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Technology Stocks : Advanced Micro Devices - Moderated (AMD) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (57060)	10/3/2001 11:26:47 PM
From: Ali Chen	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 275872

John, "So educate me. Tell me what the difference is between the way all the different microprocessor companies measure MHz. I claim it's standard, you claim it's not. What's the difference?" Around the globe, all people measure "MHz" in the same way - how many ticks/waves it makes per second. The question is not how to measure, but what and when. The "difference" is that modern microprocessors contain blocks that run at different clock speeds. For example, a significant part of a CPU is Bus Interface Unit, and it usually runs at input frequency, i.e. 100 or 133MHz. For other internal parts this clock is multiplied internally by certain number, and it makes so-called "core clock" - the one which is usually advertised by marketing. Also, some blocks may shut the clock down locally after certain period of inactivity. Now, if a portion of chip that runs at the advertised speed occupies only a small fraction of the chip as in P4, what grounds do you have to claim that the whole chip is rated at that speed? I have already formulated these problems with "clock speed" definition: Message 16448770 If you have problems with what I am talking about, I am very sorry, I can't help you with the basics. I also formulated a question you tried to avoid: "From customer's standpoint, the product metrics should be measurable. How do you measure the "clock speed" of P4? Every P4 is fed from [the same] 100MHz clock. There is no simple measuring procedure that can distinguish between 1.4GHz P4 and 1.7GHz, only the manufacturing markings on the top, and benchmarks. Tell me, how this is different from AMD markings?" - Ali P.S. I still can't get it whether you are kidding or not with such an elementary question...