RSSAMD Updates Opteron, Adds SSE3
By Nate Mook | Published February 14, 2005, 1:29 PM
AMD has announced three new 64-bit Opteron processors for servers, boosting top speeds to 2.6 GHz and increasing HyperTransport bus performance to 1 GHz. The new models also incorporate the SSE3 software instructions Intel previously added to its chips that speed up multimedia operations such as encoding video.
Most appealing to business customers, however, may be added support for AMD's PowerNow technology. PowerNow slows down the Opteron processors, thus reducing power usage, in order to keep systems cooler when not in high demand.
The new Opteron models -- 852, 252 and 152 -- are the first to be built with a 90-nanometer process and won't come cheap. Priced in 1,000-unit quantities, the Opterons range from $637 to $1,514 USD. Nonetheless, computer makers including IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Sun have already announced plans to support the updated chips.
"These models of the AMD Opteron processor with Direct Connect Architecture bring the newest level of performance to our customers. The platforms our partners launched today feature the world's highest performing 4P and 2P processors for 32- and 64-bit computing."
For its part, Sun claims the Opteron-based Sun Fire V20z and Sun Fire V40z servers "outperformed 2- and 4-way servers from IBM, HP and Dell on industry-standard benchmarks." The company plans to integrate the new Opteron models into its systems in the coming months.
You hear all the AMD fanboys talk up AMD when Intel supported x86-64 extensions, but when you look at it, AMD supports SSE/SSE2/SSE3/MMX. (Amazing amount of support there AMD), and Intel never did support those sh*tty 3DNow extensions.
Remember x86-64 are only extensions not a "true 64bit" platform.
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|I guess now that AMD is supporting SSE3 that Intel will not be able to be AMD in the video/audio encoding/decoding now?? AMD spanks Intel in all of the benchmarks except the video/audio but now with the added SSE3 ......
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|I guess no, because most of the wins Intel CPUs get in multimedia benchmarks are because of their high clock rates, not because of their SSEx support. (That adds some, though)
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|I believe the difference was that AMD never said SSE3 was useless and they wouldn't be adopting it until it was "needed" years down the line, as opposed to Intel saying 64-bit compatibility is pointless at the current time, and they wouldn't be adopting it in the forseeable future (of course in more "directed" words, and of course most of it was true minus the marketing stance).
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|We will wait until they hit 3Ghz
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