Intel's New Penryn Processors

Those new Intel processors we mentioned during CES are finally starting to show up in laptops in reasonable numbers. Toshiba, Sony, HP, and Dell are all tossing Intel's new mobile processors, built on the chipmaker's way-smaller-than-a-human hair 45-nanometer (nm) technology, into portables aimed at the hardcore, and often media-hungry, computer-user.

Penryn is not a revolution, but rather an evolution of Intel's Core 2 family of processors. Three new technologies have been crammed into this new square of silicon to make faster and more powerful laptops with longer battery life. 

First is the 45nm size reduction of the processor's die (the tech term for a processor's casing or mold). This die shrink means the processor can have features and innards as small as 45 nanometers wide, which means that Intel can squeeze more processors out of a single slab of silicon. The newfound space not only drives down prices, but also enables the new processors to use less energy and run at cooler temperatures. Cooler-running processors mean that Intel can ramp up computing speeds without melting the insides of the computer (or burning your lap, for that matter).

When a processor's die is shrunk, however, it becomes easier for electrons to leak out wasting electricity, and counteracts some of the benefits of the size reduction. To combat this leakage, Intel has introduced a new transistor technology called High-K that reigns in much of the leakage and leads to more energy efficient processors. Tests have shown that Penryn processors can get almost a full hour of battery life over older Core 2's during normal usage and about 20 minutes more while playing back a DVD. 

Lastly, is a new set of instructions called SSE4, which is aimed at speeding up media functions such as video encoding (converting video so you can edit it on your computer) and playback. The catch is that software developers must write applications to specifically take advantage of the new instructions. The popularity of the Intel processors and the dramatic performance increase guarantees that companies will get on board. Applications that are already SSE4-enabled (like the DivX video encoding suite) have seen boosts in performance of almost 40%. That's quite a difference when you're talking about cutting down what typically takes an hour to encode HD video to just over 30 minutes.

AMD's 45nm Phenom II

The AMD Phenom II chips will run at data rates up to 3 GHz. They come both in 65nm versions in an AM2+ socket for DDR2 and 45nm versions using an AM3 socket for DDR2 DDR3 memories running at up to 1333 MHz. The company claims the new chip provide up to 20 percent improvements in performance over the original Phenom CPUs which ran at up to 2.6 GHz. 

The CPUs are available in a new AMD Dragon platform that includes the AMD 790GX chip set and Radeon HD3800 graphics processors and supports DDR2 or DDR3. The chips also support RAID 5 storage, easier CPU overclocking and new power management features.

AMD: Next-Generation Microprocessors

AMD’s Athlon 64 and Opteron processors substantially reshaped the markets of desktop, server and workstation chips thanks to serious performance advantage over competing solutions from Intel, however, the new-generation code-named K10 central processing units (CPUs) can hardly leave Intel’s chips behind in terms of performance, but consume considerably more power. Apparently, AMD has problems with the design of its quad-core AMD Phenom and AMD Opteron processors that cannot be cured easily enough by tweaking the current hardware based on the current micro-architecture.

Bulldozer is the next-generation micro-architecture and processor design developed from the ground up by AMD. It is expected that the next-generation micro-processors will offer considerably higher performance than current-generation chips. AMD Bulldozer CPUs will feature SSE5 instruction set. The first Bulldozer processors are projected to emerge on the market in very late 2009 at the earliest or early 2011 at the latest.

Intel Core i7 Processors: Nehalem and X58 Have Arrived

Intel won't be officially launching their Core i7 processors, formerly codenamed Nehalem, and the X58 Express chipset until sometime.

Intel tested every Core i7 speed grade that will be available at launch, along with at trio of X58 Express based motherboards

Intel's 16 New Processors Based on 45nm Silicon Technology

Intel kicked off this year's CES in a big way, introducing 16 new processors all 

based on the chipmaker's 45 nanometer (nm) process technology. We've been hearing a 

lot about 45 nm lately and, admittedly, it's kind of hard to get excited about 

semiconductor fabrication -- especially when there's all manner of shiny new gizmos 

vying for your attention.

While AMD is expected to move the 45 nm sometime in the second half of 2008, Intel 

began mass-producing these chips in November 2007. In a general sense, 45 nm fans 

the flames of Moore's law, allowing Intel to double the number of transistors in the 

same silicon space. According to the chipmaker, it also allows the company squeeze more 

performance out of smaller transistors and increases the overall energy efficiency of a 

given processor.

AMD’s new sockets and DDR2 support

AMD will not debut their 65-nm processors anytime soon, nor will they offer processors based on a whole new architecture in the near future. We can expect the Athlon 64 FX-60 in early 2006, which will be the first AMD processor to, officially, run at 3.0GHz, which will still be based on the 90-nm San Diego core. The Athlon 64 X2 will also see a bump in clockspeed to 2.6GHz, giving it an effective 5000+ rating. What’s more interesting to note though is that fact that both socket-A and socket-754 will be rapidly phased out due to the introduction of socket-939 Semprons. The biggest change for AMD will be in the 2nd quarter of 2006 however with the transition to DDR2 with a new generation of Athlon 64 processors that will feature a new built-in DDR2 compatible memory controller.

The AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor for Notebook PCs

Affordable dual-core performance for notebook PCs

The AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 dual-core processor for notebook

 PCs delivers affordable dual-core performance and enables

 notebook PCs that are “Better by Design” to help you experience 

true multi-tasking for a more powerful mobile computing experience.

Phenom 9950 BE 125W

AMD's Phenom processor has been power hungry since it's release but that was stepped up even more when the Phenom 9950 was released with a 140W TDP, higher than other desktop CPUs on the market. This sent something of a stir into the enthusiast crowd whether justified or not for a processor with such a high power rating. Recently, however, AMD released a 125W version of the Phenom 9950 after improving the manufacturing process to replace the previous 140W version. Both are still on the market now and we thought we'd take a look at this new Phenom 9950 125W and compare it to the original 140W processor.

