Dual-Core Chips Shift Performance Focus
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With the race for dominance in processor clock speed over, or at least waning, the pursuit for overall performance gains through architectural enhancements is officially beginning.
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High-end processors for computer servers will compete with an upcoming new product from AMD.
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Montalvo Systems has a multiple-core chip, but not all of the cores are the same. That in part explains why investors have put money into it.
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Chip maker offers few details about its plans for dual-core server processors.
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CHIP FIRM AMD said it is demonstrating a fourway Opteron server using dual processor cores. 90 nanometre technology and silicon on insulator (SOI) technology.
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Intel Corp.&#39;s dual-core strategy for mobile processors became a little clearer this week at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, but questions remain
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A fast PC doesnât mean just a fast processor. Hard-drive speeds, memory and other considerations all affect a systemâs performance.
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Intel Corp., which has led the charge in the gigahertz race, is expected to change its tune at this week&#39;s developer forum in San Francisco by focusing on improving chip performance by adding more cores to the microprocessor.
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Chip maker says it will use methods other than clock speed to improve processor performance.
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(InfoWorld) - AMD on Monday is giving the public an advanced look at how its pending quad-core chip will improve performance and save energy. AMD, playing catch-up to rival Intel, whoseÂ quad-core XeonÂ product launched in 2006, will discuss features of its quad-core product, code-named Barcelona, at the International Solid States Circuits Conference in San Francisco, a forum for engineers in solid state circuitry and system-on-a-chip processor design. AMD says it will present details at the conference of how Barcelona, due to be released in mid-2007, improves performance and energy efficiency over the competition and over its own dual-core processor, the Opteron, which it introduced in 2003. Barcelona will feature "Enhanced PowerNow" technology, which will dynamically adjust core frequencies as workloads change in order to power down cores when not needed to save energy, said Brent Kerby, product marketing manager for Opteron. Under the PowerNow technology already deployed in the dual-core Opteron, the OS delivers the needed power to the busiest core, but if the other core is not as busy, it will still receive the voltage demanded of the busiest core, Kerby said. But with Enhanced PowerNow, while the busiest core will receive the power it needs, the OS will reduce the frequency and voltage of the remaining cores because they aren't as busy. "We still see power savings with our current PowerNow technology, but it's going to get better with Barcelona because we're going to be able to dynamically and independently adjust the core frequencies of each individual core," he said. Also in Barcelona, the OS will directly communicate with the CPU instead of first going through the CPU driver, a more efficient approach, he said. "With Barcelona, there is no CPU driver middleman. The OS can tell the processor directly, 'Hey this is how much work I'm doing,' and the Barcelona core will determine when the best time is to make that change. It's not doing it blindly," he said. Barcelona also separates the power management of the cores from that of the memory controller, which is embedded in AMD-designed processors. That way, frequency and voltage can be reduced to the cores when they are not busy and increased to the memory controller when it is busy, and vice versa. AMD claims an 80 percent reduction in memory controller power usage with this design change. Barcelona will also feature enhanced clock-gating, which means core logic circuits can be turned on or off to save power. Like settings on a coffee grinder, the chip can do "coarse" or "fine" clock gating, shutting down increasingly finer sections of core logic as needed. AMD claims that Barcelona can deliver a 40 percent improvement in performance over "the competition." While not mentioning Intel's Xeon specifically, AMD has long pointed out that its quad-core chip will be four cores designed on the same piece of silicon, while Intel's design is two dual-core processors packaged together.
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Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) has demonstrated the company&#39;s first dual-core microprocessors at its Austin, Texas, office, the company said Tuesday.
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Intel is researching technology that weds memory chips to processor cores, and can yield impressive gains in speed and efficiency.
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Smaller, more efficient memory could double chip performance for gamers and multimedia use by 2008.
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After its recent delays and missteps, chip maker sets its sights on a dual-core future. Intel will look to a multicore future during the Fall Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco this week as it tries
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SAN FRANCISCO - Intel Corp.'s dual-core strategy for mobile processors became a little clearer this week at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, but questions remain about the company's plans for bringing dual-core designs to its desktop and low-end server chips.
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Analysis: Dual- and quad-core systems add power, but customers wonder whether the they're worth the cost.
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SAN JOSE, Calif.âAdvanced Micro Devices Inc. on Tuesday unveiled its dual-core architecture here at In Stat/MDR&#39;s Fall Processor Forum and provided the first estimates of the chip&#39;s performance.