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Technology Stocks : Advanced Micro Devices - Moderated (AMD)
AMD 217.59+1.1%Dec 3 3:59 PM EST

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To: wanna_bmw who wrote (61105)10/30/2001 7:52:35 AM
From: combjellyRead Replies (1) of 275872
 
"and as far as I could tell, there is little difference micro-architecturally from the K7"

True, but that misses the whole point. AMD is doing the same thing that the DEC/digital/Compaq engineers were doing with the Alpha. The EV7 is basically an EV6 core with a built-in memory controller and interfaces for forming a glue-less SMP and NUMA system. Much attention has been paid to things like memory latency and the path through the chip for minimal latency on each hop to the different CPU chips. Sure, the details are different (EV7 uses DRDRAM, for example), but the overall concept is the same. EV8 was going to build on that by having a new core.

Considering the ties that AMD had with those engineers, it wouldn't surprise me if AMD has a similar plan. Assuming the numbers that AMD bandied about at MPF are correct, the integrated memory controller makes a huge difference, and it's SMP and higher capabilities will blow everything else away in it's class. The SMP and NUMA capabilities are a gamble. If it catches on, it would reduce the pressure to make processors ever faster with decreasing gain. Writing code that uses threads is a lot more common than it used to be, a multi-Hammer system can take ready advantage of that. Intel is trying to take advantage of that also, that is what Jackson Technology is all about...
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