Replies to post #40330 on Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[jhalada]

sgolds,

Our earlier speculation here was that future Opteron (K9 and beyond) could contain technology from Sun and eventually replace SPARC throughout Sun's lineup.

That may have been your speculation, certainly not mine. <g>

My speculation is that Sun will put something interesting on the HT bus.

1. Integrated multiprocessing design (vs. AMD's stated plan to put multiple cores on the die).
What do you mean by this?

2. Special instructions for accelerating Solaris.
Just about zero % probability

3. A big-endian switch (as mips and Power have), unless Sun totally abandons this part of the code base.
Close to zero % probability, IMO.

I think what is more likely is that Sun will commit to purchasing certain minimum quantity of special purpose chips, and for that, Sun will get some exclusivity for a period of time.

These things could include:
1. More L2
2. More cores
3. More HT links (new socket)
3. Wider HT links (new socket as well)

Joe