45nm Triple Cores In Early 2009

The three core was picking up slower than the company expected but it is doing ok now, especially in OEM space. The 45nm roadmap has at least two different 45nm quad cores, at least one 45nm three core CPU and a new 45nm dual core, something that company desperately needs.

Performance Analysis for Core 2 and K8

One of the interesting factors is the substantial difference in miss rates between the two cache designs, which is influenced by the underlying memory subsystems. Intel's unloaded memory latency is around 55-60ns, while AMD's is closer to 40ns and should also scale much better under load. Unfortunately, there is no data available on the loaded latency for the respective CPUs, but a reasonable guess would be that Intel's loaded latency is 40-70% higher. Given that guess, we can come close to estimating the average latency contribution from L2 misses. Intel has half the number of misses (2 vs. 4) per thousand instructions retired, but 40% higher latency. That implies that Intel's average memory latency contribution from L2 misses is 75% of AMD's (or 80% if we assume Intel's L2 latency is 70% higher). Of course, this is only looking at one aspect of the situation - it ignores the impact of the L1 caches, where AMD tends to have an advantage due to larger capacity. But it's certainly an area that could contribute to the performance difference between the K8 and the Core 2 and definitely does contribute to the power differences.

iSuppli: Intel's Processor Revenue Soars, AMD's Sinks in Q3

In the third quarter of 2008, Intel increased its share of the world's microprocessor revenue, while AMD watched its share shrink, according to the latest report from research firm iSuppli. The report also showed that sales of desktop and notebooks in the third quarter were not as weak as first believed, and iSuppli is predicting the PC market to grow about 12 percent this year.

CPUs

AMD and Intel were both talking a lot about how to optimize parallel code to run better on their respective hardware. Each has special software or instructions designed to take advantage of the unique things in their architectures. In a world that is increasingly moving to chips with multiple cores and servers with 2 or more processors, this is only going to get more important. One impressive demo was from AMD, which showed a Mandelbrot calculation that took about 8 seconds when run as a single thread, but that when parallelized took only 0.27 seconds running on a 8-processor, 32-core server, based on the firm's upcoming "Shanghai" chip.

IEDM: AMD Showing 22nm

IBM will also be partnering with AMD to present what they claim is 

the "smallest functional SRam cell ever made" - a 22nm high-k and metal 

gate part with a cell density of 0.1µmsquare

AMD Unveils Climate Protection Plan

AMD unveiled its eighth annual Global Climate Protection Plan (GCPP) that summarized the company’s continuing strategy and goals to maximize energy efficiency, help lower costs and minimize its environmental impact. This year, the GCPP increased its reporting levels to include analysis and data on new initiatives and projects. It also lays out how AMD has once again committed to reduce its normalized greenhouse gas emissions by 33 percent and normalize energy usage by 40 percent by 2010, relative to a 2006 baseline year. The company surpassed its commitment for 2002-2007 to reduce normalized greenhouse gas emissions in its operations by 40 percent and normalized energy usage by 30 percent.

Mobile AMD Sempron™ Processors

Compare Prices on AMD-powered systems 

Redefining everyday computing for today’s mobile lifestyle

Get affordable performance and security that redefine everyday mobile 

computing. The Mobile AMD Sempron™ processor offers the performance and 

security you need for the evolving needs of today’s mobile life style. 

Whether it’s e-mailing friends and family, surfing the Web, viewing photos, or getting work done, 

AMD technology can make it fast, easy, and secure, anytime, anywhere.

Intel® Centrino® 2 with vPro™ Technology

keep your workforce more secure, managed, and mobile. With security and manageability built right onto the chip, 

Intel® Centrino® 2 with vPro™ technology provides hardware-assisted remote isolation, diagnostics, and repair, 

so you can manage your mobile workforce remotely, even if the system's OS is unresponsive.¹ And with exceptional 

dual-core performance, 5X better wireless performanceO and the longest possible battery life.²

Now you can also get notebooks with Intel Centrino 2 with vPro technology in astonishingly thin and light packages. 

As the smallest version of Intel® Centrino® processor technology yet-50 percent smaller-you're most mobile workforce 

can enjoy the sleekest full-featured and performance packed notebooks³ along with improved energy efficiency and power 

savings.°

AMD TFE 2008: Heatpipes and Vapor Chambers

The problem with this is twofold. Firstly, it means that just about every single Nvidia chipset from the nForce 500-series and onwards is affected and as such, PCI prefetch has to be removed from all retail boards and every single BIOS upgrade that contains the PCI prefetch code has to be removed from the web. This also means that all Nvidia partners have to release BIOS updates for every single Nvidia motherboard from the nForce 500-series and onwards.

AMD 790GX Roundup

After so many benchmarks it's time to conclude all the test results. In general both tested motherboards gave a similar performance. The two AMD 790GX solutions differ in some features and in their retail price. The Foxconn A7DA-S is cheaper and comes in a more "spartan" retail package, while the Gigabyte MA790GP-DS4H proved somewhat faster in tests especially under overclocking. It is possible that a newer BIOS for the Foxconn mainboard to improve its performance and behavior. For example, the Foxconn couldn't recognize the EPP profile of the OCZ PC2-8500 SLI memory and properly adjust the memory.

Superscalar Technology

The main components of a processor—registers, decoders, and ALUs—are collectively known as the instruction pipeline. To carry out a single instruction, a processor must,

• Read the instruction

• Decode the instruction

• Fetch operands (for math functions)

• Execute the instruction

• Write back the results

Early processors carried out these steps one at a time. Combining these steps into a single clock cycle, a process known as pipelining, thereby increases the speed of processing. Superscalar technology allows the Pentium to have two instruction pipelines—called U and V. The U pipeline can execute the full range of Pentium instructions, whereas the V pipeline can execute a limited number. When possible, the Pentium processor breaks up a program into discrete tasks that are then shared between the pipelines, allowing the Pentium to execute two simple instructions simultaneously. Software must be specifically written to take advantage of this innovative feature, which is known as multithreading.

