Palomino Temperature Reduction

[BroncoBoy]

OK, after seeing the AMD processor road map, I see that it is not the Palomino that gets the 0.13u technology. It?s the Thoroughbred. I though someone here said the Palomino would run cooler. Besides smaller technology with a die shrink, like the Thoroughbred , what changes can AMD make to reduce the temperature (besides external things like heat sinks and fans)?

 

[w74656]

Optimize the packaging, and rearrange circuits for less heat and power usage is my guess. I have seen a patent by AMD that is a built in pelt in the core to dissipate heat.

 

[Dark4ng3l]

they will use new silicon on insulator technology too. The chips will also run at a lower voltage= lower temps.

 

[BurntKooshie]

silicon on insulator is for later - not yet.

 

[AmdEmAll]

The Palomino will first come out at 0.18u then they will move to 0.13u process. And they will change the name from Palomino to Thoroughbred.

 

[BroncoBoy]

Will we likely be able to use our current mobos? Somewhere I think I read that AMD was commited to staying with Socket A.

 

[ViRGE]

As long as your mobo will have a BIOS update, I think thye'll be able to support all .18 CPUs. Thoroughbred should be the first one different enough to need a new mobo I belive.

 

[Soccerman]

heh, people have been asking that question all over the place.. the answer is, according to AMD, yes, with a BIOS update.

it runs cooler, becuase AMD originally made their K7 (the one with 512K L2 half speed or slower cache) crippled so that they could upgrade it later, and therefor make more money on it.

perfect example, the branch predictor. AMD had a much more advanced branch predicter in the K6-x series (in fact, it was the most advanced in an x86 CPU at that point in time, I don't know if Intel has a better one in the P4 or not, but they need it bad on that CPU), but chose not to include it in this CPU, so they could upgrade it later (the only real reason a company would do such a thing).

what proof do we have? none, really, but consider how much cooler the P4 runs, and how many transistors it has and how many MHZ it runs at, and you'll begin to see why better chip designs can really help things.

 

[Aboroth]

I remember reading a while ago about AMD using isotopically pure silicon to reduce heat.