AMD Turion 64 Price Cuts

Subject: Processors | October 24, 2005 - 12:08 PM | Jonathan Hung
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DigiTimes is reporting that AMD has cut prices on their Turion 64 processors. Their chart shows the classic "Trickle-Down" effect in pricing with the ML-40 now priced like a ML-37, the ML-37 priced like a ML-32 etc. AMD's Turion 64 laptops are gaining momentum in the market and these price cuts will certainly help.

On the same topic, we have just posted a new review on Compaq's latest Turion 64 laptop.

AMD's new Socket M2 spotted in the wild

Subject: Processors | October 21, 2005 - 01:05 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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[H]ard|OCP has posted 2 pictures of an upcoming AMD Socket M2 processor.  One is of the pinout, and one an actual part of a boot screen.  You know you want to see it!

"Here are two pictures of AMD's working Socket M2 processor. This particular unit is running at

2.4GHz. You will notice the "extra" M2 pin bringing the total pin count up to 940 (from the

current 939).

I'll see your X2 3800+ and raise your FSB by ...

Subject: Processors | October 20, 2005 - 01:24 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Neoseeker pushes an X2 3800+ to the farthest limits they could manage.  Read the article to see what kind of overclocking results they managed to get.

"The 3800x2 overclocked suprisingly well; I am quite certain that I would have been able to push

it further with a better cooling solution - and I may try doing just that in a few weeks.

For the best performance I was able to achieve, I ran the processor at 1.5V, the memory at 2.7V

with 2.5-4-4-8-2T timings.

The Silicon Jungle ... or ... Where's Waldo?

Subject: Processors | October 12, 2005 - 03:57 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Engineers, like most humans, are weird, and they can get bored.  So what do they do when they get bored?  Would you believe they etch micron scale icons and cartoons into processors, and other integrated circuits?  CNet has a story up with Micheal Davidson, who runs a website called the Silicon Jungle, a collection of all the examples he has found.

"Davidson suspected at first that the tiny design he saw

Athlon64 4000+ Overclocking

Subject: Processors | October 4, 2005 - 12:17 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Neoseeker tries out the AMD64 4000+, pairing it with DDR600.  They managed to hit 2.7 GHz from the 2.4 it ships at, and they include hints for reaching it yourself. 

"The 4000+ is a very good overclocker - or at least the part we had a chance to play with. As you can see from our charts the performance is very nice when the processor is overclocked. I ran the processor at 1.5V, the memory at 2.7V with 2.5-4-4-8-2T timings and the HT multiplier at 3x.

The Power Of Two A64 4000+'s In One Chip & More

Subject: Processors | September 22, 2005 - 01:20 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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The Athlon64 X2 4800+ processor that PCStats got to test is based on the 'ACBWE' stepping.  It's dual core, runs at 2.4Ghz, with 128KB of L1 and 1MB of L2 cache.  Both cores share a single 128 bit DDR memory controller and it's defaulted to run at 1.3 V.  Read the full review to see just how much more powerful than the competition AMD's newest offering really is.

"If you want the best processor on the market there is little doubt t

Fred Weber Leaves AMD

Subject: Processors | September 7, 2005 - 07:23 PM | Ryan Shrout
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This is surprisingly big news coming from AMD today.  A press release hit my email box just today that discusses Phil Hester, the new CTO of AMD and mentioned very briefly is the "departing CTO Fred Weber."  Fred being the primary designer of the K8 architecture that has brought AMD such success, I can't help but wonder why AMD would have let him go and how this will affect future products.

Prior to joining AMD, Hester was the founder and CEO of Austin, Texas based Newisys

Dual-Core AMD Opteron(TM) Processors Power New Workstation Series From Fujitsu Siemens Computers

Subject: Processors | August 30, 2005 - 06:52 AM | Joe White
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MUNICH, GERMANY -- August 30, 2005 --AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced that Fujitsu Siemens Computers, a leading European IT provider, is offering a new series of workstations based on the AMD Opteron™ processor. The CELSIUS V830 supports the Dual-Core AMD Opteron processor Models 275, 270 and 265, which offer the best overall performance and performance-per-watt available in the market¹.

AMD64 Technology Garners More Than 120 Industry Awards

Subject: Processors | August 30, 2005 - 06:52 AM | Joe White
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SUNNYVALE, CALIF. -- August 30, 2005 --AMD (AMD: NYSE) today announced the AMD64 platform, the gold standard for 64-bit computing, has earned more than 120 industry awards globally since the launch of the AMD Opteron™ and AMD Athlon™ 64 processors in 2003. Accolades from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the American Business Awards, Network Magazine and Microsoft TechEd top AMD's list of most recent honors.

