Replies to post #67314 on Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[KeithDust2000]

alan, Actually, I doubt either Intel or AMD know either at this time.

Going by past experiences, AMD should know very well by now where
they´ll be in H2/06 on their mature 90nm process. For INTEL it should be a bit less clear (new process, nexgen architecture), probably a matter of a speed grade or two. Just imho.

I agree that Conroe/Woodcrest should come in at clock speeds that your proposed range covers.

[HailMary]

Well I'll be impressed if Merom/Conroe/Woodcrest can get over 3Ghz given Yonah is not anywhere close to that now. If they do, I think they'll be very well positioned. It certainly looks like they will have an IPC advantage over A64/Opteron. I don't expect A64/Opteron to be higher than 3.2Ghz by this time next year. Has Intel said anything about expected speeds out of the new cores?

As far as the 4th pipe goes, it is going to be hard to utilize it except in tuned benchmarks. I guess you can argue that is all that matters because that is what gets played up by each company. Typical applications won't use that 4th pipe much.

[CombJelly]

"I think the "fourth pipe" and the new fused macro-ops will require new code to really shine."

I strongly suspect that those cases are pretty limited.

[jhalada]

Alan,

I am fairly confident both the X2 and the Conroe will be clocking somewhere between 2.8Ghz and 3.6 Ghz

My expectation is 2.8 to 3.2 GHz, with AMD ahead in raw clock speed.

In terms of relative performance, I'll predict that on existing applications it will be very similar per clock, but on newly compiled applications (AKA spec) Conroe will be ahead. I think the "fourth pipe" and the new fused macro-ops will require new code to really shine.

It is possible Conroe will be ahead. There may be ways to get further advantages by compiler tricks, but I suspect that where it is possible, the advantage will be there in the existing apps that were not re-compiled. I am assuming that Intel is enhancing the algorithms for scheduling of instructions, and there will probably be more instructions in-flight.

My expectation is, that unlike the odd-ball Netburst processors, that were very picky, and unfreindly to old code, I think Conroe (like K7 and K8) will run old code just fine. Not just fine, great.

Joe