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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: steve harris who wrote (90467)	1/30/2000 11:59:00 AM
From: milo_morai	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572507

Tench, Steve just posted your answer to 2 Way SMP Chipsets www1.amd.com ....."AMD's system bus of the future, called Lightning Data Transport (LDT) was also discussed at the forum. LDT provides a data link that is internal to the PC, providing up to 20x increase in bandwidth for I/O, co-processing and multi-processing functions. This increased I/O performance and bandwidth will improve overall system performance for AMD Athlon? processor-based workstations, servers and personal computers. "API plans to offer a two-way chipset and bridge chips during the second half of 2000 that incorporate a LDT interconnect, enabling industry leading I/O bandwidth and performance," stated Gerry Talbot, executive vice president, chief operating officer and chief technical officer, for API. "Pushing the envelope of I/O bandwidth will greatly improve router and web server capabilities, allowing technology to keep pace with the demands of markets like the Internet and telecommunications." "LDT will compliment HotRail's smart switched fabric SMP core logic for servers based on AMD Athlon processors by providing increased scalability in the server I/O arena," said Rick Shriner, president and chief executive officer, HotRail Inc. "Together HotRail and AMD will drive servers to new levels of performance." "These announcements once again demonstrate AMD technology leadership through platform innovations that meet customer's needs," said Dana Krelle, vice president of marketing for AMD's Computation Products Group. About AMD's x86-64 bit Architecture AMD x86 64-bit processors will permit platform suppliers, developers, and corporate MIS departments to transition to 64-bit environments at will, while continuing to run 32-bit applications without incurring performance penalties. This performance path is vital because most current applications rarely require the features that 64-bit instruction sets offer, and will not require the expense of being ported to 64-bits. By providing a seamless migration to 64-bit computing, AMD plans to offer a path that minimizes the cost of enabling 64-bit computing. AMD will achieve this by extending x86 to include a 64-bit mode that has both a 64-bit address space and a 64-bit data space. Future 64-bit processors will be able to detect which mode is needed (32- or 64-bit) and compute accordingly. About Lightning Data Transport? LDT is an internal chip-to-chip interconnect that provides much greater bandwidth for I/O. It can achieve a bandwidth of up to 6.4 GB/sec per connection. Compared to current system interconnects that run up to 266 MB/sec, LDT provides more than a 20x increase in bandwidth. LDT complements externally visible bus standards such as PCI or SIO, and provides a very fast connection to both. LDT is the connection that can provide the bandwidth the new SIO standard needs to communicate with a server. The presentation given by Fred Weber at the Microprocessor Forum is available on AMD's web site." Milo

To: steve harris who wrote (90467)	1/30/2000 12:08:00 PM
From: milo_morai	Respond to of 1572507

Thanx Steve, Did you catch this part of the last article you posted. "In addition to the processor program, Samsung's subsidiary, Alpha Processors Inc. (API), is working with AMD to develop an Alpha core-logic chipset called Caspian. Slated for production in the third quarter of 2000, Caspian will support both the Alpha and Athlon processors using the Alpha EV6 bus architecture common to both devices. The cooperative effort ultimately will benefit the processors and their makers alike, said Daeje Chin, Samsung Electronics' executive vice president and chief technical officer, and chairman and chief executive of API. The relationship is not entirely new. AMD already supplies its Irongate chipset for use in Alpha-based servers built by Network Appliance Inc. And while Compaq uses a proprietary chipset line in its Alpha servers, the company is considering using the Irongate in private-label servers it may build on a contract basis, according to officials at API, Concord, Mass. Ironically, the Athlon/Alpha chipset development deal is getting under way just as Compaq is asking the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to overturn an earlier consent decree forcing it to license the Alpha technology to AMD and Samsung. Compaq inherited the decree as part of its 1998 purchase of Digital Equipment Corp. Now, however, Compaq says that while it will continue to work with Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD and Samsung, it doesn't want to operate under a government-imposed mandate. In related news, Samsung's Chin said API is developing a chipset, called Tasman, to support four- to six-processor servers using either the Alpha or Athlon chips. Additionally, the Samsung/Compaq alliance will work with AMD to adapt Athlon's Lightning Data Transfer I/O interface to function in Alpha processors with data speeds of 1 to 3.2 Gbytes/s, noted Jeff Borkowski, API's vice president of sales and marketing. He said working with a market rival on chipset and motherboard R&D ?simply makes sense. Both use the same EV6 bus, so joint development can save time and money. A common chipset for dual-processor versions of both processors also will have production economies of scale to allow low pricing.? Caspian will support PC100 and PC133 SDRAM, and, in the second half of 2000, double-data-rate SDRAM. There are no plans to interface to Direct Rambus DRAM. ebnews.com Great find Steve! Milo