AMD "Tahiti" Successor is Codenamed "Tenerife"?

An AMD presentation slide was scored by OBR-Hardware, the site did not vouch for the authenticity of the slide, but reveals a new GPU codename, "Tenerife". The slide rings many bells. First, we know from a recent report by VR-Zone, that a new family of GPUs succeeding "Southern Islands" is codenamed something along the lines of "Sea Islands". Second, the source speculates the stream processor count of Tenerife to be 2304, which falls in line the "actual" stream processor count of Tahiti, that was revealed by a leaked company document belonging to Sapphire, which created some controversy in early January, which AMD later went on to quash.

HD 7970: Bulldozer vs. Sandy Bridge vs. Nehalem

Just one week ago AMD released their new Radeon HD 7970 graphics cards which introduced a new shader architecture and a new manufacturing process. The company's new flagship is the fastest single GPU graphics card in the world, and reviews across the Internet were generally favourable. Today, we test the Radeon HD 7970's CPU scaling, pitting AMD's recently released Bulldozer-based FX-8150 CPU against two formidable Intel opponents.

Intel X79 Chipset Support for LGA2011 & LGA1366 CPU

Although construction of the latest X79 chipset has not been completed, Intel seems to have to think further ahead in making the Core logic that is capable of supporting high-end processors from both new and old generations.
Every time a new core logic designed, despite the differences that exist between Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, it seems both are equally committed to continue supporting the kinds of chips that advance existing or old.

Building Up Bulldozer: AMD Reintroduces 'FX' Brand

AMD announced the relaunch of its high-end 'FX' processor brand at E3 today, in a move clearly timed to grab the attention of gamers and computing enthusiasts. For those of you who aren't familiar with the brand, it dates back to 2003 and the launch of AMD's then-new 64-bit, K8 architecture. At the time, the standard Athlon 64 brand applied to processors based on Socket 754 with just one channel of DDR RAM. This solution was quite competitive against Intel's fastest P4 Northwood processors, but AMD opted to do more than just match Northwood's performance.

Athlon 64 FX processors used Opteron's Socket 940, matched the P4's dual-channel DDR400 memory configuration, and were clocked at 2.2GHz as opposed to the 2GHz that was standard for the vanilla Athlon 64 3200+. For several years thereafter, the FX brand was reserved for AMD's fastest, highest-performance desktop processor.

 

Intel's resurgent Core 2 Duo put the kibosh on AMD's Athlon 64 FX brand almost from the beginning. AMD struggled to fight back by offering a dual-socket motherboard and faster FX-class processors, but the company's Quad FX  brand was widely criticized as consuming much more power without offering competitive performance. By the end of 2007, the FX brand was dead in the water.

Brand Positioning

AMD's PR hints at what consumers can expect. "AMD's FX brand will enable an over-the-top experience for PC enthusiasts," said Leslie Sobon, vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, AMD. "By combining an unlocked, native eight-core processor, the latest in chipset technology, and AMD's latest graphics cards, FX customers will enjoy an unrivalled feature set and amazing control over their PC's performance."

Previously, AMD had said only that Zambezi would be a 4-8 core product; this new announcement implies that AMD may reserve the octal core products for its highest-end FX processors. There's no word on whether or not the company will release a hexa-core processor. Doing so would allow the company to sell processors that didn't fully qualify as eight-core products.

AMD's decision to re-launch the FX brand implies that Bulldozer's performance is good enough to challenge Intel in ways previous Phenom II parts couldn't. Zambezi, however, is unlikely to retake the performance crown from Sandy Bridge and Westmere in absolute terms.

It makes much more sense for AMD to position future Bulldozer FX products at price points that challenge Intel's Sandy
Bridge and Westmere processors. Intel's quad-core Sandy Bridge-based 2600K currently sells for $314 at NewEgg, while the cheapest six-core Gulftown processor (i7-970, 3.2GHz) is $595. An octal-core Bulldozer FX processor could slip neatly between the two Intel chips with a price/performance ratio that's competitive with both.

AMD has kept its cards close to its chest as far as Bulldozer's performance is concerned, but the return of FX branding is a good sign. At the very least, it suggests AMD is on the verge of shrinking the gap between its own products and Intel's Core i7/i5/i3 family.


source: hothardware.com

AMD Needs to Boost Clock-Speed of FX "Bulldozer" Chips - Sources.

Advanced Micro Devices needs to improve performance of its FX-series "Zambezi" microprocessors for desktops featuring the Bulldozer micro-architecture before launching them, according to sources with knowledge of the matter. Performance can be improved with a new stepping, which will be production ready only by August.

The long-awaited central processing units (CPUs) featuring the code-named Bulldozer micro-architecture are now fully-functional and work without flaws, according to a person who wished to remain anonymous. The problem with the delay of the AMD FX family of chips is that they currently cannot operate at truly high-speeds and thus cannot achieve performance levels that AMD wanted them to. As result, AMD will need to design a new stepping of the processor and therefore delay the commercial launch to September.

The currently available B0 and B1 stepping Zambezi/Bulldozer processors can function at around 2.50GHz/3.50GHz (nominal/turbo) clock-speeds and at such frequency they cannot deliver performance AMD considers competitive, a person with knowledge of the situation said on Monday. As a consequence, AMD needs to tune the design of the processor and create B2 stepping of the chip with better clock-speed potential amid similar thermal design power (TDP), which will take several months to complete. Therefore, the Sunnyvale, California-based chip designer will release its highly-anticipated Bulldozer processors for desktops in September, not in June, as planned.

Although sales of high-performance microprocessors do not peak in Summer, production ramp usually takes time and therefore launch in September means that the company will only be able to ship "Bulldozers" in high volume sometimes late in 2011 or even in 2012. This will slowdown revenue growth of the chip developer and will also hit its reputation, as this is by far not the first or second delay of Bulldozer in general and Zambezi in particular. AMD itself believed that its multi-core Zambezi FX CPUs will allow it to compete head-to-head with Intel's high-end Core i-series "Sandy Bridge" processors that can sell for as much as $300 and more per chip.

It remains to be seen how the delay of the desktop version of the processor will postpone the release of server versions of the chip with up to sixteen cores. Several high-performance computer makers, including Cray, have already promised to ship supercomputers with the new AMD Opteron "Bulldozer" microprocessors code-named Valencia and Interlagos this year.
AMD did not comment on the story.
source: www.xbitlabs.com