Intel anounces 64bit processor release

pspada

Platinum Member
Dec 23, 2002
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Intel 64 bit chips. Ho hum. Now the Opteron and Athlon 64, there's something interesting.
 

Lonyo

Lifer
Aug 10, 2002
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So Intel are the ones doing the challenging? Not AMD by releasing 64-bit CPU's to the server market, an area where Intel already has a foothold?

It will be interesting to see how things stack up, but these things have been around for a while.
 

KF

Golden Member
Dec 3, 1999
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Itanium 2? Is there some possiblity a normal person could somehow use or afford one of these things?

64 bit processors are not new. They've been around. What will be new is a CONSUMER, HOME, 64bit x86 processor, something you might get at BEST BUY to play games on and web surf,.
 

OddTSi

Senior member
Feb 14, 2003
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I know there's going to be flaming over this, but IMO 64-bit processors are not needed yet on the desktop front. And people need to stop treatin 64-bit processors like they're twice as fast as 32-bit processors OVERALL, let's get real here people.
 

KF

Golden Member
Dec 3, 1999
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Let the flaming begin.

Just kidding. :)

No, 64 bit processors are not needed, although we are getting close to the 4G direct addressing limit for 32 bits, Hyperthreading 3GHz processors aren't needed. 250G HDs aren't. None of these developments work miracles, but they advance the home PC's cabability.

AMD says 64 bits does not add greatly to the transistor count, if I recall. 64 bit paths or wider are probably already present in 32 bit CPUs. Floating point registers have always been 80 bits. What is being done is allowing programmers to directly use 64 bits. Similarly, the extra general purpose registers in the Athlon64 just allows programmers to use 16 instead of only 8 registers, when a much greater number are already present.behind the scenes. I saw recently that the hyperthreading P4 has 128 renaming registers, for the 16 general purpose registers which are accessible, 8 to each virtual processor. x86 CPUs can already address more than 4G, but only in segments, via selectors. 64bit or wider computing is alread with us, but mostly hidden from view, and inaccessible to programmers. For some reason, Intel does not want this capablity available except in Itaniums.
 

mechBgon

Super Moderator<br>Elite Member
Oct 31, 1999
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Originally posted by: zephyrprime
How big are those itanium 2 dies? They're pretty big right?
I would be interested to see what the thermal dissipation of the I2 is. I know the Itanium came out around 130W, according to Intel, but I haven't been successful in dredging up the output of the I2.