Intel Bets Big on Mobile Computing

In a bid to leverage the growing demand for notebook PCs, Intel has launched its Intel Centrino 2 processor technology products for laptops that include five new Intel Core2 duo processors.

Intel also introduced what it claims to be the world's highest performing dual-core mobile processor, the Intel Core2 Extreme processor running at 3.06 GHz, according to a press release.

In addition, 250 new laptop models with features such as powerful processors, enhanced graphics and battery life will soon be launched, the release said.

Intel also plans to unveil eight new processors within 90 days that will include first-ever mobile quad-core products and second generation products for ultra thin and light notebooks. In total, the company will bring 14 diverse processors into the marketplace as laptop sales continue to outpace desktop PCs.

The Intel Centrino 2 processor technology and Intel Centrino 2 with vPro technology improve upon every facet of a laptop's main features, including performance and battery life via new processors and chipsets, faster draft 802.11n wireless (with WiMAX arriving later this year), and new business-class manageability capabilities.

"When we first introduced Intel Centrino back in 2003, there were very few Wi-Fi hotspots, YouTube videos and social media didn't really exist, 'thin and light' only referred to weight goals and desktop PCs outsold notebooks by a very wide margin," said R Ravichandran, director of sales, Intel South Asia.

"Today, notebooks are fast gaining share and we are seeing new and previously unheard off usage model. We are paving the way to HD entertainment, rich online gaming, faster broadband wireless speeds and an easier and more secure way for businesses to manage, update and repair their notebook fleets."

The five new dual core processors come with a faster 1066MHz front side bus and up to 6MB of L2 cache, and three versions reduce laptop processor wattage about 30 percent, down to just 25 watts, according to the release. Also featured is Deep Power Down Technology that turns off processing components such as core clocks and cache memory when the laptop is idle for greater energy savings.

Intel also unveiled its new Mobile Intel 45 Express Chipset and wireless Intel WiFi Link 5000 series that is shipping to customers now, with laptops arriving in July and August. According to Intel, it delivers five times the speed and twice the range of older 802.11a/g technology, while the Intel WiFi Link 5000 series provides 802.11 draft-N support that delivers the fastest data rates possible today -- up to 450 Mbps.

Intel Centrino 2 with vPro technology offers manageability and security options. This is increasingly important as companies replace desktops with notebooks and need to remotely diagnose, update and repair systems over a wireless network, according to the release.

Improved manageability with AMT 4.0 has also been added that provides wireless manageability during system sleep states, ongoing remote configuration capabilities, support for next-generation management standards (WS-MAN and DASH 1.0) and the ability for an employee to initiate communications to IT from outside a company's firewall.

The company will begin shipping its first ever combined WiMax/Wi-Fi module later this year in the US. The module will be part of the Intel WiMax/WiFi Link 5050 Series that is an optional feature for future Intel Centrino 2-based laptops

Pentium MMX

Soon, more choices were on the way. About the time the 166-MHz Pentiums shipped, Intel introduced MMX (Multimedia Extension) technology, designed to enhance performance of data-hungry applications like graphics and games. With larger data and code caches, Pentiums with MMX technology can run non-MMX-enhanced software approximately 10 to 20 percent faster than a non-MMX CPU with the same clock speed.

To reap the full benefits of the new processor, MMX-enhanced software makes use of 57 special multimedia instructions. These new MMX operators use a technology called SIMD (single-instruction multiple-data) stream processing. SIMD allows different processing elements to perform the same operations on different data—a central controller broadcasts the instruction to all processing elements in the same way that a drill sergeant would tell a whole platoon to "about face," rather than instruct each soldier individually.

The MMX chips also take advantage of dynamic branch prediction using the branch target buffer (BTB) to predict the most likely set of instructions to be executed.

The MMX Pentium processor is also more compatible with older 16-bit software than is the Pentium Pro; consequently, it soon doomed the Pro to the backwaters of PC computing. All later versions of the Pentium have incorporated some variation of MMX and improved on it. The original Pentium desktop line ended with the release of the 233-MHz MMX in June 1997.

Intel's Competitors

Competitors have moved away from simply making clones of the Intel processors. They are currently designing their own processors with unique features. AMD and Cyrix are among the best known. Until recently, all the Intel processors had been based on a CISC (complex instruction set computing) architecture. Processors based on RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) have been used in high-powered machines since the mid-1980s. Intel has produced its own version of a RISC-based processor that uses a much smaller and simpler set of instructions, greatly enhancing the speed of the processor.

PowerPC Extension Technology Microprocessor

The primary objective of this manual is to help programmers 

provide software that is compatible across the family of 64-bit 

PowerPC™ processors, which have implemented the Vector/SIMD 

Multimedia Extension technology. This book describes how the 

vector technology relates to the 64-bit portion of the PowerPC 

architecture. This book supplements the "PowerPC Microprocessor 

Family: Programming Environments Manual for 64-bit Microprocessors".Verify in IBM Customer connect that you have the latest versions of all referenced documents before finalizing any designs. All recommendations given should be considered as guidelines, intended to help design a functional system. However, they are only guidelines and do not take the place of design specific results obtained from signal integrity modeling considerations and debug recommendations provided in this document and in referenced documents were developed to help reduce the risk of board design 

problems

Intel's X48 Express chipset

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 is due out this quarter, bringing with it not only four Penryn cores clocked at 3.2GHz, but also a front-side bus running at 1600MHz. That faster FSB presents a bit of a problem, though, because Intel's current P35 and X38 Express chipsets only support front-side bus speeds up to 1333MHz. So the QX9770 needs a new chipset, or at least a new north bridge, which is where the X48 Express comes in.

Based on Intel's existing X38 Express, the X48 brings with it official support for 1600MHz front-side bus speeds. With this faster bus, the X48 looks poised to supplant its predecessor atop Intel's chipset lineup, which means a new wave of motherboards is coming from all the usual suspects.

