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AMD planning 45nm 12-Core 'Istanbul' Processor ?
http://www.dailytech.com/Dodecacore+...ticle11531.htm
Hardware Dodeca-co The Megahertz Race is Now Officially the Multi- core Race AMD engineers reveal details about the company's upcoming 45nm processor roadmap, including plans for 12-core processors "Shanghai! Shanghai!" the reporters cry during the AMD's financial analyst day today. Despite the fact that the company will lay off nearly 5% of its work force this week, followed by another 5% next month, most employees interviewed by DailyTech continue to convey an optimistic outlook. The next major milestone for the CPU engineers comes late this year, with the debut of 45nm Shanghai. Shanghai, for all intents and purposes, is nearly identical to the B3 stepping of Socket 1207 Opteron (Barcelona) shipping today. However, where as Barcelona had its HyperTransport 3.0 clock generator fused off, Shanghai will once again attempt to get HT3.0 right. Original roadmaps anticipated that HT3.0 would be used for socket-to- socket communication, but also for communication to the Southbridge controllers. Motherboard manufacturers have confirmed that this is no longer the case, and that HT3.0 will only be used for inter-CPU communication. "Don't be disappointed, AMD is making up for it," hints one engineer. Further conversations revealed that inter-CPU communication is going to be a big deal with the 45nm refresh. The first breadcrumb comes with a new "native six-core" Shanghai derivative, currently codenamed Istanbul. This processor is clearly targeted at Intel's recently announced six-core, 45nm Dunnington processor. But sextuple-core processors have been done, or at least we'll see the first ones this year. The real neat stuff comes a few months after, where AMD will finally ditch the "native-core" rhetoric. Two separate reports sent to DailyTech from AMD partners indicate that Shanghai and its derivatives will also get twin-die per package treatment. AMD planned twin-die configurations as far back as the K8 architecture, though abandoned those efforts. The company never explained why those processors were nixed, but just weeks later "native quad-core" became a major marketing campaign for AMD in anticipation of Barcelona. A twin-die Istanbul processor could enable 12 cores in a single package. Each of these cores will communicate to each other via the now-enabled HT3.0 interconnect on the processor. The rabbit hole gets deeper. Since each of these processors will contain a dual-channel memory controller, a single-core can emulate quad-channel memory functions by accessing the other dual-channel memory controller on the same socket. This move is likely a preemptive strike against Intel's Nehalem tri-channel memory controller. Motherboard manufacturers claim Shanghai and its many-core derivatives will be backwards compatible with existing Socket 1207 motherboards. However, processor-to-processor communication will downgrade to lower HyperTransport frequencies on these older motherboards. The newest 1207+ motherboards will officially support the HyperTransport 3.0 frequencies. Shanghai is currently taped out and running Windows at AMD. .................................................. .................................................. ................................. http://blogs.zdnet.com/processors/?p=162 AMD can’t get to 45nm fast enough. A 12-core package? If there was a bright spot in AMD’s first quarter, it was the new PC and graphics products that have either recently shipped or are in the pipeline for 2008. Barcelona, the company’s quad-core design manufactured using a 65nm process, bombed last year. Meanwhile, Intel is minting millions of 45nm chips. So it’s no surprise that AMD is shifting to 45nm processors as quickly as possible. During the earnings call last week, AMD executives said the 45nm processor, code-named Shanghai, was on track and would be shipping in volume in the fourth quarter. By all accounts, Shanghai is largely a “shrink” of the recently-released B3 version of Barcelona, which corrected a flaw in the original design. But Daily Tech reports that AMD has more ambitious plans for the 45nm design. Citing AMD engineers, the site says AMD will produce a six-core version, code-named Istanbul, and then, in a reversal of its “native- quad-core” strategy of putting all cores on a single piece of silicon, offer a two-die package with a total of 12 cores. The two processors will be connected using AMD’s HyperTransport 3.0 bus. To be clear, this platform is designed for the server and workstation market. Based on recent presentations, AMD will also release a 45nm enthusiast desktop platform, code-named Leo, later