Barcelona surrenders to Shanghai: 45nm AMD heart beating 20% faster?

[dattimr]

Too bad. Another discussion ended becuase of fanboy voting. Waaa.

 

[cjl]

Even if this is true, they won't take the lead, though they will finally have a good strong competitor to intel's Q9000 series quads if this is the case. I'd love to see them take the lead as much as anyone, but I don't see it happening with this revision. This could definitely start to close the gap though.

 

[hannibal]

Well the AMD has have been too optimistic sometimes... But, when they have compared to their own older products, the numbers have been in line of their claims. But offcource this is from inquirer, not official...

 

[dirtmountain]

I just hope to see AMD competitive. It does everyone good to have them putting out quality products.

 

[zenmaster]

Even with this advance, AMD is likely to fall even further behind.

The reason is Intel's forthcoming server line will have significantly improved memory performance due to adding the IMC and switching to DDR3.

Intel was way ahead in processing power, but in very memory intense functions such as an ESX Virtual Server, AMD did pull ahead.

However, Intel will likely claim the memory performance lead.
The Improved CPU performance for AMD would only close the gap they had with Intel's previous generation chips, but would still lag perhaps even further behind the upcoming server chips.

Right now, we buy AMD Servers for our VMWare ESX Server farm, but Intel for most other jobs. I suspect that in 3-6 months, we will be all Intel for our servers.

It's nice to see AMD progressing, but instead of getting there in Q1 '09, they needed to be there in Q2/Q3 '06.

 

[NMDante]

Well, actually, it's not from The Inquirer, but from CNET news. Even Daily Tech reported it: http://www.dailytech.com/Shanghai+is+Ready+to+Rock+says+AMD/article13090.htm

Yes, but it's from an interview with an AMD GM.

This could be very good for AMD in the server space, but remember Randy Allen's claims of 40% over Cloverton? Of course, Mr. Plata is comparing with Barcelona, this time around, and not the competition. So, hopefully, it does what is being claimed.

 

[yomamafor1]

Show it, don't tell it.

 

[TechnologyCoordinator]

We can only hope AMD can pull all this off. However, many of us don't put much stock in what AMD says since their last major launch.

If AMD returns to being competitive with Intel consumers stand to win big time.

 

[rockbyter]

Whatever AMD releases, it has to be a quad core that performs better than a Q6600 at 3 GHz for $189 AND put out less heat which shouldn't be hard. Otherwise they are still up **** creek. We won't see any of that from AMD until closer to christmas for desktop parts but at least we get an idea soon.

 

[caamsa]

and that my friends is all I have to say about that.....

 

[BadTrip]

^+1

 

[Wisecracker]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10054038-64.html

As a result, the schedule for Shanghai has been pulled in. "Originally the plan was that Shanghai would launch in Q1 of '09 and we were able to pull that into Q4," according to Patla, adding that the product will not only be announced in the fourth quarter but vendors will be shipping servers in the fourth quarter.

"We're in full production right now in the factory," he said. "People will start getting first silicon from the final production very shortly."

Patla asserted that Shanghai is a "very power efficient product" and will perform much better than Barcelona because the smaller 45-nanometer process yields "a lot more (clock) frequency."

At the same frequency (speed), Shanghai will outperform Barcelona by about 20 percent, Patla said.

AMD is also boosting the size of the cache memory, which typically speeds performance, from 2 megabytes to 6 megabytes. Another speed improvement will come from increasing "instructions per clock," Patla said.

"We're also turning on HT3 (HyperTransport 3) and you'll see partners start to validate that in the Q1 time frame," Patla said. HyperTransport is a high-speed communication link technology between silicon.

Shanghai will be followed by a 45-nanometer desktop processor code-named Deneb, which is due to launch in the fourth quarter of this year or first quarter of 2009, AMD said.

In the fourth quarter of 2009, AMD will add a six-core processor. "We'll take what we've learned from our 45-nanometer process and Shanghai core and bring out an Istanbul six-core product," Patla said. Like Shanghai, this will be targeted at servers with up to eight processor sockets.

Better to hear it from an engineer than the AMD marketing dept (unless the engineer is Casey Jones )

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

Hope somebody gets one and "leaks" its performance

 

[jimmysmitty]

In the fourth quarter of 2009, AMD will add a six-core processor. "We'll take what we've learned from our 45-nanometer process and Shanghai core and bring out an Istanbul six-core product," Patla said. Like Shanghai, this will be targeted at servers with up to eight processor sockets.