AMD ATHLON 64 FX-62 PROCESSOR TECH SPECS

Frequency / Cache Sizes: 2.8GHz w/ 1MB L2 cache-per-core (2MB total L2 per processor)

L1 Cache Sizes: 64K - L1 instruction + 64K - L1 data cache per core (256KB total L1)

CPU to Memory Controller: same as CPU core frequencies

Memory Controller: Shared integrated 128-bit wide memory controller

DDR2 Memory Supported: Up to and including PC2 6400 (800MHz) DDR-2 memory

HyperTransport Links: 1

HyperTransport Spec: 2GHz (2x 1000MHz / DDR)

Effective data bandwidth: 20.8 GB/sec [8GB/sec HyperTransport link + 12.8GB/sec memory]

Packaging: Socket AM2 organic micro-PGA

Fab location: AMD's Fab 30 wafer fabrication facility in Dresden, Germany

Process Technology: 90nm (.09-micron) Silicon on Insulator (SOI)

Approximate Transistor count: 227.4 million

Approximate Die Size: 230mm2

Nominal Voltage: 1.35-1.4V

Max Thermal Power: 125 W

Max Ambient Case Temp: 55-63 degrees Celsius

Max Icc (processor current): 90.4A

Min P-State (with C'n'Q): 1.0 GHz

· Nominal Voltage @ min -state: 1.1V

· Max Thermal Power @ min -state: 38.0W

· Max Icc @ min -state: 31.8A

AMD Phenom Triple-Core

AMD’s triple-core processors have been on the horizon for months now and, after all the speculation and derision, they are finally here. The launch included three Phenom X3 processors: the 8750, 8650, and 8450, all of which will come in at under $200. AMD is, as expected, positioning these processors between their dual-core and quad-core offerings and is targeting cost-conscious consumers, people who will appreciate the performance boost but would rather save a few dollars than go with a quad-core.

The three 65nm models will arrive at 2.1, 2.3, and 2.4GHz frequencies, respectively priced at $145, $165, and a hefty $195 for the 8750. These models have a TDP of 95W and 1.5MB total L2 cache per processors as well as 2MB shared cache. Also included is HT 3.0, a 1.8GHz memory controller, and Dual Dynamic Power Management. And because this is a 50 series processor we know it is a B3 revision model. They are AM2+ (940 pin) compatible so consumers won’t necessarily need new hardware to run an X3.

Having the basic information in front of you, it’s not immediately clear whether AMD is fulfilling a need that no one has, offering an interesting new option to consumers, or just making the best out of their situation (by releasing “broken” quad-cores as X3s). What we do know though is that outside of enthusiasts circles there won’t be the clamoring and complaints about the third core, rather it’ll probably be seen as nothing more (or less) than something between two other options.

AM2 Processor

In terms of performance the new AM2 processor cores have not changed outside of its given product line up. This of course overlooks GHz scaling and L2 cache configurations as is normal with new processor launches. The new AMD Athlon 64 FX-62 and AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 5000+ processors are the new AMD flagship processors will we be showing you here today. The FX-62 clocks in at a healthy 2.8GHz while the 5000+ comes in close at 2.6GHz. They are both dual core processors. They are however not the only processors that will take advantage of AMD’s new socket AM2.

Below is a full list of new AM2 processors.

AMD Athlon 64 FX processor: FX-62

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core processors: 5000+, 4800+, 4600+, 4400+, 4200+, 4000+, and 3800+

AMD Athlon 64 processors: 3800+, 3500+

AMD Sempron processors: 3600+, 3500+, 3400+, 3200+, and 3000+

Core Power Reductions

While there is nothing new in terms of core performance, AMD has made some great strides when it comes to power consumption in their non-FX line of processors. This of course is good for everyone as we are seeing major wattage drops with AM2. This means cooler running processors not dumping so much heat into our cases which house other components. Also these are not small decreases in wattage as you can see below. Some of these wattage drops can be be described as incredible.

AMD Rolls Out New High Performance Processors

According to AMD, rather than invest in traditionally large and expensive enterprise-class proprietary hardware, the new Quad-Core AMD Opteron SE processors empower businesses to scale up a datacenter by moving to servers that can offer enterprise-class functionality at industry-standard pricing. Adding more cores to 4-socket and 8-socket x86 servers can allow users to gain greater levels of performance and efficiency which is necessary to handle database and virtualization applications. The new Quad-Core AMD Opteron SE processors will be available in systems from OEMs and solution providers including Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Dell and IBM

Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor Models 2360 SE (2.5 GHz), 2358 SE (2.4 GHz), 8360 SE (2.5 GHz), and 8358 SE (2.4 GHz) are widely available and have already set performance benchmarks in business-relevant testing, AMD noted.

Intel ready with Atom processors for low-cost notebooks

Intel is ready to ship the latest edition of its Atom processor family, this time going after the emerging market for low-cost subnotebooks.

The N270 and N230 are processors designed for what Intel calls "netbooks" and "nettops," and the company plans to unveil them Tuesday at Computex in Taiwan. The new chips are basically the same chips as the earlier Atom processors released for mobile Internet devices, but they have been tweaked slightly for use with bigger Internet access devices, said Erik Reid, director of Intel's Mobile Platforms Group, on a conference call.

While the MID category is still very much a niche, the subnotebook is getting a fresh look in both emerging markets and more developed areas. Consumers have shown more than a passing interest in devices like the Eee PC as low-cost Internet access terminals. You're not going to want to edit the family reunion video on one of these things, but you can check sports scores and update your Facebook profile without too much difficulty.

Intel estimates that a netbook using the Atom N270 processor running at 1.6GHz, a 7-inch to 10-inch screen, 512MBs of RAM, and 2GBs to 4GBs of flash storage should cost around $250. The N270 processor for netbooks costs $44 in quantities of 1,000 units, while the N230 processor for nettops (think small desktops) costs $29.

