RealTechNews.com - Independent Tech

Monday, December 13, 2004

AMD Drops the Other Shoe
In the news today... "AMD and IBM today announced that they have developed a new and unique strained silicon transistor technology aimed at improving processor performance and power efficiency. The breakthrough process results in up to a 24 percent transistor speed increase, at the same power levels, compared to similar transistors produced without the technology. In addition, this process makes AMD and IBM the first companies to introduce strained silicon that works with silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology, resulting in an additive performance and power savings benefit."

We talked about this back at the beginning of November in our TechEdge column. When I sent a copy to one of the bigwiggers at AMD, I got this reply:

"Bill,
You have GOT to get off of clock speed man... I feel like I'm in a Monty Python skit... "look at the benchmarks, man!" ;-] I know it's just a mention, still. Have you touched a Prescott heatsink with your bare fingertip lately?"

Apparently, the gentleman didn't realize that it was Alice and I who first proposed frying an egg on top of a Pentium processor --back when it was 60MHz. Wow... Good thing I got off that speed thing... Something's coming.

# Permalink Posted at 8:15 AM 15 comments Email this Link

Comments on this Item:

http://superrandomrandomness.blogspot.com/

# posted by Daverocks 10:20 AM

You Re-Hash, We Hash Re:

First off, let's put the PIC issue to bed (cuz it's tired). I didn't see anything in the marketing promo's text saying these devices were aimed at the "poor" in the targeted countries. They are designed to be all but indestructible (sealed box in a humid climate) and more affordable than current offerings. Why not flogg yourself for beating on what is a mondo cool device (yeah, it's a brick that can do tricks), especially when they replace the hard drive with flash memory (no moving parts)? If you're going to beat on it, why not do it over something like the lack of Java support, or the low speed connection, etc.? And better yet link the article that supports your claim.

Second, what's your point? AMD should be flogged for the PIC, but Intel should not be flogged for all of the FUD they produce?

Intel has hit the wall, again. Only this time they don't have a P5 in the back room to launch two years ahead of schedule, so here comes the lemonade. The only thing holding up the cards (right now) is Intel's code optmizations and this may not last much longer Win64 in March). I know Bill loves his P4 EE for doing video, etc., but an 8K L1 cache (remember the i486) in a 3Ghz + processor is just goofy. Doing anything to the P4 besides at least doubling the L1 is a marketing ploy at best.

I do applaud Bill for not using the "also ran" comment for quite a while, although he may have to dust it off before the end of next year for his beloved Intel.

# posted by WRM 11:00 AM

Please refrain from advertising on this site. Please do not visit the advertised blog. We do not take free advertising, neither do we give it away. So stop spamming the comments section. Grrrr.

# posted by Cyrus 11:03 AM

WRM - Why are you getting all ratty-mouthed over this piece? How about less kool-aid and more coffee for a while?

# posted by Bill 1:27 PM

a couple things about WRM's peice above-

everything either company does is a marketing ploy, that's the business they're in, business; not the betterment of mankind.

Second, both companies are ALWAYS against a wall, and continually pushing it. Neither company will come to an insurmountable challenge until they decide to quit funding competative research.

# posted by Tom 3:14 PM

Tom! That sounds like O'Brien's First Law of Business: "Nothing a company manufactures or sells is necessarily for your benefit. While you may derive some benefit from it, the purpose behind the product is to enrich the company and keep it in business."

# posted by Bill 3:26 PM

Gosh, I didn't swear, I didn't shout, what's ratty?

I thought rants were welcome here, guess not.

# posted by WRM 3:29 PM

anyone who loves this blog should check out http://schnapp.blogspot.com -- we idolize your blog

# posted by taylor asen 4:30 PM

i want to second mr. asen's assertion. over at http://schnapp.blogspot.com/, Alice and Bill is a frequent topic of conversation, specifically as it pertains to its ranking as "blog of note" by many independent sources

# posted by stang 4:33 PM

Why does it sound so British over there? And if Mr. Asen's ambition is really to "one day reach the height of Alice and Bill," he should understand that Alice is taller than I. (Darn, even that sounds British to me...)

# posted by Bill 6:06 PM

Mr. WRM - Ranting is an art form. It takes practice to get it right because it's different than just plain old B*tching and Moaning. You're still practicing.

# posted by Bill 6:07 PM

Bill, you have no idea how thrilled I am to have gotten a response from you. Does this mean you will, in fact, link to our blog, even if it is, as you say, "British."

# posted by taylor asen 7:52 PM

I'd like to point out that AMD has a number of very nice technologies that Intel is just now getting around to implementing (or doesn't have any sort of implementation that I'm aware of). Things like x86-64 (AMD64 or "Intel's" EM64T or whatever they're calling AMD64 ;) ), on-die memory controllers, and the NX bit are all examples of where Intel is struggling to keep pace. The new 6xx series of P4's with more L2 cache are an attempt to get the benefits of an on-die cache without actually having one and I'm sure that will be *just great* for power consumption/heat/speed ramping. With a 24% speed increase from AMD's chips, we could see them breaking 3Ghz while Intel seems to be shifting away from the Netburst architecture (P4) and toward the Pentium M designs which are ironically similar to the P-III. These are very nice chips, but Intel needs to do some serious work on them to make them anywhere near competitive in a desktop environment against Athlon 64's/FX's approaching 3Ghz.

# posted by David 7:55 PM

There you have it folks.

Good Luck Bill, say hi to Alice for me

# posted by WRM 6:31 AM

MR. WRM (can I just call you "W?" I feel like we're friends. Wait, you're not...), listen... At the risk of exposing the whole darn Professional Writer's Playbook here, a "rant" is an emotional expression of the impossibility of a situation while expressing a preferred resolution. B&M is simply B&M. There was no way to rant about my AMD post because it was just an exposition of linear occurences. So you B%M'ed and I called you on it --because there was no cause for the B&M. I can't believe that could upset you...

Look, in the 25+ years I've been making a living (you call this a living?) as a writer, I have been critisized in ways you'll (hopefully) never experience and for some things I'm still trying to figure out (spelling aside). That's life. I was easy on you.

# posted by Bill 9:08 AM

Post a Comment