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Cool customers hot for Barcelona

Earlier this week, Advanced Micro Devices finally introduced the first true quad-core microprocessor in the PC market, code-named "Barcelona" and launched as part of AMD's Opteron line. David Kanter provided an excellent technical analysis of Barcelona on his Real World Technologies site.

Barcelona is not the absolutely fastest processor on the market. For single-core performance, both IBM and Intel offer faster chips. With multiple cores working, Intel and Sun can claim higher performance per socket--Intel because it can put two high-frequency dual-core chips in one socket, and Sun because it has an eight-core processor (the UltraSparc T2).

Although I'm sure AMD wishes it could claim those titles, there's another metric that matters even more to some customers. Barcelona delivers high… Read more

High-end Xeon goes quad-core with 'Tigerton'

As expected, Intel on Wednesday announced its Xeon 7300 line of quad-core chips, models geared for higher-end servers with four or more processors.

The processors will range in frequency from a 2.93GHz for a 130-watt model to 1.86GHz for a 50-watt high-efficiency model. Intel also will offer an intermediate 80-watt class, the company said. Prices will range from $856 to $2,301 in quantities of 1,000.

The chips, code-named Tigerton, bring Intel's Core architecture to high-end x86 servers, replacing the last of the Netburst lineage. Netburst's eventual power consumption problems opened the door for Advanced … Read more

Intel prepping server chip launch event

Intel will complete its transition to the Core architecture across its PC and server processors with the launch of a new quad-core chip next week, the "Tigerton" Xeon MP processor, CNET News.com has learned.

Tigerton is a quad-core server processor designed for servers with four or more chips that is part of an overall platform code named "Caneland." Intel plans to hold a launch briefings next Wednesday with the usual suspects--Dell, Hewlett-Packard and IBM--plus its new best friend, Sun Microsystems, to preview the new processor and servers. Looks like the formal launch will be on … Read more

Another day, another microprocessor delay

CNET's Stephen Shankland wrote on Friday about AMD's announcement that its four-core Barcelona server processor has been delayed until August. This is just a couple of months later than the previous estimate of "mid-year." Faster versions will arrive in the fourth quarter.

Shankland did a good job with the story, as usual. He skipped quickly over the "delay" issue because that's not really very important. Two months' delay in any product is costly and unfortunate, but it's usually a second-order effect.

What really matters is the value of the product when it … Read more

Eight-core PC wipes out Third Reich

Technology demonstrations at hotels are always sort of weird. You go to the hotel, the staff knows you're not a guest but they still let you walk on by, and then you go to a suite. The door opens and there are a bunch of guys with desktops and half-eaten lunch plates. Now I know how gigolos feel.

This week Intel is showing off how machines outfitted with its new quad-core chips perform on games at the Palomar Hotel in San Francisco. The topper of them all is pictured here, a custom desktop with two four-core Xeon chips. The … Read more