Xeon

The Xeon brand refers to many families of Intel's x86 multiprocessing CPUs – for dual-processor (DP) and multi-processor (MP) configuration on a single motherboard targeted at non-consumer markets of server and workstation computers, and also at blade servers and embedded systems. The Xeon brand has been maintained over several generations of x86 and x86-64 processors. Older models added the Xeon moniker to the end of the name of their corresponding desktop processor, but more recent models used the name Xeon on its own. The Xeon CPUs generally have more cache than their desktop counterparts in addition to multiprocessing capabilities. Intel's (non-x86) IA-64 processors are called Itanium, not Xeon.

Revived architecture in Pentium M (Banias and Dothan)

Upon release of the Pentium 4's mobile variant, it was quickly realized that the new NetBurst core was not ideal for mobile computing. The Netburst-based processors were simply not as efficient per clock or per watt compared to their P6 predecessors. Pentium 4-Mobile ran much hotter than the Pentium III-M and didn't offer significant performance advantages. Its inefficiency affected not only the cooling system complexity, but also the all-important battery life.

Intel, realizing that their new architecture wasn't the best choice for the mobile space, went back to the drawing boards for a design that would be optimally suited for this market segment. The result was a hybrid, modernized P6 design called the Pentium M:

Design Overview[1]

* Socket 479. Electrically similar to Socket 478, but not compatible.
* Faster front side bus. With the initial Banias core, Intel adopted the 400 MT/s Netburst bus. The Dothan core moved to the 533 MT/s bus, following Pentium 4's evolution.
* Larger L2 cache. Initially 1 MiB, then 2 MiB in Dothan. Dynamic cache activation by quadrant selector from sleep states.
* SSE2 support.
* Pipelining lengthening by 3-4 stages for improved clock scaling.
* Dedicated register stack management.
* Addition of global history to branch prediction table.
* Micro-ops Fusion of certain sub-instructions mediated by decoding units. x86 commands can be combined into fewer RISC micro operations.
* Enhanced SpeedStep III (EIST). The processor can clock down to a fraction of its maximum speed and voltage when idle, bringing power usage down to only a few Watts.

The Pentium M was the most power efficient processor for notebooks for several years, consuming under 30 Watts at maximum load and a mere 4-5 Watts while idle. The processing efficiency gains brought about by its modernization allowed it to rival the Netburst processors clocked nearly one gigahertz higher and equipped with much more memory and bus bandwidth.[1]

Pentium M's primary shortcoming was in the floating point realm. The P6 core had formidable floating point performance throughout much of its lifetime, but the newer AMD Athlon and Athlon 64 cores, along with the powerful floating point SIMD capabilities of NetBurst processors, outclassed it. Although Intel implemented SSE2 in Pentium M, the implementation was not equal to that within the Athlon 64 or Pentium 4. So, on tasks where Pentium M was relying heavily on its floating point unit instead of its cache and integer performance, it would present disappointing performance.

AMD's Puma ready to pounce

Notebook makers of all stripes are getting ready to launch systems based on AMD's Puma notebook technology, which consists of a new processor, a mobile chipset, and wireless chips from AMD's partners. The official announcement is expected to come later Wednesday at the Computex trade show in Taiwan, and notebooks with the chips will be arriving over the next several weeks from companies like Acer, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and Toshiba, said Bahr Mahony, director of AMD's mobile business.

Assuming those notebooks ship without incident, Puma arrives in far better shape than Barcelona, the quad-core server processor that was a year late after running into major technical glitches. Puma also arrives at a time when Intel has suffered a rare--at least over the last two years--gaffe inside its notebook group: the company's Montevina notebook platform will be delayed several weeks with chipset problems, which could affect Intel's performance during the important back-to-school shopping season.

AMD's new Turion X2 Ultra processor is the first designed-for-mobile processor that AMD has ever produced; the earlier versions of its Turion processor were essentially the same design as its Opteron design with a more power-friendly implementation.

Intel Core (Yonah)

The Yonah CPU was launched in January 2006 under the Core brand. Single and dual-core versions were sold under the Core Solo and Core Duo brands respectively (the Solo processor being a Duo, but with one disabled core). These processors provided partial solutions to some of the foregoing Pentium M's shortcomings, by adding to its P6 microarchitecture:

* SSE3 Support
* Dual-core technology with shared L2 cache (restructuring processor organization)

This resulted in the interim microarchitecture for mobile only CPUs, part way between P6 and the next all processor Core microarchitecture introduced with the CPUs branded Core 2, Pentium Dual-Core, Celeron, and Xeon.

It is important to note, that some Pentium Dual-Core branded CPUs (T2060, T2080 and T2130) are Yonah-based.

From Pentium Pro to Pentium III

The P6 core was the sixth generation Intel microprocessor in the x86 space. The first implementation of the P6 core was the Pentium Pro CPU in 1995, the immediate successor to the original Pentium design (P5).

Some techniques first used in the x86 space in the P6 core include:

* Speculative execution and out-of-order completion (called "dynamic execution" by Intel), which required new retire units in the execution core. This lessened pipeline stalls, and in part enabled greater speed-scaling of the Pentium Pro and successive generations of CPUs.
* Superpipelining, which increased from Pentium's 5-stage pipeline to 14 of the Pentium Pro, and eventually morphed into the 10-stage pipeline of the Pentium III, and the 12- to 14-stage pipeline of the Pentium M.
* Integrated L2 cache that runs at the full speed of the processing core, instead of the earlier designs of off-die (on motherboard) cache, which runs at a fraction of the CPU frequency.
* Wider 36-bit physical address bus to support more than 4 GiB of physical memory (the linear address space of a process was still limited to 4 GiB).
* Register renaming, which enabled more efficient execution of multiple instructions in the pipeline.

