Replies to post #28236 on Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[wbmw]

Doug, Re: 1.6GHz / 3000+ / 256K L2 might indicate even better IPC than mobile A64.

That's a new one. Quarter the cache, and performance increases... I'm sure you put a lot of thought into that statement.

Re: 1/3 the power? Then why does the Banias notebook peak at the same wattage as the Dublin notebook?

How should I know why HP specs their laptops the way they do? The point is that you cannot correlate processor power dissipation just with your limited set of data. There are other pieces of hardware inside these laptops that also dissipate power.

Re: Also, if you run Mobile A64 down at Banias level performance, the power is nowhere near 3x.

3x or 4x, it's still a sizable multiple. :-)

I just find it interesting that you somehow expect Dublin to be this miracle design improvement with lower power and higher performance, even in spite of the smaller cache and the fact that it represents no major core improvement on the roadmap.

It's also being positioned by AMD as an Athlon XP replacement in the low end. It's actually the "bottom box" in their roadmap foil, with the 90nm "Odessa" positioned above it.

Hope may spring eternal, but if you applied some critical thinking, you might realize that Dublin is not AMD's sudden defense against Centrino in the mobile space. While I'm sure that any K8 derivative part will be an improvement over Athlon XP, I doubt this one is going to spur any kind of comeback in market share that you might be expecting.

[KeithDust2000]

Doug, 1.6GHz / 3000+ / 256K L2 might indicate even better IPC than mobile A64.

Athlon XP and Athlon 64 are separate product lines, separate "brands" targeted at different market segments. The 3000+ Athlon XP is not performance competitive with Athlon 64 3000+, just like a Celeron 3 Ghz is a far worse performer than the P4 3Ghz. I´ve made so many posts last year explaining the importance of a successful segmentation strategy (through the highest possible level of differentiation) for AMD ("brand protection", "price protection"), so I won´t repeat that again. I still see many people complaining about a "castrated" A64, and how AMD should make a Duron64, that my attempts last year were probably for nought anyway.

Like I said last year, it´s a great strategy, and it is the only one that makes business sense for AMD. If it works out, unlike the Duron fiasco, and AMD stays more or less performance competitive against Prescott, they should do very well.