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

To: combjelly who wrote (61121)	10/30/2001 11:31:58 AM
From: wanna_bmw	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 275872

Combjelly, Re: "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." Let's assume this is true, for now. EV7, while a highly scalable server processor, is not inherently different than EV68 if you use it in uniprocessor mode. Hammer doesn't seem to be any different; although memory latency will be reduced (which could affect performance), we were previously on the subject of micro-architectural headroom, and I don't believe Hammer will be any different than K7. Of course, I don't mean to say that there is no headroom... just that you can expect no more headroom in Hammer that you would in a K7 product. On the other hand, you are trying to hilight AMD's scalable server plans, and like EV7, I agree that on paper, their concept works out pretty well. However, unlike the Alpha team, AMD does not have a good track record when it comes to implementing multiprocessor systems. Even the EV6 bus, which was built for multiprocessing, did not allow AMD to get their dual processor 760-MP chipset out without many delays. Who knows if AMD's multiprocessor plans end up being difficult enough for them to delay further, and simply make Hammer a UP/DP chip, at least in the beginning? I would expect such possibilities, given AMD's previous success rate in multiprocessing. If this is the case, I can't see Hammer being that revolutionary of a product for them. Regarding K9, you may be right that they are taking after the EV8. However, Hammer will not even launch until late next year, or more probably 2003, and all of AMD's staff is working on Jerry's "Hammer", "Hammer", Hammer". A brand new generational product is still years down the road. Whether or not it resembles EV8 is irrelevant at this point, since the PC market may have very different requirements at that point in time. Intel may also have far more competitive products. It's a tough thing to hope for, and it's clear why AMD is betting so much on Hammer exceeding expectations. wanna_bmw