Wbmw:
You claimed that I was the one to talk about 2.5GHz, yet I posted a post from February. Talk about false claims. You made it.
Yonah will not top the performance of A64 X2, flagship to flagship. It won't run 64 bit software. Some applications don't do all the functionality in 32 bit mode as they do in 64 bit mode. There is some software that doesn't even come in a x86-32 flavor, but does exist in AMD64. Of course we are hearing more about the future chip because the current one is found wanting.
LOL, Pete. So you want to compare the lowest leakage parts available on AMD's process with a random one on Intel's? In other words, you think because AMD can produce a small subset of chips at minimal leakage, that they can go ahead and release an entire line of chips at that lowest leakage level? Absurd, Pete. How about comparing Yonah's lowest leakage parts? You might find a few 10W Yonahs floating around the market in a few months. But then you already knew that....
Yonah's TDP spec'd from Intel is not the maximum power it can dissipate, as you well know (and if you don't, you have no business making any TDP claims). Dothan with a 21W TDP(typ) (400MHz FSB version) uses up to 28W. The 27W TDP(typ)(533MHz version) Dothan uses up to 36W. This is in Intel's datasheet if you look hard enough. The Yonah datasheet isn't public yet. Given Intel's track record, the 31W TDP(typ) Yonah is likely to use up to 42W when used with a thermal virus like Prime95 (two copies, one for each core).
As to the every Yonah can work under 31W is just as much bunk. The ones that make it into the bin test below 31W on Intel's suite. It makes for a self fulfilling prophecy. That does not mean that every good Yonah off the production line will make it under that power. Some will require you to slow down the clock to make it. Every one can't make 2.16GHz under 31W TDP(typ). That's binning. So the ones that make 2.16GHz are in fact cherry picked to begin with. And every CPU manufacturer does this. That what they mean by yield at a given bin. That percentage is the number of dies that successfully test into that bin divided by all the dies made and the result times 100%.
So if 2GHz Yonah has a 2% yield and 2GHz DC Opteron has a 3% yield in the 35W TDP area, the Opteron is better yielding than Yonah.
And that rating is an upper bound as AMD doesn't test any lower TDPmax bins. And yes, Yonah's limit is also an upper bound. Only testing can show which actually uses less. And only testing can show what the actual performance per watt, which requires both performance and watts used to be tested at the same time, else it makes the results meaningless.
So before we continue this debate, we should wait for someone like Lost Circuits to test the actual usage and performance per watt of Yonah like they did with Venice, Winchester, Newcastle, Clawhammer, Toledo, Manchester, Prescott and Smithfield.
Pete
AI
