Author: BlackMagicGuy Number: of 95478
Subject: The biggest unknown Hammer advantage? Date: 3/18/02 11:21 PM
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Guys,
Just something to toss out, for your consumption.
We've been talking memory latency, IPC improvement, bandwidth, scaling, etc. There's one thing that's missing.
Clock speed ramping.
Today Athlon only needs 66 MHz to roughly match P4's 100 MHz increments. It's not quite the same, so let's say Athlon needs 70-75 MHz to truly equal P4's 100 MHz increments.
Speed increments are simply rev'ing the engine to get to the next gear.
OK, let's say per the talk that Hammer has 44% better IPC than Athlon. Do some math. We're talking 40-50 MHz increments for Hammer to equal P4's 100 MHz increments.
If P4 continues with 200 MHz increments, then Hammer will only need 80-100 MHz to match it. There are some huge benefits, and they're simply amplifications of what AXP is doing. Power, ease of scaling, process control, mobile applications, are just a few of the things that will be MUCH easier for Hammer to address than for P4.
This could be the diamond in Hammer's jewels, and nobody is talking about it. Let's say Hammer goes from 2 GHz to 2.5 GHz, a 500 MHz increment. P4 will need to go from 3.4 GHz (assuming this is the 'equivalent' to 2g Hmr) to about 4.5 GHz. Ouch, tough to keep up, don't you think?
Your thoughts? I'm only dropping the pebble, how about all of you bring up the ripples in the pond???
Black Magic
Good Points.
M. |
