Intel promises fast Penryn in 2007

General Topics
1

http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/03/28/penryn/index.php

2

Question for people that have used x86 chips for years:

first read this:

Nehalem will provide another leap in processing power by assigning two computing threads to each core, resulting in 16 threads for an eight-core chip that could deliver speedy performance for certain parallel applications.

To me this sounds like Hyperthreading, am I correct?

3

You are … Hyperthreading is coming back :slight_smile:

Things are not looking well for AMD …

4

Dave?

Yes HAL.

Could we get one of those new Intel chips?

No HAL, let’s wait and see what AMD comes up with. Then we’ll talk about it.

O.K. Dave.

HAL?

Yes Dave.

Open the pod bay doors HAL.

I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.

5

Things have been bad for AMD since intel dropped netburst :slight_smile:

6

Does AMD support SMP(Hyperthreading) in any of their chips?

7

Yes, read here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symmetric_multiprocessing#SMP_capable_operating_systems

Out of curiosity, what “consumer” applications would you think would benefit from this architecture?

8

Here’s a little different slant on the same story…

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/technology/29chip-web.html

9

And yet another story on the same subject:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=4748&tag=nl.e622

10

Actually I meant does any AMD chip support Hyperthreading

11

Nope.

12

Mostly video and photo edditing applications but also some games are able to utilize 2 threads.

13

No. Though AMD holds a patent on hyperthread technology (*), they appear to be going in a different direction…

Read here:

http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/index.cfm?newsID=5828&pagtype=all

And here:

http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2006Apr/bch20060417035855.htm

That’s why I made this comment earlier in this thread:

I’m curious… Would you guys be kind enough to cite a couple of sources on the following comments?

Thanks.

Edit:

(*) AMD to do HyperThreading? (AMD’s 1996 patent says it can–if it wants to)

http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2002Dec/wbc20021218017832.htm

14

Thanks for the response. :slight_smile:

15

Orangecrate my reference for my statement is AMD’s stock price which has been on a downward slope for quite some time and the fact that Apple chose intel over AMD(most of what comes out of my mouth is based on Apple anyway ;))

Thanks for the links on AMD’s patent

16
I'm curious... Would you guys be kind enough to cite a couple of sources on the following comments?

Well i was speaking my personal opinion not citing anyone. From what i’ve read about these new AMD chips(k10 , k8l or barcelona or whatever you wanna call them) i believe they will be slightly faster than Intel’s current Conroe and Kentsfield chips but i predict that it won’t be that much better. And i am also willing to bet that as soon as AMD releases their k10 cpu’s Intel will be able to respond quite easily by refreshing their current lineup(eg. adding more l2 cache and increasing cpu clocks) and in a couple months Penryn will also be ready so AMD is in for some hard times. But i wasn’t just thinking about the cpu wars with my comment but also about the graphics wars.
Remember ATI is now under AMD(it cost them ALOT of money to buy ATI) and they also seem to be having ALOT of trouble releasing their “revolutionary” new dx10 graphics core(r600) while Nvidia has been making money with their geforce 8 series(g80) for months now . AMD is really loosing their market share fast(both the CPU and graphics market) and they will have to do something about that soon or they will get eaten alive by Chipzilla(Intel) and the Green Team(Nvidia) . Well i certainly hope that won’t happen because afterall competition is good for us end users right ? :wink: