More Barcelona

[Viditor]

Eweek article

It looks like the Barcelona will be able to tweak power on a core by core basis.

"If Core Zero is working a 80 percent utilization, but Cores 1, 2 and 3, are not very busy, they can lower their power frequency down, and then the cores can jump back up to take on a workload as needed,"
Unlike dual-core chips, where the cores are interdependent on each other in terms of power consumption, the quad-core model with the OS allows all four cores to act independently

This should reduce the net power profile for average server use significantly...most servers don't run at full core utilization for all cores most of the time.

One other tidbit:

"In addition, AMD engineers will also demonstrate a feature in Barcelona that allows the four cores to be powered down independent of the system memory interface. This, according to AMD, will still allow peak memory performance, while saving on power.

The memory interface will also allow the read/write memory to power down. The result, AMD said, will allow a power savings of 80 percent with the memory controller"

 

[nyker96]

interesting tibit. lower power is always nice.

 

[formulav8]

The only thing missing with AMD's new core in terms of Power Management is being able to change the VCore voltage for each individual core. Unless they added that feature recently. But that doesn't seem to be the case. Otherwise they did a nice job on adding features to reduce the thermals.



Jason

 

[Acanthus]

I believe this is called Intel Speedstep

 

[Viditor]

Originally posted by: Acanthus
I believe this is called Intel Speedstep

I believe that speedstep is per chip, not per core...certainly not per core on Kentsfield.

 

[Viditor]

Originally posted by: formulav8
The only thing missing with AMD's new core in terms of Power Management is being able to change the VCore voltage for each individual core. Unless they added that feature recently. But that doesn't seem to be the case. Otherwise they did a nice job on adding features to reduce the thermals.



Jason

I believe that is part of what Barcelona and the other K10s will offer (at least it seems that way from this piece...).

 

[Regs]

In terms of power savings this reminds me of a raise I would get at work. You get a 5% raise but your interest rates, insurance rates, and other bills go up 10% at home. (Hard drives, video cards, blue rays, HD DVD recorders in terms of a computer)

Good innovation from AMDs part. Though the power savings to the every-day consumer means little to nothing. These are features for server farms, and web servrs and so forth. I don't know why desk top users put any praise into these features. I would not be so cold if this wasn't all ready regurgitated news from last summer.

 

[jpeyton]

Originally posted by: Viditor

Originally posted by: Acanthus
I believe this is called Intel Speedstep

I believe that speedstep is per chip, not per core...certainly not per core on Kentsfield.

Exactly; SpeedStep lowers the clock multiplier across the entire processor (not individual cores). If Core 0 is running at 100% load, Core 1 will run at full clock speed even with a 0% load.

These new power saving features and AMDs decision to use ECC/Buffered DDR2 (versus FB-DIMM) will give AMD the thermal/power advantage in the quad-core arena.

 

[Viditor]

Originally posted by: Regs
In terms of power savings this reminds me of a raise I would get at work. You get a 5% raise but your interest rates, insurance rates, and other bills go up 10% at home. (Hard drives, video cards, blue rays, HD DVD recorders in terms of a computer)

Good innovation from AMDs part. Though the power savings to the every-day consumer means little to nothing. These are features for server farms, and web servrs and so forth. I don't know why desk top users put any praise into these features. I would not be so cold if this wasn't all ready regurgitated news from last summer.

True...but what might help every-day consumers is the lowered heat profile that results. By clocking down cores that aren't used much, the overall heat generated is clocked down as well (without sacrificing performance).

 

[aka1nas]

IIRC, this feature requires the independent power planes found on socket AM3 and will not work on AM2-based boards.

 

[Viditor]

Originally posted by: aka1nas
IIRC, this feature requires the independent power planes found on socket AM3 and will not work on AM2-based boards.

Well, it's not AM3...that's for desktop DDR3 chips. Barcelona is an F+ (1207 server) chip...
I don't really know if it will require a Socket F+ board or if it will work on standard F boards, or if the desktop versions will require AM2+ instead of AM2. I thought that the only addition was the additional HT links for the plus versions...

 

[aka1nas]

Sorry, forgot about the server part. From what I have been reading, the independent power planes will come out with whichever platform has HT 3.0. At this point I'm not 100% clear if that is AM2+ or AM3. Either way, the tech does require some hardware support so existing AM2 boards will not have access to this feature.

 

[Viditor]

Originally posted by: aka1nas
Sorry, forgot about the server part. From what I have been reading, the independent power planes will come out with whichever platform has HT 3.0. At this point I'm not 100% clear if that is AM2+ or AM3. Either way, the tech does require some hardware support so existing AM2 boards will not have access to this feature.

AM2+ and F+ are both HT 3.0 compatible...
I didn't know about the split power planes, but it makes sense. If you find any articles on it, could you help out with a link?

Cheers!

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: jpeyton

Originally posted by: Viditor

Originally posted by: Acanthus
I believe this is called Intel Speedstep

I believe that speedstep is per chip, not per core...certainly not per core on Kentsfield.

Exactly; SpeedStep lowers the clock multiplier across the entire processor (not individual cores). If Core 0 is running at 100% load, Core 1 will run at full clock speed even with a 0% load.

These new power saving features and AMDs decision to use ECC/Buffered DDR2 (versus FB-DIMM) will give AMD the thermal/power advantage in the quad-core arena.

It does not appear to work that way in practice, my yonah clocks down the 2nd core, and the 1st remains at full speed. (when in battery mode)

The dynamic per score clockspeed change is an improvement, but its certainly not a new idea.