2S6K Newcastle... WTF?

[KillaKilla]

Confusion reigns over next-gen Athlon 64's cache size
By Tony Smith
Posted: 26/02/2004 at 13:25 GMT
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How much L2 cache will future AMD Athlon 64 processors provide? Q2 is expected to see the arrival of Newcastle. AMD is keeping quiet, but previous reports suggest the part will contain just 512KB of L2 cache.

However, DigiTimes today claims the part will contain only 256KB of cache. It also suggests Newcastle is an Athlon FX chip.

Thais contradicts AMD's own public roadmap, which clearly positions Newcastle as the next generation of Athlon 64. The next major upgrade to the Athlon FX is the 90nm San Diego, officially due to be release in H2.

Also officially scheduled to ship in the second half of the year is Paris, the K8-based update to the current K7 32-bit Athlon XP line. Paris is believed to contain 256KB of L2 cache. The same timeframe will see the arrival of Winchester, the 90nm version of the 130nm Newcastle.

Taiwanese mobo maker sources told DigiTimes that both Newcastle and Winchester will compete head to head with Intel's 90nm Pentium 4, Prescott. Since the Intel part has 1MB of L2, as with the first Athlon 64s, it's hard to imagine that AMD wanted to run a part with just 256KB of cache up against it.

Linky


All I have to say is 'WTF?'

 

[Ronin]

I've seen two separate articles that refute this claim. I'll find the links and post them, but the general idea is that going to a 256K L2 cache does exactly that, it conflicts with AMD's roadmap, and there's no reason for them to do it, except to save costs. Doing so *will* cost them performance, and they're finally really doing a solid job at taking a shot at Intel. It wouldn't be a good idea for them to move away from anything that would cost them performance.

 

[klah]

From their email newsletter:

DigiTimes ICs & Memory news (2004-02-27)

Dear Reader,

Correction: In a February 26 article, we incorrectly termed AMD's Newcastle CPU the "new Athlon 64 FX" and stated that it will "boast 256KB of L2 cache." It should be the new Athlon 64 with a 512KB L2 cache in common with the Athlon 64 3000+ (reduced from the 1MB L2 cache in the Athlon 64 3200+).

 

[Adul]

from what i understand...

Athlon 64 Socket 939 dual channel 256k cache
Athlon FX socket 939 dual channel 1MB cache

 

[MadRat]

When its going to be 256K of L1, who cares?

 

[Venomous]

Originally posted by: Adul
from what i understand...

Athlon 64 Socket 939 dual channel 256k cache
Athlon FX socket 939 dual channel 1MB cache

Athlon 64's are 754 pin.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: Venomous

Originally posted by: Adul
from what i understand...

Athlon 64 Socket 939 dual channel 256k cache
Athlon FX socket 939 dual channel 1MB cache

Athlon 64's are 754 pin.

But they're moving to 939 later this year.