This is my favorite part. They have barely had much more than 6 month to tinker with their 45nm process and they think they have learned a lot from it? They haven't had it long enough to have learned a lot from it. That and they have yet to see it in the public hands which is much different from their controled labs.

Well still feels like hype. The few Deneb benchmarks I have seen don't show 20% over Phenom clock per clock. But maybe in server they will be able to increase memory bandwidth 20% and give a boost in performance there.

 

[Reynod]

Yeah ... lets see some ES benchies please??

Some of you must have one by now.

I heard you had to marry an ugly daughter of an AMD exec to get some ES silicon ... whereas at Intel half the forklift drivers in the loading bay have engineering samples.

I have only ever held one AMD ES in my hand ... bit like a four leaf clover.

The guy who showed it to me had an ugly wife too ... hmmm.

 

[exit2dos]

I'm going to give AMD the benefit of the doubt here and believe these press releases. AMD needs to re-establish it's relationship with the media. An on-time (or ahead of schedule) release, plus honest statements about performance, will do wonders.

Plus, Dirk desperately needs to distinguish himself from Hector/Henri.

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

Im just hoping IF the 20% is true, it DOESNT include server. Tahtd be good to see, as itd put it in close to i7

 

[jimmysmitty]

I'm going to give AMD the benefit of the doubt here and believe these press releases. AMD needs to re-establish it's relationship with the media. An on-time (or ahead of schedule) release, plus honest statements about performance, will do wonders.

Plus, Dirk desperately needs to distinguish himself from Hector/Henri.

I gave AMD the benefit of the doubt with Phenom. Only because I know K8 was a great design so I expected the same with K10. Core 2 I was hoping was decent but was still very worried based on Prescott.

So as of now I doubt the claims until I see a benchmark.

I also doubt that doesn't include server side. The 40% that was spun to the desktop side was actually server side and in 4P+ servers. This is probably the same thing TBH.

 

[TechnologyCoordinator]

Yeah ... lets see some ES benchies please??

Some of you must have one by now.

I heard you had to marry an ugly daughter of an AMD exec to get some ES silicon ... whereas at Intel half the forklift drivers in the loading bay have engineering samples.

I have only ever held one AMD ES in my hand ... bit like a four leaf clover.

The guy who showed it to me had an ugly wife too ... hmmm.

ROFL.

I have high hopes (but low expectations) for AMD. Their management seems to better now and hopefully they have learned from past mistakes. Perhaps it's time to stock up on a little NYSE:AMD?

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

Hopefully theyve learned to do with their cpus as theyve done with their gpus. Sneak up and slay em. Im not saying this is going to happen, but they did do it right with ATI products, and hopefully when they say 20%, its at least that, sorta like how the 4850 was to compete with the 8800GT heheh. But who knows? Im hoping the best as well, just as Im sure since they released their 4xxx series gpus, nVidia is working on something good, if AMD does good here,you can bet Intel will crank it up as well, as I dont see them going back to the P4 days unless AMD squalors

 

[resonance451]

the 4850 is not in competition with the 8800GT. They're an entirely different generation. They're in competition with the 9800GTX+. The 8800GT is $130, vs the 4850's $200, and their time in release is so great it's not a valid comparison.

I'm interested in whatever drives competition. I don't care who takes the lead as long as I get the best prices and products. Screw the fanboys.

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

The announcements and slides from ATI said it was to compete with the 8800GT, throwing nVidia off as to its true performance. It was ATI/AMDs call, no one elses. It was part of their marketing strategy, and its paid off handsomely, as it kept nVidia to going to 55nm sooner rather than later, and ATI has much better marketshare because of this

 

[megamanx00]

This will help AMD remain competitive in the server space, but right now I'm more worried about the consumer space Of course since Core 2 parts are generally at least 20% faster this will, at best, allow AMD to catch up. I'll wait to see bench marks.

 

[sseyler]

The core 2 parts aren't 20% faster than Barcelona. 20% will put it right in Kentsfield territory.

 

[Ryun]

A 20% increase sounds good to me, it's just a shame the B2 stepping muddied the waters (which personally I think the TLB errata got blown way out of proportion) because with the Phenom's current pricing they're good chips. Last I checked you could pick up a 9850 for $144 with a hard drive combo on Newegg. That's a steal, especially when you go back and look at old benchmarks for the 9850 back when it was $235. For most tasks (with the exception of 3D modeling and power consumption) it's just as good as a Q6600 but cheaper.

I'm pretty interested in seeing what their FX line can do as well.