AMD Barcelona In September?

zippyjuan · 08-21-2007, 03:49 PM

http://news.com.com/8301-13579_3-9762375-37.html

Quote:

August 20, 2007 10:36 AM PDT
AMD chief: Barcelona six months late
Posted by Tom Krazit
The "complicated" design that AMD chose for Barcelona, its first quad-core server processor, caused more than six months of delays before the chip was ready, CEO Hector Ruiz told the San Jose Mercury News.

In an interview published in Sunday's Mercury News (the excerpts don't seem to be online yet), Ruiz said "every time we ran into a gotcha (or a technical glitch), it created a six-week-or-so hole in the schedule as we went back and fixed it. We hoped we wouldn't get many of those, but in the Barcelona case, we got more than we thought. By the time we got through fixing them all, we were six months-plus later from where we originally wanted to be."

That's been a very difficult six months for AMD, as its server division suffered through a price war without a fresh new product to parade before server buyers.

The September launch of Barcelona will come six months later than AMD had hoped, according to its CEO, Hector Ruiz.

(Credit: AMD)AMD chose to put four processor cores on a single piece of silicon when creating Barcelona. The company thinks that this will deliver better performance than Intel's method of building a quad-core chip, but it was trickier to implement. Intel simply put two dual-core chips together in a single package, and while that won't win any awards from chip design purists, it did allow Intel to ship quad-core chips in November of last year. Barcelona is only now shipping to AMD's partners, and it will be formally launched on September 10, Ruiz confirmed.

The delay, along with Intel price cuts, forced AMD to significantly discount the prices of its dual-core server chips to compete and eroded its profits. You have to wonder whether AMD could have released a packaged quad-core chip months ago while still working on Barcelona if it had bit the bullet and given up on its "native quad-core" marketing strategy.

That might have erased AMD's biggest advantage over Intel: the integrated memory controller it uses to deliver a fast pipeline between the processor and system memory. And given AMD's manufacturing constraints late last year while waiting for its new 65-nanometer facility to come online in Dresden, packaged quad-core chips might not have been feasible.

But you've got to think that AMD would have loved to have any kind of quad-core design out earlier this year, so it could have competed against Intel's Xeon chips without having to resort to bargain basement pricing. And that might have been worth further delays to Barcelona, even though Intel is getting ready to launch its second-generation quad-core Penryn chip before Thanksgiving.

Technical difficulties in the completely redesigned chip have meant over six months delays so far. I am starting to consider building a new computer, but think I should wait until the AMDs are out and perhaps the next Intels (maybe November). It is a bit tempting that you can get an Intel quad core for under $300 right now- NewEgg has the Q6600 for about $289. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115017 I am running an Athlon XP 2400+ now.

Markel · 08-21-2007, 07:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zippyjuan

I am starting to consider building a new computer, but think I should wait until the AMDs are out and perhaps the next Intels (maybe November). It is a bit tempting that you can get an Intel quad core for under $300 right now- NewEgg has the Q6600 for about $289. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115017 I am running an Athlon XP 2400+ now.

I'd say you're due for an upgrade (I'm on an Athlon 64 3200+), but if I were in your position I'd probably tough it out for a few more months to see what develops. I just read an article today that make the E6850 sound pretty nice.

zippyjuan · 08-21-2007, 09:04 PM

You are probably right. I spent a lot of time today just trying to familiarize myself with the technology out there right now. Hopefully the new chips will still be able to use DDR2. Prices don't seem bad for that. DVD burners are incredibly cheap- Newegg has almost all of theirs below $30! HDs are cheaper now too. They have a new form too- SATA 3GB/s. Video cards have gone to Direct X 10 and soon maybe to PCI Express 2.0.

Not counting video card or OS, I can build a quad Q6600 (including 2gb Corsair memory) for about $700 before tax and shipping from NewEgg.

Napoleon54 · 08-21-2007, 09:33 PM

I personally don't see any need to upgrade yet, my 2100+ still does all I need it to do. Maybe I'll upgrade in a year or two when Vista (or its successor) becomes a must-have. Until then, I'm satisfied with XP and my ~6 year old chip.

08-21-2007, 09:33 PM	#4
Napoleon54 Vice Admiral Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: floating inside of a giant egg made of stars Posts: 4,861	I personally don't see any need to upgrade yet, my 2100+ still does all I need it to do. Maybe I'll upgrade in a year or two when Vista (or its successor) becomes a must-have. Until then, I'm satisfied with XP and my ~6 year old chip. __________________ There is all the difference in the world between treating people equally and attempting to make them equal. - Friedrich Hayek

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08-21-2007, 09:04 PM	#3
zippyjuan Picture of the Day Guru Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Sunny San Diego Posts: 8,756	You are probably right. I spent a lot of time today just trying to familiarize myself with the technology out there right now. Hopefully the new chips will still be able to use DDR2. Prices don't seem bad for that. DVD burners are incredibly cheap- Newegg has almost all of theirs below $30! HDs are cheaper now too. They have a new form too- SATA 3GB/s. Video cards have gone to Direct X 10 and soon maybe to PCI Express 2.0. Not counting video card or OS, I can build a quad Q6600 (including 2gb Corsair memory) for about $700 before tax and shipping from NewEgg.

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