AMD launches latest salvo in phenomenal quad core war

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 15 May 2007 17:58

Opinion and Analysis

Given the success of Intel’s Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad lines, AMD has expressed regret that they didn’t just go down the “let’s stick two dual-core processors together to make a quad-core chip” route like Intel, which would have enabled them to offer a quad-core processor at roughly the same time Intel announced availability, but the ‘ace-up-AMD’s-sleeve’ has always been the fact that when they did introduce a quad-core chip, it would be a true quad-core processor.

Why is all of this important? Because Intel’s quad-core processor, which is two dual-cores stuck together, as both cores communication to each other through a front side bus, which is external and separate from the four cores. This extra step causes a bottleneck which can ultimately slow things down, at least when compared with a true quad-core processor.

AMD’s quad-core can have all four cores communicating with each other internally without the bottleneck of the front-side bus, and can therefore process information more efficiently than Intel.

AMD’s also have technology called “Direct Connect Architecture” on their chip which, according to AMD, “ensures that all four cores have optimum access to the integrated memory controller and integrated HyperTransport links, so that performance scales well with the number of cores”.

Of course, Intel has a true quad-core solution on the way too, as well as a competitor to AMD’s integrated memory controller, and have already been shipping eight-core systems which take two Core 2 Quads and put them into the same computer. It’s just that Intel will take longer than AMD in releasing their true quad-core processor, and unless Intel can speed up their development cycles, risk AMD re-gaining the performance crown, if only for a short while before Intel catch up and overtake AMD once more.

As you’d expect, AMD officials think Phenom is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Bob Brewer, the corporate Veep and GM of AMD’s desktop division said in an AMD statement that: “AMD has always enjoyed a great bond with the enthusiast community, and the introduction of the AMD Phenom processor family will take our relationship to new heights. We continue to focus on listening to and addressing users’ evolving needs. AMD is confident the performance enhancements enabled by true quad-core client technology in computing-intensive environments will allow them to realize new possibilities and find new inspiration.”

In addition, Nathan Brookwood, a research fellow at analyst firm Insight 64, said that: “AMD’s quad-core processor rollout will put more computing horsepower at PC users' fingertips. Quad-core innovations come at a time when many users are finding that the combination of Microsoft Vista, multi-threaded applications and DirectX 10 no longer delivers the crisp performance they experienced on last year’s fastest systems running last year’s software. The AMD Phenom processor’s ability to deliver significantly more performance within the same power and thermal envelopes as its dual-core antecedents should make this quad-core processor a fitting follow-on to earlier AMD dual-core processor offerings.”

What’s probably most important to realize here is that the development of a true quad-core processor ensures that Intel truly won’t be too far behind, and that quad-core and better processors will fast become the new standard.

If you thought your new dual-core system was the bees knees, it still is… but the realm of quad-core, eight-core and more-core processing will eventually see dual-core processors seem as quaint as the now outdated single-core processor.