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.
At the Barcelona launch, AMD played up its statistics on integer performance.
(Credit: Tom Krazit/CNET Networks)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
Boeing rolls out the 787 Dreamliner (here). Yup, that's the airplane I want.
Often missed in the news coverage is that Boeing has yet to announce exactly how the 787's composite structures-- skin, wings, tail, etc.-- are made. Early in the project there were some very definite rumors that Boeing had decided to go with a new kind of carbon-titanium composite made from layers of carbon fibers alternating with layers of titanium foil. The combination was said to have more fatigue resistance and a longer service life.
But as far as I know, Boeing has never addressed these rumors. The company said the 787 is 50% "composite materials" (usually meaning carbon or fiberglass plus a resin binder) by weight, 20% aluminum, 15% titanium, 10% steel, and 5% "other." But what parts are made of what material? I'm looking forward to finding out.
In other news, AMD announced price cuts (here) for its desktop processors. All dual-core Athlon 64 parts are under $200; the Athlon 64 FX chips a priced at $599 for two. Single-core chips go for $31 to $79. These cuts keep AMD's prices well under Intel's, and presumably make room for the arrival of the quad-core Barcelona next month.
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 does arrive. According to AMD, Barcelona will reach only 2.0 GHz in August, and the company has estimated that the new chip will outperform Intel's competing Xeon 5300 server processor on integer tasks (the most important kind for servers) by 20% at the same frequency.
But unfortunately for AMD, Intel sells a 3.0 GHz model of the Xeon 5300. It's been on the market for months. If the best AMD can ship is something equivalent to a 2.4 GHz Xeon, it won't produce much profit per unit and AMD won't sell very many, either. Bad all around for AMD.
The scalability of AMD's system architecture is fundamentally better than Intel's, so builders of large systems will still find some sockets for the new chips. And AMD says it'll ship low-power versions of Barcelona in August as well; these chips will be welcomed by makers of high-density blade servers.
All in all, the announcement of the Barcelona delay isn't a big problem for AMD. The worst part about it, really, is that it dashes the hope of the AMD faithful that Barcelona might ship in June at 2.6 GHz. This new chip might bring AMD out of its slump, but it'll take a while longer.
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