Dear Elmer:
Intel has a lot of advantages:
1) Software has been optimized for Pentium, P2, and P3 internal architectures. For example, It has been optimized to use the FADD every cycle while thinking to use FMULT every other cycle with lots of FXCHG instructuctions interspersed (this is why even Intel needs to rewrite for P4 due to FXCHG not being free anymore). When software is optimized for 1 FPU Address generation, 1 FADD, and 1 FMULT per clock cycle, Athlon wipes P3 away.
2) Athlon needs more memory bandwidth. This is an acknowledged chipset deficiency. It is strange that when like chipset cores are used (VIA 133A and KT133), P3 loses almost all benchmarks to an equivalently clocked Athlon Classic or Thunderbird.
3) QMC and Moldyn compare unoptimized code between the CPUs. Even with the advantage of point 1, P3 loses big time to Athlon. Linpack also show the Athlon being faster than P3.
4) Intel did not release the compiler used in the benchmark when they sent it in either. They waited almost six months to release it. Intel also should know that the compiler is unstable. They could not produce running code for QMC with it.
5) 1 GHz P3 still is unavailable to the DIY market and it is over two weeks into Q3. Evidently, shipping volume is not even high enough for one to show up on Pricewatch. Over 3 pages of listings on 1 GHz Athlons are there. There is even less listings of 933 MHz P3s than 1 GHz Athlons. Thunderbirds have 7 pages of listings, and Durons have 6 pages as of Saturday.
6) Intels vaunted production ramp has hit a snag. They have given different explainations every quarter. This is wearing thin.
7) It is strange that Athlon can match, even outrun, P3 on code optimized for the 6th generation hardware. Even Intel is expecting that P4 will not do well clock for clock with P3. They do say that P4 will outrun P3 at the sweet spot clock for each CPU.
8) Intels Itanium still have reports that it does not make its goal of 800 MHz. Intel will probably "vapor" launch this one too.
Its time Intel came clean and admit they are behind design wise. They may need for those other divisions to make a profit. All of these divisions, which Intel conveniently does not seperate out in their Income statements, lost money for at least the last 4 quarters. Only the Capital and Computation Divisions made money in the last quarter.
Pete |
