NEW AMD News

[Nflight]

I just figured since no one knows much about when the new Barcelona Chips were going to be released I would take the initiative and call the company representatives. Here is the phone number I called: 408-749-3060, you will have to wait out the silly recording but you eventually get a real live person.

So where is the Barcelona Processor and when will it be released to the public? Ah Ha, the person who spoke English on the other end of the phone said in 17 Days from Today, so that places the Date at September 10, 2007.

September 10, 2007 Barcelona will appear, Whoopee !

The man I spoke with in person said there was a small delay that occurred by it is now behind them and all is well. That is exactly what I wanted to know.

[mitchellds]

well I'm anticipating seeing the benchy's to see how it matches up to intels quads in performance, and then see the Oc'ing/price/value comparison to intel. I HOPE AMD gets this right, and it wasnt all hype for the last 2 years. It could really be curtains for them if they dont.

[BlackAdder]

I hope too that this chip will be worth the wait...but I'm still not switching to Intel until i can no longer get any AMD chips worth running.

[Nflight]

http://www.dailytech.com/AMD+Unveils...rticle6299.htm

Lots of Great Reading here folks!

Oops I think I shorted out my keyboard I was drooling, and poof out came white smoke, thank god for a backup!

[LeBo]

Time will tell how good these new AMD chips will be ?????

[AMDave]

AMD Gamer website went live 7th September 2007:
http://game.amd.com/

Also, I am hovering over the Tom's Hardware CPU Reviews page waiting for the first benchmarks:
http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/cpureviews/index.html

[Brucifer]

Sort of a let down though. Gotta spend the bucks for Opterons and the motherboards. And even 2.3gigs isn't really rocking it. There's stuff out there that has to have the clock speed... specially since so much of the software world *still* hasn't taken advantage of the 64-bit instruction set. I really expected AMD to be a little more agressive towards the hard core gamer/cruncher world. Whether or not the chip really functions as a good server remains to be seen also. So all in all I think AMD rather blew it. Should have had benchmarks out for the release and all that stuff too.

If that stuff doesn't run circles around the Intel stuff, all the yaking in the world isn't going to make a bit of difference whether it is a native quad vs two duo's....... Underwhelming... and I've been a hard core AMD fan since they came out.

[AMDave]

My expectations of this month's release was a bit different.

From my readings on the subject in the last two months, I anticipated the next real "breakthrough" developments to occur with/after the phenom release early-to-mid 2008 on the next fabrication upgrade.

In the short term I expected AMD to produce a set of quads that would allow the owners of commercial grids with dual opterons to double-up as this is where AMD's greatest current investment is in the CPU market. This month's release looks to enable that to happen and hopefully with that upgrade path AMD will secure the loyalty of those investors. As a consequence, those of us with suitable motherboards can double-up as well.

I see that it is very important for AMD to secure the long term commitment of their commercial base as it is this investment that allows them to pursue and implement the next technological breakthrough.

I am heartened by this release.

The Barcelona, per the article, has several developments that will push the benchmarks, for example in terms of memory throughput. These improvements are over-and-above the addition of 2 more cores. The next set of designs on the new fabrication tech are going to be "phenom"-inal. (hehe. couldn't resist)

Aside from the pending benchmarks, I look forward to seeing the real results in the DC projects. That's where we get to see all the different kinds of "work-done" rates that stress-test the fundamental abilities of a core.

I must agree about the lack of 64-bit driver and software development. Hardware has completely out-stripped the software. There are not too many valid excuses for this. There are 64-bit opportunities flooding into the market but the driver and application writers are sitting on their hands and giving us a terrible impression of them. Those who are taking the initiative are likely to become the next household brand-name. That is all there is to it. Don't be afraid to lobby your favorite software or device provider. If they don't come to the party, I'd find someone else who does.

[AMDave]

I like this bit

Instead of providing power numbers based on the generally used "thermal design power" (TDP) rating, the company provides power consumption performance specifications for Barcelona based on ACP (Average CPU Power), a rating that AMD also introduced today. Rather than specifying the worst case scenario, the company told us that it is trying to provide a real world indication, how much power these CPUs will consume. While the HE versions of Barcelona have a TDP of 65W, AMD says that these processors will not consume more than 55W (ACP); the standard versions carry a TDP of 95W, but should not use more than 75W in real-world applications, AMD says.

Uhu. That is until we get hold of them. We'll stick it to the TDP rating and keep it there. LOL