HyperThreading Goes the Way of the Dodo

Subject: Processors | August 23, 2005 - 06:32 PM | Ryan Shrout
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More info from IDF for you at the Inquirer; it looks like Intel's much touted HyperThreading technology is NOT going to be implemented into their next generation core technology.  What?  You mean HT isn't all it was cracked up to be???

THERE WAS ONE THING that did not make the cut for the Merom cores, and for some reason Intel isn't shouting about it.

More on New Intel Architecture

Subject: Processors | August 23, 2005 - 03:10 PM | Ryan Shrout
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Charlie over at The Inquirer has a bit more information and analysis on the new Intel architecture for you to look over. 

The basic structure is a four issue wide core, without going into specifics, they said the Merom cores can keep up a sustained 4 ops from issue to retire. This probably has a bunch of caveats, addenda and asterisks, but it is clear that wider is the course for the day. Each pipe is a full pipe versus the old P6 derived simple and complex pipe structures.

Intel Reveals Bits of New Architecture

Subject: Processors | August 23, 2005 - 03:00 PM | Ryan Shrout
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Anandtech has some early coverage from IDF that goes over what little Intel has released about their new, upcoming core architecture arriving in late 2006.  So far the highlights include a much shorter pipeline, shared L2 cache between dual cores and a single architecture between mobile, desktop and server platforms.

You can also catch what Scott at Tech Report has seen on this information, here. 

The new architecture will featu

AMD Challenges Intel To A Dual-Core Duel

Subject: Processors | August 23, 2005 - 09:52 AM | Joe White
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Live Shoot-Out to Focus on Server Workloads and Energy Consumption

SUNNYVALE, CA -- August 23, 2005 --In the spirit of fair and open competition, AMD (NYSE:AMD) today issued a challenge to Intel to conduct a head-to-head competition of dual-core x86 server processors.

AMD Turion(TM) 64 Mobile Technology Is A Fierce Contender For Mobile Gaming

Subject: Processors | August 22, 2005 - 08:42 AM | Joe White
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SUNNYVALE, CALIF. -- August 22, 2005 --AMD (NYSE: AMD) today revved up the performance of AMD Turion™ 64 mobile technology with the introduction of two new models, MT-40 and MT-37. These new additions to AMD's popular 64-bit mobile processor family are expected to be available in new ENVY Featherweight and ENVY Middleweight notebook computers from VoodooPC.

Multi-core CPU Development Slows Graphics Field?

Subject: Processors | August 17, 2005 - 04:50 PM | Ryan Shrout
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This article at The Inquirer points to an interview with Chief Scientist at NVIDIA, David Kirk, saying that because game developers will no be spending more time working on utilizing the multiple cores of the CPU, improvements in graphics and the utilization of the GPU will slow down.  Interestingly, this is a very similar statement to what we heard echoed by John Carmack at his recent keynote at this year's Quakecon event.  Citing the use of multiple cores in the consoles a

Asus CT-479 Pentium M Adaptor Review

Subject: Processors | July 26, 2005 - 02:09 PM | Ryan Shrout
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The Tech Report has a review up of the Asus CT-479 device that allows you to use the Pentium M processor on various Pentium 4 socket 478 motherboards.  You can check out my review for comparison too.

Compared to other available Pentium M desktop solutions, the CT-479 is compelling. Currently, the CT-479 is available for approximately $42, and compatible motherboards are available for as little as $80-85.

AMD Passes 11% Server Marketshare

Subject: Processors | July 26, 2005 - 02:01 PM | Ryan Shrout
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AMD hit a big milestone recently according to this News.com article that shows AMD has hit 11.2% of the server marketshare. 

The milestone is important in that server chips sell for more than desktop ones. An increase in sales of Opteron servers also gives AMD an opportunity to sell chips to manufacturers of business desktops and servers. To date, the vast majority of AMD desktop and notebook chips have gone into consumer computers.

Forthcoming Dual-Core Itanium CPU Achieves Fastest Four-Way Floating Point Benchmark

Subject: Processors | July 8, 2005 - 06:41 AM | Joe White
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SANTA CLARA, Calif, July 7, 2005 — Based on internal testing by Intel Corporation, a system based on the forthcoming dual-core Intel® Itanium® processor codenamed 'Montecito' demonstrated a 60 percent performance increase over a previous technical computing benchmark posted by a four-way RISC-based system.