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“Thoroughbred” Processors. 2900+? 3000+?
Posted on Tuesday, December 10
When the Thoroughbred core was unveiled in Summer 2002, analysts predicted that this was a temporary solution for a quarter or two before the company finally unveils its Barton and Athlon 64 processors. Currently there are a lot of uncertainties with the up and coming AMD CPUs and it seems that the Thoroughbred core may finally become a long-standing processor-core from AMD. At least, soon the company plans to launch another core-stepping of the chip that will be able to work at higher clock speeds.
click read more for details....
According to “AMD Thermal, Mechanical, and Chassis Cooling Design Guide 23794” dated November, 29, 2002, the Sunnyvale-based company plans to unveil Thoroughbred C0 (CPUID=682) sometimes in future. The die size of the novelty is 86.97 square millimetres compared to 84.66 square millimetres of the Thoroughbred B0 and 80.90 square millimetres of the Thoroughbred A0.
Unfortunately, I do not have any official information in regards changes that have been made to the core, but can make an assumption. According to our sources, during the Thoroughbred A0 redesign, AMD added a new metallic layer to the processor die reducing the spurious capacitance. Moreover, the core structure got special decoupling capacitors responsible for combating electromagnetic interference. Also some changes were made to the positioning of the components on the die surface. As a result, AMD managed to retain the same architecture, and at the same time make it possible to increase the core clock frequency as well as reduce the heat dissipation of Athlon XP on Thoroughbred core quite tangibly (see our Athlon XP 2600+ review). It seems that B0 may be redesigned once again in the same way to allow higher clock-speeds with the C0 chip.
As we know, AMD Athlon XP “Thoroughbred” B0 can run at 2250MHz (2800+), but the quantity of such chips is very limited. Although currently AMD can fulfil the demand on mainstream Athlon XP 2000+ and 2200+ processors, early next year more powerful chips will go to mainstream and Intel’s high-end solutions will become more affordable. Basically, some Pentium 4 higher-end models are cheaper than the comparable AMD Athlon XP chips even now (see this news-story), so, there is a lot of sense for AMD to offer something more advanced in early 2003 as the demand on faster processors raises even despite of the current market conditions.
Given that AMD Athlon XP “Barton” processor’s core is going to be more expensive compared to AMD Athlon XP “Thoroughbred” processor’s one, it may be necessary for AMD to launch more advanced versions of its current CPUs that will be fast, but not as expensive as the successor. Eventually, the number two CPU maker on the planet may start to offer the new Thoroughbred C0 as entry-level solutions. It probably will not happen until the third or fourth quarter next year and just in case AMD is not able to provide a lot of Athlon XP “Barton” and Athlon 64 CPUs for all segments of the market in order to compete with Pentium 4 processors with Hyper-Threading enabled and 800MHz Quad Pumped Bus.
All in all, expect AMD to unveil another core stepping of the Athlon XP “Thoroughbred” processors soon. I also believe that with the new core the semiconductor maker will be able to start supplying its Athlon XP 2800+ and maybe even faster processors to the market in more significant quantities
source:xbitlabs.com
Posted on Tuesday, December 10
When the Thoroughbred core was unveiled in Summer 2002, analysts predicted that this was a temporary solution for a quarter or two before the company finally unveils its Barton and Athlon 64 processors. Currently there are a lot of uncertainties with the up and coming AMD CPUs and it seems that the Thoroughbred core may finally become a long-standing processor-core from AMD. At least, soon the company plans to launch another core-stepping of the chip that will be able to work at higher clock speeds.
click read more for details....
According to “AMD Thermal, Mechanical, and Chassis Cooling Design Guide 23794” dated November, 29, 2002, the Sunnyvale-based company plans to unveil Thoroughbred C0 (CPUID=682) sometimes in future. The die size of the novelty is 86.97 square millimetres compared to 84.66 square millimetres of the Thoroughbred B0 and 80.90 square millimetres of the Thoroughbred A0.
Unfortunately, I do not have any official information in regards changes that have been made to the core, but can make an assumption. According to our sources, during the Thoroughbred A0 redesign, AMD added a new metallic layer to the processor die reducing the spurious capacitance. Moreover, the core structure got special decoupling capacitors responsible for combating electromagnetic interference. Also some changes were made to the positioning of the components on the die surface. As a result, AMD managed to retain the same architecture, and at the same time make it possible to increase the core clock frequency as well as reduce the heat dissipation of Athlon XP on Thoroughbred core quite tangibly (see our Athlon XP 2600+ review). It seems that B0 may be redesigned once again in the same way to allow higher clock-speeds with the C0 chip.
As we know, AMD Athlon XP “Thoroughbred” B0 can run at 2250MHz (2800+), but the quantity of such chips is very limited. Although currently AMD can fulfil the demand on mainstream Athlon XP 2000+ and 2200+ processors, early next year more powerful chips will go to mainstream and Intel’s high-end solutions will become more affordable. Basically, some Pentium 4 higher-end models are cheaper than the comparable AMD Athlon XP chips even now (see this news-story), so, there is a lot of sense for AMD to offer something more advanced in early 2003 as the demand on faster processors raises even despite of the current market conditions.
Given that AMD Athlon XP “Barton” processor’s core is going to be more expensive compared to AMD Athlon XP “Thoroughbred” processor’s one, it may be necessary for AMD to launch more advanced versions of its current CPUs that will be fast, but not as expensive as the successor. Eventually, the number two CPU maker on the planet may start to offer the new Thoroughbred C0 as entry-level solutions. It probably will not happen until the third or fourth quarter next year and just in case AMD is not able to provide a lot of Athlon XP “Barton” and Athlon 64 CPUs for all segments of the market in order to compete with Pentium 4 processors with Hyper-Threading enabled and 800MHz Quad Pumped Bus.
All in all, expect AMD to unveil another core stepping of the Athlon XP “Thoroughbred” processors soon. I also believe that with the new core the semiconductor maker will be able to start supplying its Athlon XP 2800+ and maybe even faster processors to the market in more significant quantities
source:xbitlabs.com
