So yes, seems they are. However i think the prices will be freaky...
Has the slumbering giant finally awoken? That's the question many were asking after an unusually in-your-face performance from the semiconductor giant at the Intel Developer Forum.
The company ditched its usual boy in a bubble act to call out AMD~ WWE-style. The Company stopped just short of chucking folding chairs into the audience, but it did say that the upcoming Conroe processor will not only outperform today's Athlon 64 FX-60, it'll even kick an overclocked Athlon 64 FX-60 squarely in the family jewels.
The dual-core Conroe uses the new Core microarchitecture, which replaces the Pentium 4's aging NetBurst technology. The core Architecture is the spiritual opposite of NetBurst. Instead of running at ultra-high frequencies, its designed to be more effective when running at lower clock speeds. Where the Pentium D and P4 take two clock cycles to complete a SSE instruction, Conroe can complete those instructions in a single clock cycle. In addition to that, a technology Intel calls Macro Fusion can combine two instructions into one, for even faster processing.
The Core microarchitecture is wider than NetBurst, which means it can process four instructions every clock cycle, versus three instructions per cycle on current-gen chips. The 33 percent gain in bandwith will actually net a peak of 66% gain when the CPU combines instructions with Macro Fusion.
All this, Intel claims, amounts to a CPU that could shift the balance of power back to Santa Clara. In fact, Intel claims that a 2.66GHz Conroe on a 1,066MHz front-side bus with 4MB of smart cache will not only outperform a dual-core 2.66GHz Athlon 64 FX-60, it will easily outperform that FX-60 overclocked to 2.8GHz. In fact, the company demonstrated the latter point at the conference. We always take benchmarking numbers from vendor-built systems with a huge grain of salt, so we plan to test it ourselves when the CPU ships this sumer.
Intel also talked up the sequel to Conroe: the quad-core CPU code-named Kentfield that is essentially a pair of dual-core Conroe dies inside a single CPU package. The quad core Kentfield is expected to make its debut in 2007.
Ever since Intel released its first dual-core CPU, its design which has both cores sharing the front-side bus bandwidth has been criticized. But it appears Intel is sticking to its guns for future CPUs. Intel says its bandwidth tests prove the design offers plenty of headroom for today and the near term. According to Intel, the front-side-bus bandwidth exceeds current maximum memory bandwidth, so the FSB gap that AMD has so skillfully played up isn't really a problem.
any toughts..
Originally posted by Maximum PC Magazine, May Issue 2006
"Intel Unveils Its Next-Gen CPU Microarchitecture"
At its spring developer conference, Intel pulled the wraps off the upcoming Conroe CPU, dished on quad-core plans, and stuck to its front-side-bus guns
At its spring developer conference, Intel pulled the wraps off the upcoming Conroe CPU, dished on quad-core plans, and stuck to its front-side-bus guns
Has the slumbering giant finally awoken? That's the question many were asking after an unusually in-your-face performance from the semiconductor giant at the Intel Developer Forum.
The company ditched its usual boy in a bubble act to call out AMD~ WWE-style. The Company stopped just short of chucking folding chairs into the audience, but it did say that the upcoming Conroe processor will not only outperform today's Athlon 64 FX-60, it'll even kick an overclocked Athlon 64 FX-60 squarely in the family jewels.
The dual-core Conroe uses the new Core microarchitecture, which replaces the Pentium 4's aging NetBurst technology. The core Architecture is the spiritual opposite of NetBurst. Instead of running at ultra-high frequencies, its designed to be more effective when running at lower clock speeds. Where the Pentium D and P4 take two clock cycles to complete a SSE instruction, Conroe can complete those instructions in a single clock cycle. In addition to that, a technology Intel calls Macro Fusion can combine two instructions into one, for even faster processing.
The Core microarchitecture is wider than NetBurst, which means it can process four instructions every clock cycle, versus three instructions per cycle on current-gen chips. The 33 percent gain in bandwith will actually net a peak of 66% gain when the CPU combines instructions with Macro Fusion.
All this, Intel claims, amounts to a CPU that could shift the balance of power back to Santa Clara. In fact, Intel claims that a 2.66GHz Conroe on a 1,066MHz front-side bus with 4MB of smart cache will not only outperform a dual-core 2.66GHz Athlon 64 FX-60, it will easily outperform that FX-60 overclocked to 2.8GHz. In fact, the company demonstrated the latter point at the conference. We always take benchmarking numbers from vendor-built systems with a huge grain of salt, so we plan to test it ourselves when the CPU ships this sumer.
Intel also talked up the sequel to Conroe: the quad-core CPU code-named Kentfield that is essentially a pair of dual-core Conroe dies inside a single CPU package. The quad core Kentfield is expected to make its debut in 2007.
Ever since Intel released its first dual-core CPU, its design which has both cores sharing the front-side bus bandwidth has been criticized. But it appears Intel is sticking to its guns for future CPUs. Intel says its bandwidth tests prove the design offers plenty of headroom for today and the near term. According to Intel, the front-side-bus bandwidth exceeds current maximum memory bandwidth, so the FSB gap that AMD has so skillfully played up isn't really a problem.
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