this year that will consist of triple-core and quad-core chips. Mainstream and budget desktops, as well as business systems, will continue to use platforms based on 65nm processors until sometime in 2009. .................................................. .................................................. ................................. http://www.gadgetell.com/tech/commen...for-late-2008/ AMD readying 12-core 45nm processors for late 2008 by David Gonzales on Apr 19, 2008 at 10:29 PM Forget quad-core, AMD is preparing a dodeca-core chip. If you didn’t stay in boarding school if you need refreshing with your greek vocabulary, dodeca means 12, and that’s 12 cores for you right there. Imagine, a dozen times faster than a normal chip. But how fast does one’s computer ever really need to be? AMD doesn’t seem to care if there’s an answer to that question or not (just as its closest competitor Intel doesn’t), and moves on with their plan to produce a 12-core processor to be released by late 2008. It will reportedly be called the Shanghai, and will be a 45nm successor to their not-so- successful Barcelona chip. The AMD Shanghai will supposedly come with HyperTransport 3.0 and six cores so it can stand up against Intel’s upcoming Dunnington chips in a race towards becoming the fastest processors on Earth. And while the six-core variety of the Shanghai isn’t even close to coming to market, AMD already has plans for a follow-up: a 12-core version, called Istanbul, packing 12 cores (what else?) and HyperTransport 3.0 interconnect as well. Get that? The first version of this product is already 3.0 while some companies can’t even get 2.0 right. That’s what they meant with all the numbers, right? .................................................. .................................................. ................................. http://www.electronista.com/articles...45nm.shanghai/ AMD talks 45nm Shanghai w/12-cores, HyperTransport 3 AMD engineers this week said that the company plans on introducing new 12-core processors later this year. The first processors based on 45nm Shanghai platform are due later this year and will be nearly identical to the B3 variant of the Socket 1207 Opteron (Barcelona) shipping today, according to DailyTech. The processors will reportedly use the faster HyperTransport 3.0 for inter-CPU communication and will debut later this year as a "native six-core" Shanghai derivative, currently code-named Istanbul. That processor, the report claims, is "clearly targeted at Intel's recently announced six-core, 45nm Dunnington processor." A few months later, Shanghai and its derivatives will also get twin-die per package treatment, allowing for up to 12-cores per package, the report says. Each of these processors will contain a dual-channel memory controller, allowing a single-core to emulate quad-channel memory functions by accessing the other dual-channel memory controller on the same socket and offering an alternative to Intel's Nehalem tri-channel memory controller, DailyTech notes. Citing motherboard manufacturers, the report says that Shanghai and its multiple-core derivatives will be backwards compatible with existing Socket 1207 motherboards, but that processor-to-processor communication will downgrade to lower HyperTransport frequencies on older motherboards. The publication also notes that the newer 1207+ motherboards will officially support the HyperTransport 3.0 frequencies. |
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AMD planning 45nm 12-Core 'Istanbul' Processor ?
AirRaid wrote:
AMD planned twin-die configurations as far back as the K8 architecture, though abandoned those efforts. The company never explained why those processors were nixed, but just weeks later "native quad-core" became a major marketing campaign for AMD in anticipation of Barcelona. A twin-die Istanbul processor could enable 12 cores in a single package. Each of these cores will communicate to each other via the now-enabled HT3.0 interconnect on the processor. The rabbit hole gets deeper. Since each of these processors will contain a dual-channel memory controller, a single-core can emulate quad-channel memory functions by accessing the other dual-channel memory controller on the same socket. This move is likely a preemptive strike against Intel's Nehalem tri-channel memory controller. Well, at least there is an air of practicality entering AMD's designs now. Twin-die 12-cores will get them to market much sooner. Yousuf Khan |
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AMD planning 45nm 12-Core 'Istanbul' Processor ?
Is this the followup to the "Constantinople" core?
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AMD planning 45nm 12-Core 'Istanbul' Processor ?
On Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:07:36 -0400, Yousuf Khan
wrote: AirRaid wrote: AMD planned twin-die configurations as far back as the K8 architecture, though abandoned those efforts. The company never explained why those processors were nixed, but just weeks later "native quad-core" became a major marketing campaign for AMD in anticipation of Barcelona. A twin-die Istanbul processor could enable 12 cores in a single package. Each of these cores will communicate to each other via the now-enabled HT3.0 interconnect on the processor. The rabbit hole gets deeper. Since each of these processors will contain a dual-channel memory controller, a single-core can emulate quad-channel memory functions by accessing the other dual-channel memory controller on the same socket. This move is likely a preemptive strike against Intel's Nehalem tri-channel memory controller. Well, at least there is an air of practicality entering AMD's designs now. Twin-die 12-cores will get them to market much sooner. Yousuf Khan They'd better don't screw up on this one - they already used up all the margin of error they had, and then some. But then, it's not the first time AMD is on the brink of extinction, and they always came back even stronger than anyone, including but not limited to INTC, could expect. K7 in 1999, K8 in 2003 - both times Intel got their ass whipped big time for a couple years straight... Why not this time again? Wish them luck - without AMD the whole CPU world would be boring and damn expensive. NNN |
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AMD planning 45nm 12-Core 'Istanbul' Processor ?
They'd better don't screw up on this one - they already used up all the margin of error they had, and then some. But then, it's not the first time AMD is on the brink of extinction, and they always came back even stronger than anyone, including but not limited to INTC, could expect. K7 in 1999, K8 in 2003 - both times Intel got their ass whipped big time for a couple years straight... Why not this time again? Wish them luck - without AMD the whole CPU world would be boring and damn expensive. NNN Intel got their butts whipped because of their own greed and short sightedness. The Pentium 4 was a wrong way dead end street, and it took Intel a long time to realize that. The P4 is a rather inefficient processor, and it was not difficult for AMD to make something much faster. Intels marketing machine did like Microsoft - they hyped it up and pushed it with everything they had. AMD got complacent and made a huge mistake with the Phenom. Phenom easily kicks the P4s butt, but Intel's core microarchitecture runs circles around it. The ball is in AMDs court and I can't wait to see what AMD does with it... Multi cores are nothing new - Sun has had them for years, and IIRC they are working on (and may be in production with) a 16 core/32 threaded cpu. Last Monday I saw plans for a 256 core cpu, but I don't think it's in production yet. It is, however, the future. We can't clock the current technology much faster without exotic cooling, and we can't get much smaller then we are now, but we can slap dozens of cores on a cpu and make up for it to some extant. |
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AMD planning 45nm 12-Core 'Istanbul' Processor ?
They'd better don't screw up on this one - they already used up all
the margin of error they had, and then some. But then, it's not the first time AMD is on the brink of extinction, and they always came back even stronger than anyone, including but not limited to INTC, could expect. K7 in 1999, K8 in 2003 - both times Intel got their ass whipped big time for a couple years straight... Why not this time again? Wish them luck - without AMD the whole CPU world would be boring and damn expensive. NNN Let's hope they can pull it off. I'm still waiting for a dual core from them that actually signifigantly ouperforms my S939 Opteron 185 2Mb unit at 3.2Ghz. The performance increases I've seen from my A8N-E system versus the one I just built for my son, with an X2 5600+ 2Mb unit clocked at 3.2 Ghz are solely due to the newer chipset and DDR2 clockings. I'm looking at upgrading my system in the next few months, and I don't see a Phenom or an X2 6400+ in my future, unfortunately. I swore by the PIII Coppermine and Tualatin line, but then Intel went to the Willamette then Northwood P4's. That's when I started with Bartons, A64's and Opterons. The Intel lineup can't be beat right now, it's been leaps and bounds ahead of AMD for the last couple of years. Intel needs real competition, and not just in the bottom feeder lineup. My T7600 4Mb L2 Core2Duo runs circles around both of my 3.2Ghz AMD units. |
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AMD planning 45nm 12-Core 'Istanbul' Processor ?
