Where is Intel headed as far as desktop CPU's?

[Snooper]

The second half of this year is going to be very interesting. I think Intel management has FINALLY seen that they have to get there "stuff" together and produce a truely competitive desktop CPU. Intel was really hammered by the 90nm process. T

hey designed the P4 to scale to super high clock frequencies (and it had to in order to have good performance) and then they tried to build it on a process that had a gate leakage problem that was never fully solved. High clock + high gate leakage = Nuclear Power Plant heat levels! And lower clock frequencies than they want.

Intel has two things going for them coming out in the second half that (should) (hopefully) relevel the performance field: They claim they have "fixed" the gate leakage issue in the 65nm process. And Conroe is very much getting away from the super high clock speed design and getting back to designing for best PERFORMANCE instead of best clock frequency. And, to top it off, they have actually REDESIGNED THE FREAKING FPU!!!! The base FPU has been largely untouched since the days of the PIII. They just kept adding on new SIMD instructions (MMX, SSE, etc.) and assumed (what were they thinking???) that everyone would rewrite all the exiting code to use these new super instructions. Of course, only the apps that REALLY got a big advantage with SIMD rewrote stuff (video...). Everyone else was left wondering why the P4 sucked so bad in things like games and every day applications.

So, if they bring out Conroe at the 3+ Ghz I have heard (online, not at work) and the reworked FPU is all that it is cracked up to be, then this might be a VERY nice CPU that really brings performance back to the Intel camp. And the beautiful thing about that is it will then force AMD to jump through a few hoops to try to beat it. And WE win.

 

[Hulk]

Intel has been on top for so long I don't think they even know what it's like to worry about the competition. But they are learning.

How many years did AMD get by with processors that never quite could match the best Intel could offer. Remember the K3, I think that was the name, full speed cache, good with business apps but terrible FPU. But it was too little too late. AMD was only an nuisance to Intel until the Athlon.

Intel has a lot of capital from owning the market for so many years, but so did IBM. If you don't watch your back you could find yourself watching someone else's.

From what I am reading the Pentium M design will be the near future for Intel. They still have to ramp up the clockspeed of that core to meet the X2 mighty quickly because they are losing more and more of the market everyday. Not only that, but more importantly they are losing their fabled appearance that Intel is faster.

People are going to start associating "fast" with AMD so even if and when the tide turns AMD will still sell well based on past performance. Kind of like Intel now.

Thanks for all replies. Very interesting discussion.

 

[Marmion]

I think a desktop version of Yonah would be very competitive with AMD: Yonah @ 2.76Ghz This is all on the stock cooler I believe too.

Also interesting is the Aopen mobo using the 975x chipset, but being compatible with Yonah, plus a pair of nvidia cards working in SLI (even though its not officially supported).

Interesting anyway, so I can see Conroe clocking around 3Ghz at launch.

Conroe EE with a 333Mhz bus quad pumped to Mhz FSB is only a 10x multiplier to reach 3.33Ghz. With realxed TDP and tweaked core I think its entirely possible.

I guess though we will have to wait to find out. Intel isn't exactly throwing out all the info yet is it?

Edit: Yonah @ 2.7 vs FX-60 @ 2.6

 

[thecoolnessrune]

Originally posted by: Hulk
It seems that Intel is constantly updating the same Pentium 4 core. From Northwood to Prescott to Smithfield to Presler, and I know I missed a few in there.

Yeah you did. Before Northwood, there was Socket 423 Williamette. And there is yet to be Cedar Mill. Wow, they really do need to bury that one :laugh:

But its not like AMD hasn't done the same thing. From Clawhammer, to Sledgehammer, to Winchester, to Venice, to San Diego, to Manchester, to Toledo and im sure ive missed a few there too. All under the A64 name. And that doesn't even include the Sempron cores. So when you think about it, hasn't AMD realeased even more? 😕

 

[Hulk]

Originally posted by: Marmion
I think a desktop version of Yonah would be very competitive with AMD: Yonah @ 2.76Ghz This is all on the stock cooler I believe too.

Also interesting is the Aopen mobo using the 975x chipset, but being compatible with Yonah, plus a pair of nvidia cards working in SLI (even though its not officially supported).

Interesting anyway, so I can see Conroe clocking around 3Ghz at launch.

Conroe EE with a 333Mhz bus quad pumped to Mhz FSB is only a 10x multiplier to reach 3.33Ghz. With realxed TDP and tweaked core I think its entirely possible.

I guess though we will have to wait to find out. Intel isn't exactly throwing out all the info yet is it?

Edit: Yonah @ 2.7 vs FX-60 @ 2.6

Nice links! So Yonah will compete with X2 and it appears they might be able to get 2.4GHz or so out of the current process. From what I've seen Intel usually tops out a process about 10% below what the cherry picked chips will top out. The one exception was the Pentium III 1133 but we all know that was a rush job to take the performance crown from AMD.

The prospect of an efficient 3GHz Pentium M based dual core is definitely something to look forward to.