server uses, but I don't think that many people will be into virtualization.

AMD is releasing simulated 2.6GHz Barcelona on paper based on 2.33GHz, showing that it's beating it by bla bla %, But as far as I know, Intel has already released 3.0GHz.

I don't know about you, but it looks to me like AMD has a long way to go. Launching with processors "up to 2.0Ghz" ONLY. And they are only releasing it for the servers, not desktop.

Buy Q6600 G0 steppings by end of the month!