Thursday, November 18th 2010

AMD Zambezi ''Bulldozer'' Desktop CPU Roadmap Revealed
AMD's next-generation PC processor architecture that seeks to challenge the best Intel has, codenamed "Bulldozer", is set to make its desktop PC debut in 2Q next year, with a desktop processor die codenamed "Zambezi". AMD is seeking to target all market segments, including an enthusiast-grade 8-core segment, a performance 6-core segment, and a mainstream 4-core segment. The roadmap reveals that Zambezi will make its entry with the enthusiast-grade 8-core models first, starting with 125W and 95W models, trailed by 6-core and 4-core ones.
Another couple of architectural details revealed is that Zambezi's integrated memory controller (IMC) supports DDR3-1866 MHz as its standard memory type, just like Deneb supports DDR3-1333 MHz as its standard. DDR3-1866 MHz, or PC3-14900 as it's technically known, will churn out 29.8 GB/s in dual-channel mode, that's higher than triple-channel DDR3-1066 MHz (25.6 GB/s), which is Intel Core i7 LGA1366 processors' official memory standard. The 8-core and 6-core Zambezi models feature 8 MB of L3 cache, while the 4-core ones feature 4 MB. Another tidbit you probably already knew is that existing socket AM3 processors are forwards-compatible with AM3+ (Zambezi's socket), but Zambezi processors won't work on older AM3/AM2(+) socket motherboards.
Source:
ATI Forum
Another couple of architectural details revealed is that Zambezi's integrated memory controller (IMC) supports DDR3-1866 MHz as its standard memory type, just like Deneb supports DDR3-1333 MHz as its standard. DDR3-1866 MHz, or PC3-14900 as it's technically known, will churn out 29.8 GB/s in dual-channel mode, that's higher than triple-channel DDR3-1066 MHz (25.6 GB/s), which is Intel Core i7 LGA1366 processors' official memory standard. The 8-core and 6-core Zambezi models feature 8 MB of L3 cache, while the 4-core ones feature 4 MB. Another tidbit you probably already knew is that existing socket AM3 processors are forwards-compatible with AM3+ (Zambezi's socket), but Zambezi processors won't work on older AM3/AM2(+) socket motherboards.
123 Comments on AMD Zambezi ''Bulldozer'' Desktop CPU Roadmap Revealed
On a serious note I really do hope bulldozer brings back the old Athlon days, the AMD Athlon kicked the P4 butt all over the show and it was great.. unfortunatly since then AMD haven't really been able to compete with c2,c2q and i7 though I believe it will happen if not with bulldozer then soon after.
Which is a good thing for all of us cause it means kick ass chips at the best prices which is a win for everyone, looking forward to bulldozer personally!! :D
Comparing Ontario to sandybridge is like looking at a corvette and saying "but I don't think it will pull my boat...."
And I can't wait to see what these can do. I hope it's not yet another let down by AMD. I want to see competition on the high end, dammit.
If your CPU's are slower they better be marketed accordingly, and with a price to match, or at lease some redeeming features. And I totally love how you just ignore users who have legit issues with being raped by your company so you can make somewhat witty comparisons.
I've gotten a "few" cpu's from amd before, but i'm not here to ask about that ;P
only if it is a am3 bulldozer i'll be interested.
but anyways.
Will vmotion be forward compatible with bulldozer, in vi 4,1 evc mode, non amd^now (gen 3) lists future amd cpu's.
so will actually vmotion work between a gen 3 opteron/PHII and a bulldozer ? :O
and 2nd question.
will there be any "diffrence" between server and desktop bulldozer in terms of support of features, quadchannel for server, dual for desktops ?
And not being able to at least come close to competing on the high end is kind of a fail.
Sorry, it's not any different. To use the cpu, you need a new board.
Though who wants to bet the release will coincide with a new Graphics card of some sort... like the series.
:toast:
BTW, I still see a lot of Core2 series computers being advertised by electronics and computer stores, especially in case of affordable (500-700 euros) laptops I still see a lot of E-series Pentium cpus among the Core 2 Duos and i3s. Desktops aren't much different, I guess it's 50% i3, 50% C2D/C2Q. And I think a lot of people would gladly have such a compo because it is Intel stuff (not caring about the exact model, as if they actually have a clue). A lot of people don't care about how pcs work, not even talking about how to build them themselves and especially not about high-end stuff that cost per part often roughly the price of an entry or intermediate level OEM machine.
Llano is an attempt to get a much better foothold on the OEM market, with both a CPU and a GPU that are expected to be economical and powerful enough to compete with the dual core sytems equipped with IGPs currently on the market.
Zambezi will probably (at least, I guss so) leave i3s in the dust, while competing with the i5 and with those i7 CPUs that don't cost roughly 800-1000 euro. In addition, I expect the Zambezi to OC way better than the Sandy i7s, for the simple reason that Intel will make OCing sorta impossible from a technical point of view. I forgot though how Intel is going to do so and I am currently too lazy to look it up.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-performance_computing
Benchmarks and real life usage are 2 different things.
For every person that is bottlenecked on today's systems there are a million others on the interwebs that are not even saturating 1/3 of their memory bandwidth.
People are getting hung up on number of channel instead of focusing on the amount of bandwidth they can actually achieve and the amount of bandwidth their applications require.
One is twice as many bottles, that would be better, right?