Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[Ixse]

"..current die size for TBred is right at 87mm^2 and Barton is right at 101. From this, you can see that 128k of L2 cache is somewhere around 7mm^2, hardly worth trimming off. If the Gelding is a real product, something that must be considered is that AMD is not going to cut off cache, although maybe they are cache salvaging to capture every possible die, but are using a different package. They could trim a lot of costs by going to BGA package. Not only would the package be cheaper, the OEM could eliminate the cost of the socket. If voltage-starved the power consumption can go way down... Of course, the only problem with this scenario is that they are specc'ing existing motherboards..."

Tx combjelly. I agree 7mm^2 by itself might not be worth shaving of, but combined with all other possible savings you pointed out it might, kind of with the aim to (wagging again) kill off any possible desktop banias sales (i.e. banias without RF, why else would they not PR rate it? + frequencies are in line with banias frequencies). Secondly they would be able to undercut celeron price wise because together it's cheaper to produce. => A celeron banias?

FWIW,

Ixse