AMD: quad-core Opterons 40% faster than four-core Xeons
Jam tomorrow
26th January 2007 10:44 GMT
AMD's 'Barcelona' 65nm quad-core server processors will lick Intel's four-core Xeon 5300 series, out-performing its rival by up to 40 per cent, the chip maker claimed this week, according to a variety of websites briefed by the company.
Maybe, but since no one can actually buy a Barcelona-based machine, the point's moot. By the same token, AMD's rival could claim it will ship a chip that outperforms Barcelona by a similar margin, and we're sure it will. Still, AMD can at least put a time frame on Barcelona's release: it's due mid-2007.
However, that launch schedule is giving Intel time to sell processors to folk who want quad-core chips now. According to Mercury Research analyst Dean McCarron, cited by DailyTech, the quad-core Xeons are putting a "meaningful" amount of business Intel's way. Some of those sales would surely have gone to AMD had it a quad-core CPU on the market.
AMD's big pitch for Barcelona is that its four cores are integrated on one die, connected to 2MB of shared L3 cache. The Xeon 5300s, by contrast, are dual-core dies bonded together in a single chip package. Intel's plans for 45nm quad-core Xeons, expected to be launched in the second half of the year, continue to be based on this one chip, two dies approach.
Print
Retweet
Intel Core i7 I7-920 Quad Core Processor (2.66GHz, 4x256kB, 4.8GT/s QPI, LGA 1336 Socket B)
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Quad Core Processor (3.4GHz, 6MB L3 Cache, 4x512KB L2 Cache, 2000 MHz Bus, Socket AM3)
Asus P7P55D Motherboard (Intel Socket H LGA1156, P55 Express, ATX, 16GB DDR3)
Intel Core i5 750 Qaud Core Processor (2.66GHz, 8MB L3 Cache, 2.5 GT/s Bus, Socket H LGA1156)
Asus M4A785TD-V EVO AMD 785G/SB710 Socket AM3 ATX Motherboard
