Originally Posted by Gary Key, AT Editor
Not exactly, I cannot go into the details yet, just imagine the cache/memory pipeline as being a supercharger on a car, you have an engine (same compression ratio/cubic inches for NA versus SC) that performs the same until you hit a certain RPM/air-fuel mixture where the SC comes online and the power curve changes dramatically compared to the NA engine. The same basis is occurring here, all of the changes/enhancements made to the core / HT/ cache / memory controller are basically "idle" in some cases (SC is flowing more air than than the engine can take advantage of at low RPM plus you have parasitic drag from powering the SC), if not a hindrance (low compression and mismatched gearing). An engine (CPU) is most efficient at its torque peak (wherever that happens to be based on gearing, displacement, compression, efficiency, etc) and in this case, it starts nearing it (torque peak) around 2.4GHz from all indications.
This is a very crude and simple example but about the only way I can state information at this time. The simple fact is, this core needs clock speed and until 2.4GHz or so, it is not that impressive in my opinion on the desktop. Certain transactions/operations will be noticeable/improved over some of the Core 2 family processors on a performance/wattage aspect from an enterprise overview, but this chip design is going to require clock speed before you start seeing some numbers that make sense in the consumer/workstation market. That is why Phenom will launch at higher clock speeds, different core configurations, and with chipsets designed to take full advantage of the core changes with consumer applications. That is my guesstimate based on performance up to this point, several of the larger OEMs received their final silicon chips this past week, most noticed another improvement in performance, how much, we will find out shortly but do not expect a leap frog over the Blue Bunnies yet.
I would not be surprised to even see supply shortages until early next year and still think BullDozer is the AMD CPU that will make or break the company. Barcelona and Shanghai, plus their desktop counterparts, are evolutionary designs (core basis) based off the K7/K8. This is why I have never really understood the hype around this launch, yes, performance improvements will come and we get some interesting new technologies like HT 3.0 /native quad core layout, but without clock speed improvements to match, you end up with A64 X4+ for a lack of simpler words.
