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Issue #107 -- 04/28/2003
Editor: Kevin Krewell
In this issue:
Kevin Krewell - Senior Editor {04/28/2003}
The long wait is over. After years of talking
about the Hammer architecture and x86-64 (now called AMD64), AMD
finally has parts, systems, software, and customers for its 64-bit
Opteron processor. AMD’s new processor uses its latest 130nm silicon
on insulator (SOI) process for lower power. The 1.4GHz to 1.8GHz
clock speeds may not impress the 32-bit PC processor crowd, but
Opteron takes the top-clock-speed award for 64-bit server processors.
AMD’s Opteron launch is the first wave of AMD64 processors. The
desktop and mobile Athlon 64 processors are still scheduled for
September. In the meantime, AMD plans to push the Barton processor
for desktop and mobile uses.
AMD announced availability of the Opteron Series 200 processors
at the April 22 launch. The Opteron Series 200 Model 240 (1.4GHz),
242 (1.6GHz), and 244 (1.8GHz) are available now. Opteron processor
model numbers 840, 842, and 844 are scheduled to be available in
2Q03; series 100 Opterons are slated for 3Q03.
List price for Opteron model 240 is $283 in 1,000-unit quantities;
the model 242 is $690, and the model 244 is $794.
Microprocessor Report readers can access the full story here:
www.mdronline.com/mpr/h/2003/0428/171701.html. To find out more
about Microprocessor Report, please visit:
www.mdronline.com.
Peter Glaskowsky - Editor-in-Chief {04/28/2003}
I joined MDR seven years ago to cover PC
platform technology, an area that has experienced tremendous progress
over the years. In just the past three years, we’ve seen front-side
bus speeds—a critical constraint for processor performance—soar
from the 133MHz of Intel’s Pentium III to the 800MHz of the new
Pentium 4. That’s a 6:1 improvement, better than Moore’s Law would
predict. Memory bandwidth has increased comparably, with single
banks of 133MHz SDRAM giving way to the dual banks of DDR400 SDRAM
in today’s best desktop PCs.
Software development used to lead hardware development: each new
version of Windows and each new major application, such as DVD playback,
used to arrive before PCs were fast enough to take full advantage
of them. Today, the situation is reversed. Even low-cost PCs are
more than fast enough for the software they’re likely to run. Only
in a few niche markets, such as 3D games, are PCs strained to their
limits.
Peripherals have also lagged behind. The ATA hard-disk interface
is just twice as fast today than it was three years ago. The hard
disks themselves are improving at a similar rate, but they continue
to be a limiting factor for many kinds of software. The 100Mb/s
Fast Ethernet standard still accounts for almost all local-area
networks; Gigabit Ethernet has been slow to catch on.
During the next year, we’ll see several new technologies arrive
on our desktops that will help break these performance logjams and
open the market to new applications. The Serial ATA standard, for
example, will support a 150MB/s transfer rate, and this rate will
double again within two years. Serial ATA will make it easier for
end users to add another drive to their systems, and, with disk-array
technology, such an upgrade can boost performance as well as capacity.
PCI Express will remove another obstacle to end-user system expansion
by providing more than enough bandwidth for tomorrow’s high-performance
peripherals. The familiar PCI bus isn’t even fast enough for many
of today’s needs, so PCI Express is long overdue.
I/O coprocessing isn’t a new technology, but it’s one we’re likely
to see more of in mainstream systems. Graphics cards are coprocessors
already, doing tasks that were once the responsibility of the CPU.
I believe networking will be the next major role for coprocessors
in the PC. Running the TCP/IP stack for a Gigabit Ethernet link
can consume the equivalent of a 2GHz processor—or a $20 ASIC. That’s
a pretty easy choice to make. On the other hand, high-definition
video processing is only a temporary market for coprocessors. The
HDTV standard will be with us for many years, and CPUs will soon
be fast enough to handle HDTV for most users.
The transition to 64-bit desktops, however it takes place, will
impose new requirements on the PC platform. With 4G of DRAM available
at retail for less than $500, and with further price cuts inevitable,
we need to have PC motherboards with more memory slots than the
two or three that have become commonplace—at least at the high end
of the market. Similarly, now that multithreaded operating systems
and applications are commonplace, we should see a return to dual-processor
configurations for high-end desktops.