The P6 architecture lasted three generations from the Pentium Pro to Pentium III, and was widely known for low power consumption, excellent integer performance, and relatively high instructions per cycle (IPC). When the new NetBurst (P68) architecture was conceived, initially in the Willamette core, which had relatively low IPC and less efficient overall design both in terms of power consumption and throughput efficiency, the P6 line of processing cores were largely thought to be abandoned.

Intel's X48 Express chipset

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 is due out this quarter, bringing with it not only four Penryn cores clocked at 3.2GHz, but also a front-side bus running at 1600MHz. That faster FSB presents a bit of a problem, though, because Intel's current P35 and X38 Express chipsets only support front-side bus speeds up to 1333MHz. So the QX9770 needs a new chipset, or at least a new north bridge, which is where the X48 Express comes in.

Based on Intel's existing X38 Express, the X48 brings with it official support for 1600MHz front-side bus speeds. With this faster bus, the X48 looks poised to supplant its predecessor atop Intel's chipset lineup, which means a new wave of motherboards is coming from all the usual suspects.

Gigabyte's X48T-DQ6 is the first X48 offering to hit our labs, and in addition to packing Intel's latest chipset, it comes with an innovative Dynamic Energy Saver mechanism designed to lower power consumption. Join us as we put this power saving scheme to the test and run the X48 Express through it paces against the rest of Intel's chipset lineup.

AMD has something for everyone with its new tri-core processors, but quite a lot is still marked "tentative"

AMD picked up big headlines the day before Intel's Fall Developer Forum with the announcement of its upcoming tri-core processors.

AMD's original release did not specify if this tri-core processor, code named Toliman, would be a totally new processor or merely a stripped-down version of the existing Agena core. The answer, it appears, is both.

In an embargoed corporate roadmap forwarded to DailyTech, details of these new triple-core oddities came to light.

The first triple-core processor, Toliman, is essentially a core-disabled version of the Agena quad-core processor. It includes a full Agena package, including the 2MB of shared L3 cache, with one core disabled.

Toliman, which will eventually herald the AMD Phenom 8000-product name, is scheduled to launch in February 2008 with mass availability in March. AMD representatives, speaking on conditions of anonymity, confirmed the initial 2.4 GHz Phenom 8700 and 2.3 GHz Phenom 8600 tri-core processors will launch with a 95W thermal envelope.In late 2008, AMD will shift almost all of its 65nm quad-core offerings to 45nm. AMD will then follow up these initial quad-core offerings with 45nm dual-core and triple-core processors in 2009.

The first of these 45nm tri-core processors, codenamed Heka, will launch with DDR2 and DDR3 support. However, AMD guidance also details that Heka will ship with two different varieties: one with a shared L3 cache, another without. All 45nm quad-core AMD processors incorporate shared L3 cache, with the exception of the Propus family processor.

AMD guidance goes on to state that all mainstream Phenom quad-core processors, both with shared L3 cache (Deneb) and without (Propus), shipped in 2009 will feature DDR3 exclusively. Heka, on the other hand, will feature a mix of DDR2 and DDR3 support.

Unfortunately the answers for tri-core only raise further questions. While Heka has a unique codename, it seems to be a combination of cut-down Deneb and Propus quad-core processors. The logical conclusion would be that Heka is merely excess or defective Deneb and Propus processors from the 2008 launch.

Yet AMD's roadmap goes on to detail one more chip: Regor. Regor, which has always been described by AMD as a dual-core version of Deneb, will make its debut with variable shared L3 cache and a mix of DDR2 and DDR3 support. Could it be that Regor is a core-disabled version of Heka, which is already likely a core-disabled version of Deneb/Propus? One AMD representative declined to comment on these 45nm processors, stating that 2009 processor launches and specifications are still "tentitive."

Intel Launches Atom Family Of Processors

Intel Corporation today unveiled the Intel Atom processors for an emerging class of compact, easy-to-use devices called netbooks and nettops that will help bring the Internet to millions of new users in India and around the world.

The Atom is based on new purpose-built low power architecture and coupled with 45nm Hi-K manufacturing process it is perfectly suited for this new market opportunity--enabling smaller chips at a lower cost. Local manufacturers HCL, Wipro and Zenith along with others will shortly be launching Nettops and Netbooks based on the Intel Atom processor.

"The newly-launched Intel Atom processor will lead to the availability of a range of affordable netbooks and nettops in the market. These devices, enabled with broadband connectivity will help bring the benefits of the Internet and the basic computing experience to many more people", said R Sivakumar, Managing Director, Sales and Marketing Group, Intel South Asia.

The Intel Atom processor packed with 47 million transistors each is based on an entirely new microarchitecture designed specifically for small devices and low power. It measures less than 25 mm. These new chips, previously codenamed Diamondville, will be manufactured on Intel's 45nm process with Hi-k metal gate technology.

Netbooks are compact mobile devices that children, first-time Internet users and people who desire an extra PC can use for basic computing applications, listening to music, e-mailing and surfing the Internet. They can also be used for playing basic online games, social networking and making voice over IP phone calls. They will also open up usage for purpose built devices that can address some of the unique opportunities in education in schools as well as in rural India.

AMD Phenom X4 9350e and AMD Phenom X4 9150e

For the power conscious, AMD has released two energy-efficient parts, the AMD Phenom X4 9350e and AMD Phenom X4 9150e. These processors, even under the most extreme operation, consume no more than 65 watts, delivering the performance of four independent cores at a low wattage. These processors are designed for mainstream and energy-conscious users, and for digital media enthusiasts looking for enhanced digital content creation and consumption capabilities with energy efficiency.

Intels New Atom Processor

The Intel Atom processor is based on an entirely new micro-architecture designed specifically for small devices and low power, while maintaining the Intel Core 2 Duo instruction set compatibility consumers are accustomed to when using a standard PC and the Internet. The design also includes support for multiple threads for better performance and increased system responsiveness. All of this on a chip that measures less than 25 mm², making it Intel’s smallest and lowest power processor yet. These new chips, previously codenamed Silverthorne and Diamondville, will be manufactured in Intel’s 45nm process with hi-k metal gate technology. The chips have a thermal design power (TDP) specification in 0.6-2.5 watt range and scale to 1.8GHz speeds depending on customer need. By comparison, today’s mainstream mobile Core 2 Duo processors have a TDP in the 35-watt range. The Intel Centrino http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrino Atom processor technology, formerly codenamed “Menlow,” includes the Intel Atom processor, a low-power companion chip with integrated graphics, a wireless radio, and thinner and lighter designs.

