Computer Hardware Blog

These processors have first appeared in AMD product catalogue three weeks ago, but only yesterday they were officially launched into the world. The semiconductor giant announced that they begin shipping Opteron 2222 SE and Opteron 8222 SE.

I would like to remind you that these are dual-core 90nm processors working at 3.0GHz frequency, featuring 2MB cache and 119.2W TDP. The chips are designed for Socket 1207 form-factor and support new Registered DDR2 memory. Unlike these two guys, the Opteron 1222 SE processor also mentioned in AMD’s price-list is designed for Socket AM2, supports regular DDR2 SDRAM and features 125W TDP.

The price for the new Opteron 1222 SE / 2222 SE / 8222 SE processors (in 1000-unit quantities) is claimed to be $655, $873 and $2149 respectively.

New server processors, however, were not the only topic of the recent AMD press release. The company has also shared the results of their tests indicating that quad-core Barcelona CPUs work about 50% faster in floating-point operations than the corresponding competitor’s solutions (Intel quad-core server processors).

AMD has been taking a beating lately; when Intel released its Core 2 microprocessor family it was priced and performed aggressively, too aggressively for AMD to adequately compete with at the time. AMD’s marketing even went into remission as reviewers weren’t even seeded for speed bumps to the Athlon 64 X2 line, the X2 5000+ and FX-62 were the fastest Socket-AM2 parts AMD sent out for review and they were the first ones we’d ever reviewed as well. Sometimes no PR is good PR, and an article around the launch of the Athlon 64 X2 5200+, 5400+ or 5600+ simply proclaiming that Core 2 is once again on top would only work in Intel’s favor.

Quad FX came and went with limited interest from the enthusiast community, but the new platform signified a change in AMD’s product lineup. Expensive FX series processors would no longer be simply speed bumps of mainstream CPUs with more cache, they would be reserved for a completely different socket as well and sold in bundles of two for Quad FX platforms. It’s almost fitting that the FX line has been relegated to a platform that we didn’t recommend as it makes the task of encouraging users to stay away from FX-class processors a little easier. And if having to move to a new socket wasn’t reason enough to pick an AM2 processor over its FX counterpart, AMD’s latest price cuts should seal the deal:

The most expensive Athlon 64 X2, in fact the one being introduced today, is priced at under $500. Clocked at 3.0GHz with a 1MB L2 cache per core, the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ isn’t even the most attractive part of AMD’s lineup. Shave 200MHz off the 6000+ and you get the Athlon 64 X2 5600+, priced at $326. Note that the X2 5600+ is simply a FX-62 in disguise, what used to be a $999 processor has been reduced to less than a third of its cost - ain’t competition grand?

The fact is that a computer comprises several processors however the one regularly used by advertisers when they want to draw attention to the power of a computer commonly relates to the Central Processing Unit (CPU).

Few individuals will not have heard of Intel or AMD processors while their significance to the advertising community and thereby the general public at large is comparable to the way motor manufacturers sell their cars. If in the market for a sports car an individual usually wants as much performance as is available hence manufacturers will sell their most powerful cars simply by stating the number of cylinders a particular model possesses. By using just two letters such as V8 - a message is sent to the public consumer who will automatically recognize that this indicates a potentially powerful engine. The equivalent term to excite the adrenalin rush in the computer buyer today is probably a “Dual Core Processor”.

However before describing the merits of dual core processing or any other electronic component or semiconductors it seems reasonable to first explain why the CPU attracts so much attention, possibly more than any other electronic component lurking within a computer.

The specification of a CPU is defined by its speed for example 900 MHz provides an approximation of the number of instructions that a CPU is able to process by the second - 900 million in this example. In addition the data handling capability of a CPU defines its power: a 64-bit CPU is able to combine, stage-manage or subtract numbers that are 64-bits wide. In the early nineties computers with 16-bit CPUs were considered powerful while today 64-bits are the norm, a reflection of how far the IT public sector experience has developed in a little over fifteen years.

A CPU today would seem like something from an alien world to the computer geeks of fifteen years ago, Not only have they become much more powerful but in addition their use of new materials as semiconductors increases efficiency beyond anything thought manageable fifteen years ago. The intention of these new semiconductors is directly aimed at the speed with which a CPU operates. Making the CPU faster is an ongoing challenge that drives this industry because ultimately all computers are limited by the capability of their CPU and, because IT has become an established ingredient in the daily routine people now have to handle we are much more proficient at using them.

The knock on effect from the IT development of the past fifteen years relates to people and their improved functionality when interacting with computers. The demands made on electronic components will continue to increase as people learn how to add, manipulate and subtract using their IT on a daily basis and it seems that no matter how fast electronic components become they will never quite be capable of matching the speed of the brain whose fingers deftly work a keyboard.

In addition a fast CPU back in the early nineties ran at around 386 MHz, an electronic component that would today freeze being within close proximity of a modern PC game.

Author Resource:- Read the latest semiconductor news on the fresh website from Kevin Dark.