Multicore is here to stay, but how many
cores do we need? While more typically
is better, AMD is looking to fill a gap
between dual- and quad-core chips with
the tri-core Phenom for desktops. The
Phenom likely will start out as a quadcore
chip with one core disabled, but it
will be priced between two-core and fourcore
chips. It will find a home as long as
there remains enough of a price gap
between its siblings.
Still, power users and servers will push
the quad cores to the limit. The latest
from Intel, the Quad-Core Xeon 7300
series processors, start with a 50-W,
1.86-GHz version for high-density, lowpower
solutions and range up to 130-W,
2.93-GHz chips for high-performance
solutions. Pricing starts at $856.
The latest Xeons employ a
1066-Mtransaction/s dedicated highspeed
interconnect (DHSI). Intel's
QuickPath Interconnect system architecture
will be used in chips expected
next year. The quad-core Xeons come
with 8 Mbytes of L2 cache, half of
which can be dedicated to a single
core. The chips support Intel's I/O
Acceleration Technology and Virtual
Machine Device Queues (VMDq).
On the server side, AMD has delivered
quad-core Opterons that maintain
the triple Direct Connect Architecture
HyperTransport links. Like Intel,
AMD has its enhanced virtual
machine and virtualized I/O support,
including AMD's Rapid Virtualization
Indexing of nested tables designed to
reduce the overhead of virtualmachine
monitors (VMMs). Each
core's clock in the Opteron is independently
controllable.
On the embedded side, AMD released
8- to 25-W versions of its AM2-based,
single-core Athlon 64 processors that
support error-correction code (ECC)
memory for applications like Network
Attached Storage (NAS) and Advanced
Mezzanine Cards (AMCs).
AMD www.amd.com
Intel www.intel.com