Doug,
"load of imaginary twaddle" does describe the AMD exec's assertion that they are launching Barcelona for 8000-series only, first, *followed by*, 2000-series, *followed by* 1000 & A64, because "it will benefit 4-socket & above most" (paraphrase)
One thing to keep in mind is that all Opteron launches so far were 8xx and 2xx (8xxx and 2xxx) simultaneously, followed by 1xx (1xxx). I don't see why it should be any different this time. The quote in the article was not a direct quote.
As far as the direct quote of:
"We really think that the sweet spot for Barcelona is four-socket machines, since these boxes have the kinds of workloads that can take the best advantage of threads and cores" says Fruehe.
I agree that it is clearly BS. The one that will benefit by 4 cores are clearly Opteron 1xxx, followed by higher end Opterons. However, AMD benefits most from 8xxx, then 2xxx, then 1xxx, which is what counts.
For example, 1xxx processor based system will likely outperform all pre-Barcelona 2xxx systems, and it is not in any of the suplier's interest for that to be noticed.
Joe |
