btarunr, it wasnt all about sse2, many encoding apps back then didnt make use or or make proper use of sse2, it was more about the way the p4/netburst are made, hence they still competed with far overall better k8 chips.
also the sse support in the k7 was so/so, it was more of a taged on sse unit, think of it like the p4's amd64(x86-64) support it was taged on as an afterthought/upgrade but wasnt native to the cpu.
and i agree the k10 wasnt a great move, but this was a dession by the morons in management, we didnt see a k9 because they cancled the project, when they did that they lost one of their better designers from that.
the k9 was totaly new design, it was a mix of RISC and CISC designs from what i have been told, it was in many ways based on the concepts from the old dec alpha cpus, this rings true since much of the design team was made of ex-dec engineers who designed the alpha chips.
i honestly think that management just didnt get that reducing the instruction set(risc) could be a GOOD THING, remove rarely used or un-used portions, or portions that could be emulated using new fetures with no perf loss, replace them with new instructions that could boost perf across the board, but as we know managment many times fear change.
effectivly i see the k10 as being a rushed design that will get ironed out given a little time, at least unlike intels execs moving to and sticking with the netburst cores the amd execs had a solid design they forced the design team to stick with/update.
i would expect that the 45nm k10's would bring optimizations a plenty, basickly the k10's ur seeing now are like the pentium-m they are an evolution on a theme, and as with core2 i would expect amd to get it worked out indue time.
now intels FINNELY moving to IMC this means everybody who owns an intel system and wants to upgrade gets the fun of buying yet another new board and cpu insted of just a cpu, its why my next upgrades just gonna be a new am2+ board and whatever chips the best price/perf/overclock ratio at the time, i already got a cooler that will work, and i will take my current am2 rig and build a 2nd box using ram i got sitting on my shelf
i know, intels currently faster, but im honestly considering a quad or tri core since i encode alot and i KNOW the app i use to do it WILL make use of the quads(as will my audio encoding app) also the app i use will have support for the new sse4a and other optimizations for the k10 chips come soon(already being worked on)
i just wana beable to swap my chip a year from now and upgrade it without a new board( i have swaped my am2 chip 4 times now) i HATE replacing motherboards.....fucking pain in the ass!!!!