PC buyers have always responded well to technology transitions that
promise dramatic improvements in system capabilities, and software
developers have always come through with new ways to take advantage
of these capabilities. Today’s PCs are more than a match for yesterday’s
supercomputers. What will tomorrow’s PCs be like?
To find out more about Microprocessor Report, please visit:
www.mdronline.com.
Kevin Krewell - Senior Editor {04/14/2003}
At the Sun Worldwide Analyst Conference,
the company revealed plans to take its UltraSPARC processor family
in a direction heavily dependent on multicore and multithreaded
microarchitectures. Sun hopes its new direction will lead to a blade
processor up to 15 times faster than Sun’s present blade server
processor and a SPARC system processor 30 times faster than today’s
big iron server processors; a traditional single-threaded processor
might expect to triple its performance during the same time frame.
Sun’s first multicore SPARC will be the UltraSPARC IV, which integrates
two US III cores on one die. It is pin compatible with the US III
socket to simplify system upgrades, but it still offers memory subsystem
improvements and improved reliability, accessibility, and serviceability
(RAS) features.
The next new processor core will be the UltraSPARC V in 2005. The
US V will support two threads, visual instruction set (VIS) 3.0
multimedia extensions, additional RAS features, and what Sun terms
“aggressive performance enhancements.”
In 2005, Sun also plans to introduce a blade processor that it promises
will offer 15 times the throughput of the 650MHz UltraSPARC IIi—an
audacious goal. The processor is code-named Niagara, and it integrates
eight UltraSPARC II cores per die; each core can support four threads.
Sun’s new roadmap represents a huge challenge for the company, but
it has thrown caution to the winds and is making significant processor
promises for the next three years.
Microprocessor Report readers can access the full story here:
www.mdronline.com/mpr/h/2003/0414/171501.html. To find out more
about Microprocessor Report, please visit:
www.mdronline.com.
Kevin Krewell - Senior Editor {04/14/2003}
On April 8, 2003, Intel and VIA Technology
suddenly announced settlement of all outstanding legal actions between
the two companies and signed a 10-year patent cross-license agreement,
ending an acrimonious series of legal battles. The comprehensive
agreement settles 11 pending cases in five countries involving 27
patents. As part of the announcement, VIA will be able to produce
Intel-compatible x86 processors and chip sets for a specified period.
VIA agreed to pay Intel unspecified royalties on some of its products.
As part of the agreement, Intel granted VIA a license to sell microprocessors
that are x86 compatible. In a move reminiscent of the AMD-Intel
agreement from 1995, VIA relinquished future rights to produce microprocessors
with an Intel-compatible bus. VIA does have a three-year period
during which it can produce processors with an Intel-compatible
bus. After the three-year grace period, VIA must become fully independent.
Intel gave VIA a four-year period to design and manufacture chip
sets compatible with Intel microprocessors and an additional year
for sales and OEM sales of Intel-compatible chip sets. After that
period, VIA would presumably be out of the Intel-compatible chip-set
business.
Microprocessor Report readers can access the full story here:
www.mdronline.com/mpr/h/2003/0414/171504.html. To find out more
about Microprocessor Report, please visit:
www.mdronline.com.
Kevin Krewell - Senior Editor {04/07/2003}
AMD recently launched a barrage of notebook
processors, just as Intel released its Centrino platform and the
Pentium M processor. The new processors include a significant change
for AMD, as it has released low-voltage versions of the Athlon XP-M
processor with a 25W-maximum power envelope designed to fit into
thin-and-light notebooks. AMD finally has a part it can sell into
the more-stylish notebooks and notebooks for corporate use. AMD
also has an 802.11 wireless data chip set but does not bundle it
in the same manner that Intel does with the Centrino branding program.
AMD does not offer its own mobile chip set, relying on third-party
solutions from ATI, SiS, and VIA.
Microprocessor Report readers can access the full story here:
www.mdronline.com/mpr/h/2003/0407/171403.html. To find out more
about Microprocessor Report, please visit:
www.mdronline.com.
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