Enter the Dragon: AMD AM3 6-core desktop arriving in 2010

[570091D]

AMD plans to transit from the current Dragon AM3 platform to Leo platform in April 2010. The new platform is made up of a slew of faster 45nm multi-core AM3 CPUs to be released next year coupled with the new AMD 890FX/GX + SB850 chipsets as well as the DX11 graphics cards;

source

i wonder if these are the "faster" cpu's they are talking about, i would be quite happy if we didn't have to wait until q3 for this. it would also be nice to see a few enthusiast class duel-socket mobos for this platform. asus? you listening?

If true, then Bulldozer in late 2010/early 2011 looks even less plausible.

why?

[FlanK3r]

GREAT, GREAT AMD !!!

Think, this will with only DDR3 ram controller (all new Leo CPUs)

[BrowncoatGR]

If true, then Bulldozer in late 2010/early 2011 looks even less plausible.

Bulldozer is a 2011 product and has been for a while.

[Nedjo]

Well, it is Xbit afterall.

true... true...

[kl0012]

why?

Buldozer is aimed at high-performance segment, as well as "Thuban". Supposedly Bulldozer will be faster then Thuban, so what is the sense to release Thuban at the same time frame? Again Istanbul is barely competitive against Nehalem and supposedly will be just crashed by Sandy Bridge in Q4 2010. This movie seems to me like an act of desperation (considering there was no plans for Istanbul in the desktop segment in AMD's official roadmaps).

Istanbul vs. Nehalem:
http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/17005

[saaya]

So was 4 cores not all that long ago.

isnt it still today?

[ajaidev]

Buldozer is aimed at high-performance segment, as well as "Thuban". Supposedly Bulldozer will be faster then Thuban, so what is the sense to release Thuban at the same time frame? Again Istanbul is barely competitive against Nehalem and supposedly will be just crashed by Sandy Bridge in Q4 2010. This movie seems to me like an act of desperation (considering there was no plans for Istanbul in the desktop segment in AMD's official roadmaps).

Istanbul vs. Nehalem:
http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/17005

I think the 6 core will get replaced by a Bulldozer 6 core later on. Till then quad cores maybe based on Bulldozer. Its similar way to how Intel has used Nehalem and its shrink together in its product tree. Intel will eventually replace the quad nahelem with a shrunk. In a similar way AMD may have 6 core Thuban and 4 core Bulldozer running together and eventually replace the 6 core Thuban with a 6 core Bulldozer. Also the AMD part is 2.6Ghz while the x5550 is 2.66Ghz & with turbo its 3.06Ghz, so its quite nice to see how the 2435 vs x5550 battle is so close. If AMD does release a 2.8-3.0 Ghz hexa core processor with a TDP of around 140w it would be a instant hit.

Now for the people who say AMD cant make profit on the hexa core because it too dam huge at 346 mm2 as compared to 265 mm2 for the nehalem, well the die size is not the whole thing of the equation. There are numerous other things that determine how expensive the processor will be to make like the cache, IO system, etc.

isnt it still today?

But Intel and AMD has given up the speed race what else can they do but make the cpu's more efficient and parallel in nature with addition of cores.

[Chad Boga]

+1

AMD and especially Intel are working with a lot of software devs to get multi-threaded code out in the wild. I predict 2010 will be the year of pervasive multi-threading.

Are you trying to rival Shintai for being referenced in people's sigs?

2010 will demonstrate what a rut CPU design is in for desktop users as 6 core CPU's prove to be near useless over their faster running Quad brothers in the same power envelope.

If AMD release a 6 core CPU without a turbo boost function in 2010 against a 6 core Westmere, they are going to lose embarrassingly in benchmarks and workloads.

[FlanK3r]

570091D: -Thuban is Phenom K10/K10.5 architecture
-Bulldozer is totale new architecture, maybe killer architecture (here is thread about it)

[kl0012]

I think the 6 core will get replaced by a Bulldozer 6 core later on. Till then quad cores maybe based on Bulldozer. Its similar way to how Intel has used Nehalem and its shrink together in its product tree. Intel will eventually replace the quad nahelem with a shrunk. In a similar way AMD may have 6 core Thuban and 4 core Bulldozer running together and eventually replace the 6 core Thuban with a 6 core Bulldozer. Also the AMD part is 2.6Ghz while the x5550 is 2.66Ghz & with turbo its 3.06Ghz, so its quite nice to see how the 2435 vs x5550 battle is so close. If AMD does release a 2.8-3.0 Ghz hexa core processor with a TDP of around 140w it would be a instant hit.

