How soon do we see DDR3 support on Opterons?

[thestain]

:beer: Does AMD have anything they can do to improve current line or is it wait until K8L and do so at the "Greyhound" station?

DDR3 coming soon?

 

[robertk2012]

DDR3 isnt what amd needs. DDR2 doesnt even help at all.

 

[TheRyuu]

The K8's arn't really memory bandwith starved. DDR2 really didn't do much except for increase some memory benchmark scores.

What AMD need's is K8L and (eventually) the K10. AMD's hammer (K8) core is started to show it's age, especially against conroe. I guess it was good while it lasted.

 

[Henny]

AMD needs to pull in 65nm or the financial consequences could be pretty severe. A slow gradual ramp starting late '06 puts them generation behind in silicon technolog and they don't have the economies of scale that Intel has. They could handle that with superior product designs but that's quickly going to change. (inferior product, inferior silicon techology, and inferior economies of scale could be the potential kiss of death)

They can't lead the way with DDR3 unless they're the volume leader at the time. The economics of the memory business don't work that way.

I think Hector is doing the right thing. Focus on servers, servers, servers for as long as they can. (probably 4P+ given Woodcrest's arrival) In the meantime focus on a mainstream product revamp and make 65nm happen.

AMD has something that Intel doesn't - survival is in their genes. And consequently Intel has something that AMD doesn't have - complacency and ignorance when things are going well.

 

[the Chase]

Yep AMD's reign is due to be over in a few months. When they will climb back on top- who knows. Probably with the M2 socket CPU's that are coming possibly in the 1st half of 2007.(I'm thinking at least mid-2007).

Edit- I guess if you are a serious multitasker AMD also supposedly has Quad Core CPU's coming this year yet. Not something I would buy unless they were $200 or so. In my dreams maybe.

 

[irwincur]

The newer 65nm SOI parts coming out should help AMD boost processor speeds. AMD had a great transition to 90nm with their partners and probably expects the same this time around. Some suspect that this may be the secret weapon that they may have up their sleeves.

Is it a total solution - no. Does it keep them competitive even though their product is two years old - yes. If AMD can come up with a competitive solution before the launch of the K8L, well, Conroe does not look so good after all. Not to mention, AMD will continue to clean house in the mid range server market where the traditional FSB is killing Intel processors.

 

[pcoffman]

How soon do we see DDR3 support on Opterons?

Not any time soon. For AMD to move to DDR3, they have to redesign their CPU, thanks to the on-die memory controller. They just did this, moving to DDR2.

Intel has not even taken the plunge to DDR3. Intel often goes first, breaking their teeth on new technology. AMD may wait for Intel again.

 

[imported_Questar]

Please don't read the Inq. It's bad for your health. Causes cancer. Overheats your CPU.

Anyway, the answer is not before mid 2008.

The specification is not expected to be complete before summer 2006. Add on two years for implementation.

 

[d3lt4]

Originally posted by: Questar
Please don't read the Inq. It's bad for your health. Causes cancer. Overheats your CPU.

LOL.

I heard that AM3 will support ddr3, ddr2, and fb-dimm, so their memory controlers will be REALLY flexible. So maybe AMD will pull out ddr3 first, but then again this is all rumour.