Intel vs. AMD

AMD touts Barcelona, 45nm plans in the face of losses

By Jon Stokes | Published: May 04, 2007 - 12:21PM CT

The Inquirer has a report from an AMD shareholder meeting in which CEO Hector Ruiz reiterated that the company's long-known plans to move to 45nm in mid-2008 are still on track. Recall that AMD and IBM are fab partners at the 45nm node, so all of the recent hubbub around high-k dielectrics will benefit AMD directly. AMD's 65nm Dresden fab is currently transitioning to the new 45nm SOI process, and IBM's two fabs in NY will join it at that node. IBM and AMD will arrive at 45nm a few months behind Intel, with the latter company gearing up to bring its 45nm Penryn products to market later this year.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/pos...rcelona-45nm-plans-in-the-face-of-losses.html
Related Stories

* AMD demos Barcelona, claims 42% floating-point edge vs. Xeon

Speaking of New York and fabs, AMD is wrapping up work on the initial design for its forthcoming Fab 4X in Malta, NY. The fab won't go online until sometime in 2009, and that's assuming that the company breaks ground on it relatively soon. And whether or not AMD starts building will probably depend on how their (currently troubled) financial outlook develops.

A process shrink isn't the only weapon that AMD will use in its fight to regain momentum and marketshare. Barcelona is still headed for a summer release, according to comments that AMD's Randy Allen made to InformationWeek. Allen also insisted that the ramp-up to quad core will happen at a similar pace to the ramp-up to dual core, which would put the company's shipments at a 50/50 dual-core/quad-core mix if they can pull it off. As tech pundits are fond of pointing out, Barcelona has to deliver the goods, and it's possible that it may. But it's going to face off against the 45nm Penryn from Intel, and judging by the preliminary performance numbers that Intel has released, Penryn is no slouch.

This summer's launch will also see the codenames Barcelona (server quad-core) and Agena (desktop quad-core) disappear in favor of a suite of new product name. A rumor cropped up last month on a Polish site, PClab.pl, that AMD would be ditching the venerable Athlon desktop brand name for a new Phenom (pronounced like "venom") mark. Dailytech just got more confirmation of this rumor, along with a product matrix for what AMD will be calling its "Stars" family of processors. There's no word yet on what, if anything, will replace the Opteron mark. For a listing of clockspeeds, socket types, TDPs, brand names, and other data, check out the slide at Dailytech.

After the new quad-core family is introduced, AMD will migrate it to the aforementioned 45nm process in mid-2008. The 45nm shrink will also see the introduction of an on-die DDR3 controller. Intel, on the other hand, will make the jump to DDR3 next week when they announce their new Bearlake chipset. Word is that the initial run of DDR3 won't be that impressive when put next to beefed-up DDR2 modules, so AMD's delay in moving to the new standard will be less significant than it may sound.

 

Again, Intel is still ahead of the game. AMD going to 45...that's a funny thought. They still haven't caught up to the 65 or conroe and there is the Intel Quad core whoppin a-- on the Amd. If I were Amd investers, I would put my money on Intel.

 

You bring so much insight to the table!!!!

 

At the present time, you're right, it looks pretty bleak for AMD with the CPU department hemorrhaging money, and ATi in the red zone as well, with that situation likely to worsen with the abysmal performance of the new R600 designs.
The market winner at the quad core / 45nm level is yet to be seen, however, and if AMD can make a Pentium D->Core 2 Duo style comeback, then your money that you put down on Intel could prove a little unsafe. I wouldn't bet either way, even if I was a gambler, not yet anyway.
I would, however, place money down on nVidia being the DX10 champ, at least until the next generation (13,000 / 9,000)

 

Thankyou. Maybe you can show me the way and explain yourself a lil better about you statment. Right now you can build killer rigs with AMD for a cheap price. I do.

 

neverhap, Thankyou! Maybe you can show me the way and explain your statement better with facts. Right now you can build killer rigs with AMD.
I do!

 

Estuansis,

I sure hope you have an SPDIF connection on your speakers. I connect mine with a cable. The GA-965P-DS3 v1.33 I have supports High Definition Audio. When you watch a DVD with PDVD-7 the sound is awsome! It's PL-II at it's very best. This is the greatest MB I ever owned! It's also the best computer I've ever built! Put an 8800 in here and it would be a hell of a gamer!

It looks good as well! When I took it out of the box, you could see the care and quality that went in to building it. Everything's straight with no lopsided components. Soldering is first rate. No memory problems or BSODs starting up. Once I realized the I had to do a fresh install of XP-Pro, it was easy! It's run everything I've thrown at it and is very fast! Best $99 I ever spent!

Happy Computering,
theone

 

To be fair, BSODs on bootup and floppy components tends to suggest damage or DOA these days, I've never heard it being a regular occurrence, perhaps I just bought the better product. I use S/PDIF on my sound card but unfortunately I can only use Pro-Logic 2 with the cheap SB External (i.e. Stereo) over it, and it doesn't seem to work properly, I much prefer the genuine 5.1 the analog connectors provide.

 

sammorris,

Just go back and read some of the OC Forums, back when the Conroes first came out. There was a lot of that sort of thing as the bios manufacturers and motherboard designers struggled to make it all work.

Considering the problems I had with 2 P5N-E SLIs and all the BSODs I got and then go to a third MB that worked perfectly. I only had 1 BSOD after that and it was my fault for not having the memory in slots 2 and 4 (a problem that still needs fixing!). I also had one hang on the boot, restarting after a bios change, so I guess the third of the same model MB was the better product! LOL

In contrast, the GA-965P-DS3 was a walk in the park! I'm very glad I went that route with my E4300!

Happy Computering,
theone

 

Mmm, I'm thinking perhaps it would have been for me too. I run the memory in slots 2 & 4 for heat reasons, I had no idea about the stability issue.

 

theone

so are you saying that if you have to sticks of memory that they should go in slots 2 and 4 because they could cause problems in the others?

 

redice,

It's what Asus recommends for the P5N-E SLI. It's well documented in their Forum.

It seems that it will run all right with a single stick of memory in slot 1, but if you use 2 sticks in slots 1 and 3, it BSODs at Windows startup. Moving the sticks to slots 2 and 4 solves the problem. If you call Asus Technical Service with a BSOD issue, that's the first thing they ask you, is what slots the memory is installed in!

Happy Computering,
theone

 

Hmm, and it doesn't stop there!

 

theone

ok thanks so its only for that board.

 

redice,

I don't actually know. I was having problems with a new build and pretty much looked up everything I could find regarding the P5N-E SLI. This just happened to be the most common problem with it at the time. As an experiment, when I got it all up and overclocked, I put the memory sticks back in slots 1 and 3 to see what would happen. It BSOD'd at the Windows welcome screen. When I switched it back to 2 and 4, it worked fine!

Best Regards,
theone

 

theone

ok thanks for the info on that board and the memory. i will keep that in mind so if i ever get that board or run into somebody with it.

 

Finally got my board ordered. I'll be back in action by Friday.

 

Estuansis,

It would sure be nice if you got a v1.33 MB this time. It rocks!

Best Regards,
theone

 

Yeah, I'm looking for v1.33 when I get the board.

I'll torture it first before I decide to overclock it. I'm not risking the same happening.

 

mine have always been in the yellow (1+3) slots and mines been fine. having said that moving to the black slots has fixxed alot of issues for people on the forums.

i still think i was luckey with this mobo as it seems to not have alot of the major issuse others have reported.

please note the asus forums are used by end users only, not staff.