Phenom: first quad core CPU from AMD
Advanced Micro Devices has announced its first quad-core processor for desktops, which it is touting as superior to is counterpart from Intel. Phenom will ship during the second half of the year, following the launch of the AMD’s first quad-core Opteron server chip, codenamed Barcelona, which will compete with Intel’s Xeon. Phenom’s release will trail that of Intel’s Core 2 Duo quad-core desktop chip by probably eight or nine months. But, according to AMD marketing manager for desktop CPUs David Schwarzbach, Intel took a “shortcut on innovation.” AMD contends that Phenom will offer advanced performance because it was built on a quasi-new architecture that was designed for more than two cores, unlike Intel’s. “Intel took two dual cores and put it into one package and said let’s get it out now,” he said. “AMD is taking the time to innovate.”
AMD’s new “Stars” processor architecture, however, was not built for multi-core from scratch: it uses existing sockets. They are backward compatible and support quad-core. Still, Intel’s Core 2 Duo quad-core processor has two dual-cores on the same die, while AMD’s Stars architecture allows four separate cores on one die, which eliminates the front-side bus bottlenecks, according to Schwarzbach. AMD isn’t yet disclosing any specifications of Phenom, so benchmarking is not yet available. Schwarzbach said a dual-core desktop version will also be released, sometime after the quad-core. The company also declined to comment on any plans for a notebook version of Phenom. Even if Phenom lives up to its name and blows past Core 2 Duo performance, it likely won’t pull AMD from its financial hole. Last month, AMD posted a whopping $611m loss, on 7% lower revenues. The chipmaker suffered from pricing wars with Intel, as well as from competitive from Intel’s latest products.
Source: CBR, TGDaily
It’s about time, give it a year an I’ll be upgrading my Opteron 170 to one of these badboys.
my last cpu update was october 2002, damn that’s a long time! by the end of this year I think ill have a new one
Yeah… let’s hope AMD gains some ground - even if just to force more innovation out of intel. Competition is good.
I hope DFI or Abit bring out a nice enthusiast line of boards to run these chips like they did with socket 939.
This should help AMD out a lot, they posted a lot of losses mostly because of the price war with Intel and their recent acquisitions.
I hope that the Phenom isn’t as much of a flop as the quads were for Intel. I really like AMD, but unless this new chip really blows the C2D out of the water, I really fear that $611m deficit is going to only be a bi-annual loss. Intel’s market share is an iron fist in the chip competition, and AMD’s revenue from the X2s is bleeding thin.
For some reason I dont think this will rescue AMD, as Intels chips are awesomely strong at the mom. And as I remember Intel is already working on new faster chips that are supposed to come out at the end of this year or beginning of next? If the chips do work on older boards, wouldnt that be the major flaw? As the chips will be too fast for the boards and therefore their full potential will not be used. In my opinion AMD should introduce a new chip with a new socket, just like they did with their A series. Therefore you would have to buy a new board with the chip that you buy giving you the full potential.
Imo, pricing will determine if this suceeds or fails.
#6 … I AgreE.
Totally agree with Dp. If these are competetively priced, and deliver on the hype, they will kick ass.
Even though I’d buy Intel atm (cheaper and better), I’m still an AMD fanboy. I usually root for the underdog, and here they are.
well intel is going to cut quad6600 to $266 now why would you buy a phenom
heres a link
[url=http://www.hkepc.com/bbs/itnews.php?tid=789466&starttime=0&endtime=0]click here[/url]
oops just copy the url link
amd needs no rescuing did any of u read rewiew of r600 if amd use its arhitecuter for ther cpu intel can go and hang it self at this moment i perfer and have intel cpu but if things turn out the way it seems i think amd iz gona win this battle on quad cores but hey ther iz more octa core and so on and on and soon we are in sci -fi movies world …
STARS lmao sounds like someone has been watching to much resident evil. AMD has really dropped the ball on the naming of this stuff. phenom and stars, christ what next ken and barbie memory chips.
who gives 2 shits what it’s called… who names a chip core? seriously…. though Clawhammer was a freakin’ awesome name….
Anyhoo, AMD may be the underdog in processers but ATI’s graphics chips are more than capable of keepingthe company afloat… Every few years the processer trophy changes hands. Its just a matter of how long.
Why would anybody by AMD over Intel quad core?
Intel took the easy way out by slapping 2 dual cores on one die, resulting in a bottleneck. AMD took their time and came out with a true quad core package.
Business will jump all over Barcelona if it delivers high performance/power efficiency as promised. Phenom will no doubt be the new toy to have in the enthusiast market.
Intel’s price drop will force AMD to stay low priced as well which should open these chips up for the OEM and mainstream markets.
Phenom will work in current Socket-AM2/Socket-1207 motherboards with a BIOS update, but you won’t be able to select individual voltages for the processor and northbridge as opposed to the new AM2+ sockets which support this feature.
awesome but… cant it run DOOM?