In article DoxQj.2146$PM5.1745@edtnps92, Augustus wrote:
Let's hope they can pull it off. I'm still waiting for a dual core from them that actually signifigantly ouperforms my S939 Opteron 185 2Mb unit at 3.2Ghz. The performance increases I've seen from my A8N-E system versus the one I just built for my son, with an X2 5600+ 2Mb unit clocked at 3.2 Ghz are solely due to the newer chipset and DDR2 clockings. To a considerable extent, the effect of multiple cores that you notice will depend on whether your apps take advantage of it. A program that insists on running everything in a single thread won't run any faster at all; you might see a slight improvement in responsiveness that comes from the OS getting to schedule your app to run on one processor and itself (or other apps) on another processor, but that's about it. Multithreaded apps can get spread across multiple processors/cores, up to the lesser of what you have installed and what the programmer decided to use. I upgraded one of my machines to a Core 2 Quad Q6600 a while back; mencoder has a limited amount of multithreading support that's available with different codecs. The highest CPU usage I see with one mencoder process transcoding a DVD to H.264 is usually somewhere around 200-250% (400% would be fully loaded on all 4 cores). To take full advantage of the processor, I just do two transcodes at a time. :-) (With the encoding processes niced, it can still play HD MPEG-2 from across the network without any hiccups, too. That slows down encoding a little, as decoding and displaying HD takes up a fair chunk of one core.) _/_ / v \ Scott Alfter (remove the obvious to send mail) (IIGS( http://alfter.us/ Top-posting! \_^_/ rm -rf /bin/laden What's the most annoying thing on Usenet? |
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AMD planning 45nm 12-Core 'Istanbul' Processor ?
I upgraded one of my machines to a Core 2 Quad Q6600 a while back;
mencoder has a limited amount of multithreading support that's available with different codecs. The highest CPU usage I see with one mencoder process transcoding a DVD to H.264 is usually somewhere around 200-250% (400% would be fully loaded on all 4 cores). To take full advantage of the processor, I just do two transcodes at a time. :-) (With the encoding processes niced, it can still play HD MPEG-2 from across the network without any hiccups, too. That slows down encoding a little, as decoding and displaying HD takes up a fair chunk of one core.) I'm using my Opteron 185 box ( as well as an Opteron 180) for digital mixing and music using Cubase 4 on one and Sonar Producer 7 on the other. Both are written for multicore. Both choke when adding and mixing effects in a 10-12 track mix. Badly. I ran Sonar 7 Producer on to the T7600 Dell laptop, installed the same M-Audio MobilePre USB and mixing hardware, and believe me, the Intel Core2Duo setup slows down, but never stops and flakes out. Same memory on each. The Opterons are both running RAID0 setups with 256Kb stripes. The Dell is a 7200RPM laptop HDD. So there's just a bit of difference in multicore ability there. |
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AMD planning 45nm 12-Core 'Istanbul' Processor ?
On Apr 25, 10:21 pm, "
wrote: On Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:07:36 -0400, Yousuf Khan wrote: Wish them luck - without AMD the whole CPU world would be boring and damn expensive. Amdroid fantasy. The PC as a platform is pushed on the low end by game boxes and on the high end by IBM and Sun. What could be more boring than the x86 domination we have now? Without AMD, there would be no such monoculture. As it is, Via is still in the x86 business and will continue in the x86 business, even if AMD fails. No matter what, Intel will have price and performance competition. Things might have progressed more slowly, but Intel would be pushing the fab envelope, anyway, because that's where it's real strength is. Take AMD out of the picture completely and there is still no way for Intel to relax. Robert. |
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AMD planning 45nm 12-Core 'Istanbul' Processor ?
On Sat, 26 Apr 2008 10:17:48 -0700 (PDT), Robert Myers
wrote: What could be more boring than the x86 domination we have now? Without AMD, there would be no such monoculture. Did you mean "without Intel"? NNN |
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