AMD's Shrike takes flight in the second half of 2009

AMD may not have a shipping product in the emerging MID/netbook market, but the company is taking pains to talk up its own notebook platforms and strategies. Earlier this month, AMD took time to highlight the new capabilities and technologies within its new Puma platform. Now, it's on to Shrike, the next-generation of AMD mobile technology, set to debut in 2009. Shrike will be the first AMD "Fusion" product, and will incorporate the CPU, memory controller, and GPU into a single die. PCIe support is also included, to allow for the use of discrete graphics cards. This may not be of immediate importance, given that Shrike is a laptop platform, but could prove extremely attractive to OEM's building desktops around the new Fusion processors.

intel Atom inside

Intel announced yesterday that its upcoming low-cost/low-power CPUs code-named Silverthorne and Diamondville will be sold under a single brand once the products launch. The MID-centric product family will hereafter be known as "Atom." Consumers are obviously meant to associate the Atom brand with objects of very small size, though Intel "Quark" would have a certain ring to it.

The Atom architecture is intended to give Intel a foothold in handheld devices that have traditionally been the sole domain of very low-power RISC processors. The chip itself is tiny at less than 25mm square, and, according to Santa Clara, has a TDP of 0.6W - 2.5W, as compared to a 35W TDP for a "typical" Core 2 Duo.

Intel is planning to introduce a "Centrino Atom" brand, like the original Centrino campaign, vendors will have to design their MID products within certain specifications in order to qualify. Centrino Atom products must contain an integrated graphics co-processor (presumably one that meets a minimum feature standard), a wireless radio, and what Intel refers to as a "thinner and lighter" form factor. Presumably this is to disqualify vendors who might be interested in building an MID out of, say, a brick.

Intel, AMD chip battles play out on Wall Street

FORT COLLINS - People driving through the intersection of Harmony and Ziegler roads during the week of April 14 might have heard some raspberries being blown across the street from the rival chip manufacturers on opposite corners there.

Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) released closely watched earnings that week. While the chip war was waged between engineers innovating in labs on Harmony Road in Fort Collins, the companies played it out financially on Wall Street.

Both companies had revised their previously stated first-quarter expectations prior to the end of the quarter. Intel revised its gross margin from 56 percent to 54 percent.

AMD's revision was a little more extreme. A week before earnings came out, the company announced it expected a 15 percent quarter-over-quarter decline in revenues "due to lower than expected sales across all business segments," according to the company release. Previously, the company had estimated that the revenue decline from fourth to first quarter would be in line with seasonal decreases, which are closer to 7 percent for the industry.

Intel was first up, releasing its first-quarter earnings on April 15. Despite a 12 percent year-over-year decrease in net income, Intel's earnings were hailed as the silver lining in a decidedly gloomy market. Company income of $1.4 billion was down compared to last year, but revenues were up 9 percent to $9.7 billion.

Intel's stock was up almost 6 percent to $22.13 the day following the release.

AMD unfortunately did not fare as well. The company reported its sixth consecutive quarterly net loss on April 17. The company saw a $358 million loss on revenues of $1.5 billion. But the lower-than-expected earnings had little impact on investor sentiment. The morning following the earnings release, AMD's stock was actually up a few cents.

The hold in the stock price could be related to the company's restructuring plans. When the company announced its revised earnings, it also revealed plans to cut about 10 percent of its worldwide workforce of 16,500. The cuts are anticipated across all business lines and should be completed by the end of the third quarter.

AMD Bobcat (processor)

Bobcat is a processor codenamed and designed by AMD. The processor's existence was revealed during a speech from AMD executive vice-president Henri Richard in Computex 2007 held in Taiwan, no specific release dates was given but rumours and speculations forecast a post-2008 launch.

The Bobcat processor is a very simplified x86 CPU core aiming at low power x86 processing with TDP value between 1 to 10 W, together with low voltage operation, the processor was aimed at consumer electronic markets. According to Dave Orton (previous executive vice-president of AMD), Bobcat would make its debut in UMPC devices, OLPC devices, handheld devices, and other small form factor devices.

According to AMD roadmaps in latest presentations, the Bobcat processor will be incorporated together with GPU cores into processors under the codenamed "Fusion" label . This is similar in concept with earlier AMD research in 2003, detailing the specifications and advantages of extending x86 "everywhere".

Processor benchmarks: Intel versus AMD

This evaluation of current desktop processors utilises over 60 benchmark tests including office and multimedia software, 3D games, Internet applications, video rendering and compression. We have used benchmarks that are relevant to a range of market sectors in order to get a balanced view of CPU performance. However, in an ideal world, you should also run your own mission-critical applications on any processor that you're considering.

Of course, performance is only one aspect of a processor purchase decision. For example, the Athlon 64's support for the NX (No Execute) feature safeguards it from certain virus attacks, and could be reason enough to choose an AMD processor. And if you're after a quiet PC, then AMD's chips have clear advantages over Intel's latest 'Prescott' Pentium 4. The power consumption of the Athlon 64 is lower than that of the Pentium 4 thanks to AMD's use of Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) technology. The Athlon's 64's 64-bit capability is also a potential advantage, although this feature remains largely unused because of the missing operating system support -- 64-bit Windows XP has now been delayed until 2005.

Intel® Core™2 Duo Processors

With 45nm Intel® Core™2 Duo processors, you'll experience revolutionary performance, unbelievable system responsiveness, and energy-efficiency second to none. And, you won't have to slow down for virus scan, multiple compute intensive programs, or home video editing—these desktop processors include Intel® HD Boost and are up to 70 percent faster when processing high-definition memories with your HD video camera.