Now for the people who say AMD cant make profit on the hexa core because it too dam huge at 346 mm2 as compared to 265 mm2 for the nehalem, well the die size is not the whole thing of the equation. There are numerous other things that determine how expensive the processor will be to make like the cache, IO system, etc.



But Intel and AMD has given up the speed race what else can they do but make the cpu's more efficient and parallel in nature with addition of cores.

The question is not whether or not it will be replaced by Bulldozer. The question is "when?" I was sceptical about Bulldozer in Q4 2010/Q1 2011. Now I'm sceptical even more. I dont believe that AMD plans to release a year from now so questionable processor (from performance and cost points) that would be changed to something else within next 6 months.

[Chrono Detector]

Sounds nice, though its a bit disappointing that its still based on 45nm while Intel's Core i9 is going to be on a 32nm. But I'm happy with 9MB of cache altogether, though 12MB would sound better.

I wonder how this will compete against Intel, I just want this to be competitive.

[570091D]

570091D: -Thuban is Phenom K10/K10.5 architecture
-Bulldozer is totale new architecture, maybe killer architecture (here is thread about it)

i understand this, and i've been reading dresdenboy's thread and blog. thuban is istanbul adapted for a different socket/platform. what i'm saying is: i wonder if the "faster processors" mentioned in the article are in fact thuban based. i can only hope so, because waiting until q3 to compete with nehelam will be disastrous for amd.

[Helloworld_98]

Sounds nice, though its a bit disappointing that its still based on 45nm while Intel's Core i9 is going to be on a 32nm. But I'm happy with 9MB of cache altogether, though 12MB would sound better.

I wonder how this will compete against Intel, I just want this to be competitive.

unless they're using 1MB L2 cache per core and sticking with 6MB L3 it wouldn't make any difference.

AMD showed that with K10.5 once the L3 increased to over 6MB there was little difference in performance.

[Jamesrt2004]

i understand this, and i've been reading dresdenboy's thread and blog. thuban is istanbul adapted for a different socket/platform. what i'm saying is: i wonder if the "faster processors" mentioned in the article are in fact thuban based. i can only hope so, because waiting until q3 to compete with nehelam will be disastrous for amd.

wouldnt be surprised to see them add in a couple little tweaks etc..

[El Greco]

Good news (at least for me..since i have desided AM3 over 775 )... i hope that AMD will not let go AM3 sooner than 2 years..

[ubuntu83]

Maybe a test chip @45nm with some Bulldozer functions onboard?

[demonkevy666]

Maybe a test chip @45nm with some Bulldozer functions onboard?

it's should a 4 core bulldozer first on 32nm.

[mk_dir]

Maybe a test chip @45nm with some Bulldozer functions onboard?

I don't think so, probably an Istambul core desktop (less HT links) variation.

[Nedjo]

I'm curious where do you see usage of more than four cores in your daily usage?

[demonkevy666]

I'm curious where do you see usage of more than four cores in your daily usage?

same place where you see 2gbs needed for video memory.

[ubuntu83]

I'm curious where do you see usage of more than four cores in your daily usage?

Are you suggesting that there wont be a X6 desktop cpu from AMD anytime soon.

[Afterburner]

Holding back on X4 945/955/965 and gettin a X2 550BE as an interim CPU is finally paying off.....

[Nedjo]

Are you suggesting that there wont be a X6 desktop cpu from AMD anytime soon.

I'm not suggesting anything, just asking 'cos I fail to see the point of the desktop CPU beyond four cores... since I accept possibility of being short sighted I'm asking you guys where do you see Hexa-Core desktop usage?

Actually only thing that can see benefits of ever more CPU cores is in Pro rendering and animation software... but those people who're seriously in that business usually go for Dual, or even quad-Socket rendering rigs.

Only thing that's left as a demanding task for average Joe is video transcoding for YouTube or iPod-like usage, and thanks to the power of GPUs many-core CPUs are pointless...

When it comes to gaming even the best threaded 3D engines are struggling to fully utility quad-Core CPUs... maybe that'll change with DX11... maybe!

IMHO that additional silicon for two more cores would be better used with GPU "co-processor"

[vengance_01]

MCM FTW.

I don't think this chip is a MCM. This is a native 6 core design

[Particle]

I'm dying here for the new 800 series chipset boards. I know these Istanbuls will clock higher than they have so far. The only limit I've had, even on default vCore, is the motherboard's HT clock generation.