EO stepping and why is it important to Athlon 64?

[sxr7171]

I read whatever I could find on EO stepping and it seems that on Prescotts it throttles the processor to reduce TDP (if I undestood correctly). How would that be important on an A64 and wouldn't that hurt overclocking?

 

[SynthDude2001]

The steppings of Athlon 64's really have nothing to do with Prescott/P4 steppings. There are two main things being brought to the table with the "E0" Athlon 64 stepping, supposedly to be released in April:

1) SSE3 instructions
2) Strained Silicon

Now, #1 is nice to have on the off chance you have any SSE3-optimized software, but it doesn't make or break the purchase IMO. The big thing is strained silicon, which according to what I've read is supposed to allow the CPU's to clock quite a bit higher on roughly the same amount of power (~30% is the estimate I keep hearing, or maybe around 3GHz absolute clock speed). That's why I'm almost certainly waiting for these new A64's before I finally ditch my Athlon XP @ 2.4GHz system. 🙂

I'm pretty sure I have my information here correct, but I'm sure others will chime in too, once it's no longer the middle of the night. 😛

Edit: There's a thread here about it. My only concern/uncertainty is that nothing was really mentioned about Socket 939 desktop processors that I could tell, as far as their availability in the same time frame.

 

[gate1975mlm]

Yes but when are they coming out?

 

[Cr0nJ0b]

the roadmap I saw was Q2 2005. the core name is Venice I think.

 

[shira]

Originally posted by: gate1975mlm
Yes but when are they coming out?

Latest roadmap I've seen says "Q2". But that could mean April, May, or June. And delays have been known to happen.

 

[sxr7171]

Nice to know. I think both are good features, but the strained silicon thing sounds off the hook. The thing is that if it takes until May or June then I may as well just wait for the dual core A64 processor (I just got a A64 3200+ 2 weeks ago).

 

[ktgktg]

Don't foreget that the A64E got better memory controller. It can operate att full speed with four sticks of ram.

 

[bradley]

Strained silicon and SOI are major advancemenst: reduced transistor leakage and power consumption, and increased clockspeeds -- on the scale of around 35 percent. Without either, it would be extremely difficult for either AMD or Intel to shrink their chips beyond 90nm.

http://www.intel.com/research/silicon/nanometer.htm
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/04/02/amd_super_soi_to_boost/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/11/14/silicon_on_insulator_key/

Oh, I wouldn't be surprised if AMD drops these new steppings into the market without any fanfare or warning.

 

[Leper Messiah]

Basically, it means that you can OC more, and AMD has another marketing piece with the SSE3. Its really too bad that I'm still stuck with a C0 stepping clawhammer...

 

[bookman]

I am looking at it from a different perspective. E0 looks like it will consume less power per GHz, and I am looking at keeping my system as cool as possible with the fewest (and quietest) fans possible. If E0 drops the watts consumed by a CPU from ~ 50 watts to 37 Watts, it is approaching the range where it can be passively cooled with a fanless XP120.

 

[nvbtye]

rhlfbn

 

[gobucks]

ktgktg, I heard about that new memory controller thing, and that's what got me excited. I'm looking to drop in a dual core next year, and it'll be nice being able to grab 2 more sticks of ram without throwing away the old ones. Do you have any idea if you will be able to run 4 sticks at 1T? That'd be great! From what i understand, all motherboards should be able to handle this, since all that is needed is a bios update to see the new core, which is great news for us nforce4 owners.

 

[dannybin1742]

must hold off the urge to upgrade until E0......... sitting with a mobile xp2200+ @2400mhz

 

[Rand]

The differences right now would appear to be the slightly optimized memory controller which should make it a bit easier to operate a DDR 3200 w/4 DIMM's at relatively tight latency timings then is viable now.
SSE3 extensions
Strained Silicon- lower power consumption at equivalent clockspeeds, and it should scale in clockspeed a bit better then their existing 90nm A64's.
It's also supposed to have some changes to the L2 cache subsystem, though this isn't officially confirmed so far as I'm aware.

 

[shira]

I seem to recall reading something about the E0 stepping also including extra copper interconnects, which should reduce electrical interference between the layers, allowing higher clock speeds.

 

[bookman]

Link
More E stepping news.

 

[Leper Messiah]

Originally posted by: bpm3k

Originally posted by: L3p3rM355i4h
Its really too bad that I'm still stuck with a C0 stepping clawhammer...

Me too, it is a week 05 2004 3400+. It won't even load windows at HTT > 229.

don't have a problem quite as a bad as that, I can get into windows at htt240, and its p95 stable, but not 3dmk01 stable since I have a Kt800 mobo...try lowering your htt multi to 3x or 2x, see if that helps.