Now the best gets even better with Intel's latest Core 2 Duo processors built using Intel's 45nm technology, using hafnium-infused circuitry to bring you the latest arsenal of performance-rich technologies. These amazing new processors include up to 6 MB of shared L2 cache, up to 1333 MHz front side bus for desktop, and up to 800 MHz front side bus for laptop.

Intel Next-generation business computing

Bring together benefits for both end users and IT departments with the combination of Intel® Centrino® with vPro™ Technology and Intel® Core™2 Processor with vPro™ Technology with Microsoft Windows Vista*. Intel Centrino with vPro Technology and Intel Core 2 Processor with vPro Technology provides excellent performance from the Dual-Core Intel® Core™2 Duo processor, as well as innovative security and manageability advantages.
Microsoft Windows Vista extends the capabilities of Intel Centrino with vPro Technology and Intel Core 2 Processor with vPro Technology and provides a stable, reliable operating environment where users can work and collaborate more easily and effectively.

AMD Fusion

AMD Fusion is the codename for a future next-generation microprocessor design and the product of the merger between AMD and ATI, combining general processor execution as well as 3D geometry processing and other functions of today's GPUs into a single package. AMD's merger with ATI closed on October 25, 2006. This technology is expected to debut in the second half of 2009 [1]; as a successor of the latest microarchitecture.Regarding future AMD microarchitectures beyond the introduction of the latest microarchitecture at mid-2007 and a refresh of the microarchitecture in late 2007 and early 2008; AMD executive VP Henri Richard's June 2006 interview with DigiTimes hints at the future processor development beyond that of the well documented one:" Q: What is your broad perspective on the development of AMD processor technology over the next three to four years?A: Well, as Dirk Meyer commented at our analysts meeting, we're not standing still. We've talked about the refresh of the current K8 architecture that will come in '07, with significant improvements in many different areas of the processor, including integer performance, floating point performance, memory bandwidth, interconnections and so on. You know that platform still has a lot of legs under it, but of course we're not standing still, and there's a next-generation core that's being worked on. I can't give you more details right now, but I think that what's important is that we're establishing clearly that this is a two-horse race. And as you would expect in a race, sometimes, when one horse is a little bit in front of the other, it reverses the situation. But what's important is that it is a race. "

64bit v 32bit

64bit processing for consumer PCs is still in its infancy, but AMD is nevertheless pushing its Athlon 64 range of 64bit CPUs. At the moment it's a bit of a red herring as you need a 64bit operating system to take advantage of this.
While several flavours of Linux support 64bit, the 64bit version of Windows XP won't appear until possibly late 2004. The Athlon 64 runs normal 32bit software as well as any other 32bit processor, so there's no disadvantage in buying it and you will get a little bit of extra future proofing.

AMD vs Intel

Both Intel and AMD offer a wide range of CPUs. The two companies' products are in direct competition and are both capable of running any current PC software. The differences are in technical details that, although they may be used for marketing, don't necessarily mean much to the end user.
Pricing is also very competitive, with AMD's products being generally cheaper than comparable Intel models. At the budget end of the market, Intel's offering is the Celeron which is a cut-down version of the Pentium 4. AMD's budget processor, the Duron, is still available although it's getting harder to find.
In the mainstream desktop market it's Intel's Pentium 4 versus AMD's Athlon XP and Athlon 64. The chief difference between the two is that the Pentium 4 and Athlon XP are 32bit CPUs, while the Athlon 64 is a 64bit model (see later on for an explanation).
Just recently both companies have launched new ranges of processors, Intel with the Extreme Edition of the Pentium 4, an expensive model for the hardcore gaming market, and a new version of the Pentium 4 processor. You might see this referred to as Prescott to differentiate it from the previous Northwood version. The technical differences aren't huge, but the pricing hasn't changed for models at the same clock speed. So if you're given a choice, ask for the Prescott models.
AMD has also introduced the Athlon 64 FX range, a high-end gaming/workstation CPU that prompted Intel to launch the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition.
Other choicesIf you're looking to build a very small system from scratch, then Via's Epia platform is worthy of your attention. This platform consists of tiny (17 x 17cm) motherboards with the Via C3 processor already fitted; you can't upgrade the CPU. At 1.2GHz, the fastest C3 may not be able to match its bigger desktop cousins in performance terms, but it allows you to build low cost, space saving systems.

The CPU

The CPU (central processing unit or processor) is the brains of your PC; everything that happens inside your PC has to interact with it. There's a bewildering number of processors out there for all budgets, with prices from around £25 for low-end CPUs up to £700 or more for the fastest models.
But with an equally bewildering amount of names and numbers, things aren't as simple as they once were. In this guide, we'll look at mainstream desktop and mobile processors. We won't be looking at specialised server or workstation models

CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT

A Central Processing Unit (CPU), or sometimes just called processor, is a description of a class of logic machines that can execute computer programs. This broad definition can easily be applied to many early computers that existed long before the term "CPU" ever came into widespread usage. The term itself and its initialism have been in use in the computer industry at least since the early 1960s (Weik 1961). The form, design and implementation of CPUs have changed dramatically since the earliest examples, but their fundamental operation has remained much the same.

Early CPUs were custom-designed as a part of a larger, usually one-of-a-kind, computer. However, this costly method of designing custom CPUs for a particular application has largely given way to the development of mass-produced processors that are suited for one or many purposes. This standardization trend generally began in the era of discrete transistor mainframes and minicomputers and has rapidly accelerated with the popularization of the integrated circuit (IC). The IC has allowed increasingly complex CPUs to be designed and manufactured in very small spaces (on the order of millimeters). Both the miniaturization and standardization of CPUs have increased the presence of these digital devices in modern life far beyond the limited application of dedicated computing machines. Modern microprocessors appear in everything from automobiles to cell phones to children's toys.