AMD M2 launch info....

[Dirk]

.....here.

So the high end part at launch will be the Fx-62 @ 2.8Ghz, 200Mhz faster than the current fx-60. I wonder if they would both top out at the same clock speed and how would the performance compare in their respective sockets?

What with AMDs growing success, a new socket and Dell 'considering' using AMD processors Intel must be starting to get nervous

 

[Strings]

Its going to be a while till M2 becomes fully used I think. Considering how cheap you can get AMD64 processors atm that do the job fine.

 

[ajgoodfellow]

Just read that - no single core A64s with 1MB of L2 cache for socket M2 apparantely

That's a shame

 

[james.miller]

However, AMD will introduce an Athlon 64 X2 5000+ clocked at 2.6 GHz and equipped with 1x 1 MB L2 cache.

unless that's a type, there'll be one

 

[Havana_UK]

That's an X2 though, not a straight A64...

Hav

 

[FrankJH]

how can you have an X2 with only one block of L2 cache?

or did you mean 2*1Mb cache?

 

[james.miller]

tha'ts what im saying - it's listed as 1x1mb.

 

[Hesky82]

so there not going to can the single core a64's then
must be a typo

 

[NathanE]

so there not going to can the single core a64's then
must be a typo

Why? It's inevitable. Single core is very much taking a back seat this year and soon enough they will be marketed as "budget chips". It would not surprise me at all if AMD reserve their M2 platform for dual/multi-core systems only.

 

[Hesky82]

sorry, was with regards to the 1x1mb cache comment

 

[warnea1984]

I am not sure but maybe the duel cores have 1x1mb of cache and the 2 cores share the cache between them, if they can both access the same data in the cache surely that would make duel cores faster as they can work on the same data. Also would save space on the die.

Makes sense to me but I maybe wrong I am no microprocessor enginner

 

[james.miller]

here will be 2 x 1 MB or 2 x 512 KB L2 cache for the dual cores, 512 KB L2 cache for the single core Athlon 64 models and 256 KB for the Sempron series.

dual cores with 1mb of conbined L2 are listed as 2x512kb.

 

[FrankJH]

And as far as I understand it not only is it impossible for them to build a dual core with shared cache ( the way the cores are designed means they would have to have independent cache for each core) its also a lot cheaper for cpu manufactur to use identical etch for multi cores as they do for single - no real "faffing" about is is required they just double the etch.

Also I believe its possible for them to test the cpu core while still on the silicon wafer - and I believe that would be impossible if it required cache from another cpu somewhere else

Maybe I am getting too complicated ( it happens often) but I thinnk most of you wil get what i amtalking about

 

[NathanE]

it impossible for them to build a dual core with shared cache ( the way the cores are designed means they would have to have independent cache for each core)

Intel did exactly this with Yonah. So there's no reason AMD can't too. The good thing with a shared cache is each core can use the full amount if it needs to. There is a small disadvantage though because of the logic required to keep the cache concurrent for both cores but it's easily outweighed by gains elsewhere in the CPU.

 

[Otacon]

Dell 'considering' using AMD processors Intel must be starting to get nervous

I wouldn't read too much into that. While there's more evidence of a potential possibility Dell will start selling Intel, we've been here before. I think they just hint a few things to put at the back of the mind of whoever negotiates the Intel contract with them.

I'd love to see it happen, though. Dells excellent server support is the only thing tying me to Intel, from a business point of view.