RSSAMD Makes Wildcard Play with Triple-Core Phenom
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published September 17, 2007, 8:01 PM
In a move that was successfully kept secret, for the most part, until late last week when the first rumor whispers were widely repeated, AMD is making an unprecedented, near-term adjustment to its technology roadmap. As soon as the first half of next year, the company now plans to introduce into the desktop CPU market a new line of Phenom triple-core processors, whose architecture was christened with the code-name Toliman just hours ago.
The existence of Triple-Core Phenom was revealed to members of the press this evening at a special West Coast press briefing late today. "Normally we do not make a press announcement or do analyst's briefings on a roadmap update," AMD's Desktop Division brand manager Simon Solotko told BetaNews, "but this roadmap update includes a change which we have withheld from the market primarily due to competitive reasons. AMD had an opportunity which we've known about for some time to provide an exciting product in the market, and we have decided at this point to come forward with our plan to release that product."
It is essentially the same processor as AMD announced last May, but with one fewer core. During that May introduction, AMD told reporters it was now perceiving the desktop computer market as four segments rather than the typical three (value/mainstream/performance). That fourth segment falls in-between the third and fourth tier, and represents a customer who's willing to pay more for better multimedia performance and faster applications, but who isn't necessarily a system builder or a gamer.
"There exists an attractive area - what I'll call 'high-end mainstream,"' said Solotko, "that we predict will exist well throughout '08 and into '09, at extremely attractive price points."
The product is so new that no diagrams or test results exist for it yet, but as BetaNews was told, think of the company's "true quad-core architecture" for Phenom, and simply X out one of those cores. You might think that wasn't possible, given what was known to date about the company's crossbar switch architecture - a design innovation AMD introduced as far back as 2002 with its single-core Athlons, even when a second core didn't exist yet.
AMD already had a dual-core rendition of its quad-core "Agena" and "Agena FX" Phenom processors slated for the first half of 2008. But Solotko told BetaNews that the company saw a significant opportunity to fill a gap in its product offering, since its lowest-frequency quad-core Phenoms won't exactly dovetail with its highest-frequency dual-core Athlons.
Like the quad-cores, the Triple-Core Phenom will feature support for DDR2 memory, a shared 2 MB of L3 cache (which is important - the shared cache size is not reduced) and 512 KB of L2 cache per core. But unlike the company's last single-core processors which are also due out in December (the last of AMD's CITIES core design), its new triple-cores will support Socket AM2+.
The company developed Socket AM2+ in order to create a compatibility layer for upgraders down the road: Socket AM3 processors will be downwardly compatible with Socket AM2+, which builds on AM2 but adds support for HyperTransport 3.0 for faster memory throughput. It also adds "split rail" power architecture, which enables new BIOSes to power down unused components while the system is still running. (Socket AM3, due in the second half of 2008, will add support for DDR3 memory.)
AMD offered no details today about frequency breakdown, projected performance, or most importantly, price. But Simon Solotko was willing to say that this may not be the only surprise up the company's sleeve.
We asked him whether the Phenom rollout would now mirror the Barcelona rollout, starting with the low-frequency and low-power models first and holding off the high-performance models until later. Solotko said no. "None of those early market dynamics would be applied to triple-core," he responded to BetaNews.
He then asked the next question himself, and then answered it: "You could ask that question about Phenom quad-core, and my answer to that question would be, I believe that we would have additional good news and surprises as we move closer to market. The Phenom, I think this is one piece of news that we're excited to deliver, and I think we'll have more good news when Phenom comes to market."
Still playing catchup huh AMD? Anyway Intel so far has really impressed me, unfortunately my desktop and laptops with AMD processors just aren't as versatile and provide the performance my Intel ones do. I tried you out AMD and you didn't deliver but please continue trying hopefully one day...
I still dont have any applications that will utilize the dual core or quad cores effectively. Lets the applications catch up to the processors.
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|Lets see how unbiased BetaRumours really is.
I see Intel have launched their Penryn 45nm chips today, lets see if these get featured article status (they should, as they are vastly superior to anything AMD had to offer right now).
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|WTF is worng with you man (whoever you really are)?
both intel and amd gets enough publicity these days. why would you care who chooses to post what news story? there is no conspiracy here, just stupid fanboyizm on your part. if you for some reason chose to fall in love with intel doesn't mean everyone should write about it.
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|hollywood may have a point...depends right?
consumers can freely voice what they think...pro, con, for...against, etc.
