Thorton Vs. Thoroughbred: What is the difference ?

[jm0ris0n]

I have been reading this story on Hexus.net about the AMD Thorton.

They claim its a barton with only 256K L2 cache. Am I mistaken, or is this exactly what a Thoroughbred B is?

Anyone care to calm the confusion ?

 

[spanky]

wtf?

 

[Schadenfroh]

barton and thouroughbred b are 2 seperate cores. the thorton is the same as a barton with half the level two cache disabled. the reason for it is that it is cheaper to produce 1 core and cripple one to create the two product categorys than it is to fab 2 seperate cores

comparison between the barton and t-bred B

 

[spanky]

seems like the only thing i can find on the web about the differences barton vs tbred is the cache size. well... that and the die size. r there any other differences?

 

[jm0ris0n]

Well isn't a Barton just a t-bred with an additional 256k cache ?

 

[Harabecw]

seems like AMD's way to just make money off bartons with defective cache.

 

[Tab]

Originally posted by: jm0ris0n
Well isn't a Barton just a t-bred with an additional 256k cache ?

I think so, I am still confused on the thorton thing. Doesnt the thorton have a 256k l2 just as the tbredbs?

 

[FishTankX]

I believe the thorton's contain some sort of advanced thermal managment.

 

[Corporate Thug]

Originally posted by: Harabecw
seems like AMD's way to just make money off bartons with defective cache.

 

[beatle]

Originally posted by: jm0ris0n
Well isn't a Barton just a t-bred with an additional 256k cache ?

Schadenfroh pretty much nailed it. The Barton is simply a tbred with more cache. The 3200+ Barton has 400mhz FSB. The performance of a tbred and thorton should be identical if clocked the same. The big question will be if these Thorton chips will overclock better. Being that they use only as much power as a comparable tbred, but with a larger surface area, they should run even cooler than a Tbred B.

 

[robcy]

The Barton is a 512kb cache Tbred-b. When a Barton is made and has problems working all 512kb of cache, or making 200mhz FSB or 2.2ghz, what does AMD do? Well, they disable cache until 256kb remain, lower the fsb to 133. and slow it down to 1.8 - 2.0 ghz. Then viola you have a Thorton. They should be good overclockers. Intel has done this quite succefully with their Celeron line.

__________________________
XP2600+ @ 2400mhz (150 X 16)
K7S5A V1.0 (Yes 1.0)
512 DDR2100
Maxtor 40gb X 2 (Raid 0)
SB Live
ATI 9700PRO

 

[Actaeon]

Originally posted by: robcy
The Barton is a 512kb cache Tbred-b. When a Barton is made and has problems working all 512kb of cache, or making 200mhz FSB or 2.2ghz, what does AMD do? Well, they disable cache until 256kb remain, lower the fsb to 133. and slow it down to 1.8 - 2.0 ghz. Then viola you have a Thorton. They should be good overclockers. Intel has done this quite succefully with their Celeron line.

__________________________
XP2600+ @ 2400mhz (150 X 16)
K7S5A V1.0 (Yes 1.0)
512 DDR2100
Maxtor 40gb X 2 (Raid 0)
SB Live
ATI 9700PRO

I believe that is the correct answer. AMD's Bartons with weirdo caches that don't work properly, they can disable it, and just sell it without throwing the CPU away. Plus they are going to be restricted to 133mhz FSB, so people with older motherboards that don't have the 1/5 divider should still be able to use them.

BTW, robcy, you can put your system specs inside your signature on your profile page, so it'll post automatically instead of every time you have to rewrite it per post.

 

[robcy]

Thanks for the signature tip. That cut and paste s%$t was getting on my nerves.

 

[wetcat007]

Hmm, I thought the barton cost more than the tbred to produce???

 

[robcy]

They cost more now because the amount of Bartons produced, and sold constitute a small fraction of AMD's total chip production. While Tbred's are made in larger numbers. This also means that AMD has to produce two chips. With the Thorton taking over the majority of AMD sales (2000+ to 2400+), the Tbred-b can be fazed out, thus lowering the cost to produce Bartons. This will also allow AMD to produce only one type of chip (Barton). Since the majority of Thorton's are going to be defective Bartons, what would of been thrown away can now be recycled as Thorton's, raising the yield. All this means that the Bartons will be cheaper to produce.

 

[jm0ris0n]

So am I correct in saying a Thorton is a Barton with 512K of theoretical cache, but 1/2 of the cache is disabled. The packaging is there, but it just aint turned on/functional ?

 

[DWW]

rocby
omg how do you get such good overclocking with the motherboard you have
what heatsink do you use?

 

[robcy]

Honey X Bios, and belive it or not a Speeze 5R281B1H3 FireStar cooler. I did change the fan to a Delta Electronics FFB0612SHE Fan. It is a 60X60X38 7000rpm (actually runs 7400 as measured by the MB) 43.44CFM and most disturbing 50.5db that sounds like a turbine . It runs at a stock 1.65v. The CPU runs between 38 (idle) and 44 (stress). I seriously love this board.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: robcy
Honey X Bios, and belive it or not a Speeze 5R281B1H3 FireStar cooler. I did change the fan to a Delta Electronics FFB0612SHE Fan. It is a 60X60X38 7000rpm (actually runs 7400 as measured by the MB) 43.44CFM and most disturbing 50.5db that sounds like a turbine . It runs at a stock 1.65v. The CPU runs between 38 (idle) and 44 (stress). I seriously love this board.

Haha, sweet!