AMD: New Socket For Two Dual-Core Processors

[Sam]

Advanced Micro Devices is going to fire back at Intel today in the enthusiast PC market. The Sunnyvale company will unveil a new socket for high-end computers today that will allow it to put two dual-core microprocessors side by side in a PC. The new 4x4 socket will help it compete for the speed crown with Intel, which is poised to launch its new Conroe desktop microprocessors in July.

"This is something we have worked on for a while based on customer feedback," said Brent Barry, director of brand marketing for AMD's FX series of gamer chips.

It's like Gillette adding four razor blades to its razors now. How many is enough? It could get confusing for gamers. But the techies will sort it out, much the same way they have with the Nvidia SLI and ATI Crossfire dual graphics cards: more is better.

While Intel's Conroe chips will allegedly take the performance crown from AMD's own dual-core FX series of microprocessors, AMD can claim leadership in terms of putting four cores into a single PC, allowing for more tasks to be done in parallel. Patrick Moorhead, vice president of global channel marketing, said the new socket would ship in the second half of 2006 and target the high-end gamer segment, which usually means high-priced.

AMD's Barry said that machines with the new sockets will be to run multithreaded games at better performance levels than Intel-based machines. He said that more game companies have begun to adapt their games to exploit multiple threads in a PC, allowing them to handle more tasks at the same time and thereby run much games faster and prettier for gamers.

The company expects to have one computer maker showing off the performance of the 4x4 socket today at its analyst briefing.

Source

[Oompa]

Sounds intersting kinda. I mean I think Dual Core is fine right now. That's just over kill if you ask me.

[WelshBluebird]

Sorry, but this is just trying to put a smile on a sad face, for a crap analogy.

Intel > AMD until AMD gets a new core out. Simple as. IMHO AMD should put money towards getting a new core out ASAP rather than putting money towards using two CPU's together.

I think if one your competitors cheapest cores can match some of your most expensive, then you have a problem, and you need to work on a new core.

[Michael_C]

Isn't Intel bringing out a quad-core CPU too?

[DjmUK]

Intel & AMD will be bringing out a Quad-Core single CPU by the end of 2007 according to their roadmaps. So imo, I agree with WelshBluebird. At the moment, Conroe will outsmart the AM2's and AMD is desperate enough to having dual processor motherboards which have been out for a while now.

/me will await benchmarks and pricing

[viciv]

is this K8L?

[.weir]

K8L is low voltage isn't it?

[Andrew Lyle Global Moderator]

Isn't Intel bringing out a quad-core CPU too?

please do not mix the two.

Intels quad-core is 4 cores in a single microprocessor... while AMD's Two dual-core processors will actually have 2 physical dual-core processors inside.

here's a quick breakdown:

Intel:

[Processor]

-Core-

-Core-

-Core-

-Core-

AMD's new motherboard:

[Processor][Processor]

-Core- -Core-

-Core- -Core-

and with AMD making quad-cores.. i see no reason for not allowing 2 quad-cores inside a motherboard!

[Ianmac45]

and with that amd all-cores-into-one-virtual-cpu technology, this will be AWESOME :)

[Boeing 787]

The only problem with this for AMD is that they are more expensive. People will simply buy the low priced Core duo instead of two higher priced AMD cpu's.

[Tim Dorr Veteran]

Actually, the other benefit would be twice the memory bandwidth available. The whole advantage of dual CPU over dual Core is memory bandwidth, so technically this would be a bit faster.

However, since NOTHING I use makes use of SMP, this is all pretty useless stuff. Let's hope that technology AMD was working on to automatically split out single-threaded processing across multiple cores isn't just vaporware...

[pyehac]

two dual core processors? 1) I only gotten into dual core a few weeks ago, so that's a shock 2) Not much programs/games take advantage of dual cores. I don't know how many patches/edits/etc will we need to go quad core.

[jerry]

This is AMD's "stop-gap" exercise, they do not have anything competitive against Intel's Conroe for another year at the least.

[L3thal Veteran]

This is AMD's "stop-gap" exercise, they do not have anything competitive against Intel's Conroe for another year at the least.

For once, I agree with you (Y)

:p

[viciv]

For once, I agree with you (Y)

:p

:)

[Spyderz]

its going to cost a lot

i see this 4x4 platform is going to cater to the niche market