Think Quad Core! Sooner, rather than later..
The 4200, 4600, and now 5000+ line up of chips is not exactly AMD's best, but rather its worst quality, lowest cost to produce X2 chips, and the 3800 might now be a cheaper to produce version of the 4000 for AM2, I think AMD will go to price war with Intel with these and by so doing keep their foot in the door with various OEM's until the 65 nm processors come out later this year.
Now.. We have higher energy efficient chips coming out and being pulled from the manufacturiing process.. these consume 65 Watts.. and in the case of the X2 3800 as low as 35 W..if these chips might have previously went into Dual core X2 4000, 4400, 4800 and 5200 cpus.. what will become of them now? Some have speculated they will become Opterons, but I am not buying it.
If AMD was to use energy use as a further criteria for what makes up a normal X2 3800, 4200, 4600 and 5200 dual core chip, compared to the previously higher model X2 CPU's.... these could end up being the highest energy use cpus that AMD produces that are going to have prices slashed to compete with Intel.
So.. AMD says.. we will engage with Intel in a Price War with our worst performing, cheapest to produce, least energy efficient chips! Sounds like AMD knows what they are doing.. of course they are not announcing it this way.
What is AMD doing with the best of the chips, the coolest, the most energy efficient?
The lower energy use, higher clockable chips are still going to be coming out of the production process.. maybe they won't go by the names X2 4000, x2 4400, X2 4800 and X2 5200, but.. they are going to be around.. so.. if AMD has raised the bar a little and decided they need to be more energy efficient in order to be used for Quad Core.. what then?
The X2's were designed to be Quad Core capable..these chips have three hypertransport links as designed, just one link enabled, but that could be changed to three pretty easily. If AMD sells off the 89W cores as X2's using the lower numers, What will AMD do with those that consume about 65W?... I think they enable the hypertransport, add the L3.. and viola.. Quad Core ready to hit the market!
well.. 65X2=130 is a very doable Quad Core.
So.. thinking AMD could very easily be putting together a Quad Core Package to compete with Intel..in a space on the desktop Intel is not in yet.. and.. if you consider double socket.. well that doubles the possiblities..
To me.. this is similar to what nVidia is doing to compete with Ati with the 7950GX2..using the lower energy use, cooler chips underclocked slightly as a way they found to be able to do it.. and AMD and NVidia have been getting closer in regards to manufacturing.. especially in regards to Play Station 3.
So, just food for thought, but.. maybe a move to quad core, could be in the works..
It is a small step that is skipped on AMD's roadmap and moved from 2007 to Q3 2006.. AMD has the technology.. they might already be producing the chips.. all that is needed is adding the L3 Cache.. enabling the other hypertransport links already on board.. and Quad Core could be here.. much earlier than Intel or most of us would have thought..
Moving to 512 KB of Cache is the way AMD was planning to go anyway for L2 on its road to Quad Core.. so.. announcement that that is all they will be selling could be telling.. that 512 is the L2 limit for Quad Core.. L3 is where the extra Cache of 2 or more MB will reside.
Thoughts?
The Stain
The 4200, 4600, and now 5000+ line up of chips is not exactly AMD's best, but rather its worst quality, lowest cost to produce X2 chips, and the 3800 might now be a cheaper to produce version of the 4000 for AM2, I think AMD will go to price war with Intel with these and by so doing keep their foot in the door with various OEM's until the 65 nm processors come out later this year.
Now.. We have higher energy efficient chips coming out and being pulled from the manufacturiing process.. these consume 65 Watts.. and in the case of the X2 3800 as low as 35 W..if these chips might have previously went into Dual core X2 4000, 4400, 4800 and 5200 cpus.. what will become of them now? Some have speculated they will become Opterons, but I am not buying it.
If AMD was to use energy use as a further criteria for what makes up a normal X2 3800, 4200, 4600 and 5200 dual core chip, compared to the previously higher model X2 CPU's.... these could end up being the highest energy use cpus that AMD produces that are going to have prices slashed to compete with Intel.
So.. AMD says.. we will engage with Intel in a Price War with our worst performing, cheapest to produce, least energy efficient chips! Sounds like AMD knows what they are doing.. of course they are not announcing it this way.
What is AMD doing with the best of the chips, the coolest, the most energy efficient?
The lower energy use, higher clockable chips are still going to be coming out of the production process.. maybe they won't go by the names X2 4000, x2 4400, X2 4800 and X2 5200, but.. they are going to be around.. so.. if AMD has raised the bar a little and decided they need to be more energy efficient in order to be used for Quad Core.. what then?
The X2's were designed to be Quad Core capable..these chips have three hypertransport links as designed, just one link enabled, but that could be changed to three pretty easily. If AMD sells off the 89W cores as X2's using the lower numers, What will AMD do with those that consume about 65W?... I think they enable the hypertransport, add the L3.. and viola.. Quad Core ready to hit the market!
well.. 65X2=130 is a very doable Quad Core.
So.. thinking AMD could very easily be putting together a Quad Core Package to compete with Intel..in a space on the desktop Intel is not in yet.. and.. if you consider double socket.. well that doubles the possiblities..
To me.. this is similar to what nVidia is doing to compete with Ati with the 7950GX2..using the lower energy use, cooler chips underclocked slightly as a way they found to be able to do it.. and AMD and NVidia have been getting closer in regards to manufacturing.. especially in regards to Play Station 3.
So, just food for thought, but.. maybe a move to quad core, could be in the works..
It is a small step that is skipped on AMD's roadmap and moved from 2007 to Q3 2006.. AMD has the technology.. they might already be producing the chips.. all that is needed is adding the L3 Cache.. enabling the other hypertransport links already on board.. and Quad Core could be here.. much earlier than Intel or most of us would have thought..
Moving to 512 KB of Cache is the way AMD was planning to go anyway for L2 on its road to Quad Core.. so.. announcement that that is all they will be selling could be telling.. that 512 is the L2 limit for Quad Core.. L3 is where the extra Cache of 2 or more MB will reside.
Thoughts?
The Stain
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