However...news sources SHOULD be highly objective and report news as news rather than trying to put their taint on things.
Not many care of course....but it is like a public figure or celebrity touting how good something is, in order to get people to buy into it. Like the guys from comedy central, the 2 comedic satirical news anchors (names witheld) who try to plug mp3 players or social websites.
News needs to have no spin, or it's just some weak attempt at "cutting edge" gritty comedy.
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|Uhhhh.. didn't penryn article get posted before this one?
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|i don't see what not to like - you have a choice to get as many cores as you need/can afford. the "estimated" difference of 25-50$ between 3 and 4 cores is a considerable difference, unlike what you might think not everyone is willing to go "all out" and build latest and reatest 1500$ gaming "rig" (man, i hate that idiotic word) every half a year.
note: i use both intel and amd and not claiming that one is better then then other.
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|I have to say I don't agree. The kind of person who cares how many cores they have, wont mind the extra $25-$50.
Generally if someone is worried about shaving $25 off the price of a computer, they're looking for VALUE computers, not "high end mainstream" computers.
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|" The kind of person who cares how many cores they have, wont mind the extra $25-$50"
Luckly those who find satisfaction in the fact that their "rig" has X ammount of cores are not the majority of cpu buyers. if you have no use for 3 core cpu doesn't mean everyone else doesn't have one either. having choice is always good.
take a moment and look at cpu pricing on new egg. what do you see? price intervals between models can be as low as couple bucks. amd x2's start at ~60$ but the next/better one is only 10$ away. to make things more confusing there is also single core lineup that intersects with dualcore range. so now you must chose if you want a single or dual. 10$ more, and then 5 more, and then 15 more, it all adds up at the end. instead someone can just settle on price point and get whatever he comfortable spending.
so while someone can chose to spend 10$ more for additional 200-400Mhz i don't see why it is not possible that one will settle on 25$ more for 1 additional core.
there is definetly room for 3 core model and having choice is good.
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|So now we know! They can't build a dual-core or quad-core to outperform Intel, so they build something that can't be compared to anything else.
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|and what is wrong with that?
who said they have to chase and mimic intel on everything?
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|I agree i have a amd fx62 and it is blazing fast and i could care less of somebody out there has an intel quad core that's faster than me i like the idea that next year if i can't afford to buy a quad the 3 core might be something i can
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|That's debatable... and btw i'm on intel now.
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|What a waste of time.
The price gap between a mid-speed dual core and slower quad core is very small. I'm not up on AMD pricing but the SLOWEST DualCore Intel chip of the current generation (1.8 GHz) is $178, the slowest Quad core (2.4GHz) is $278...exactly $100 difference.
If you tried to put the 3-core processor at the midway point it would be $228. However for the same price, you could get a 2.4 GHz Dual core.
So what are you going to do? Make a slower clocked 3-core somewhere in between? A faster speed 3-core for a little more? At that point the price difference becomes so small, that anyone looking for "extra cores" would just spend the extra $25-$50 for a quad core.
Exactly who do they think they're going to attract?
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|I agree 100% with your post.
It's obvious AMD is lacking creative yet technologically pushing ideas of late.
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|I don't think they would use the pricing scheme you suggested. It would make more sense if they priced it to compete with Intel's dual core at the same speed.
It would be interesting to compare Intel's dual core with AMD triple core at the same speed and price.
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|It's hardly a waste of time if it sells chips. All discussions regarding it are largely academic at the moment anyway. Until there are benchmark results there is no valid way to decide whether it's worth buying. If the toliman outperforms the intel cpu at the same price point then it's a winner and that's what you should base your decisions on - not the number of cores.
Anyone else think of the banana boat song whenever you hear the name? "Hey AMD Toliman. tally me banana." :)
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|why not the quad-core. three cores reminds me of the 3 cylinder geo metro. put more focus on the quad or octo core.
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|I prefer to think of it as a 3-rotor Mazda. :)
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|You mean the 3-cylinder geo metro that was getting almost 50mpg highway...about 15 years ago?
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|BetaRumours
Sponsored by AMD.
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|Huh?
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|Get your own name.
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|Within a few years, it will be hard to tell if we're hearing chip ads or razor ads. More blades or more cores. Track 5 meet Core 5. Then they'll be self-lubricating cores that pivot to adjust to dynamic loads. Probably a comfort grip also.
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|yes, but will they anticipate exactly when you want them to pivot, self lubricate, and when you dont want the comfort grip? or when you want a kung fu grip for that matter
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