Year 2007 Preview: Predictions and Rumors - Central Processing Units
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The strongest prediction in the processor area for the year 2007 is that the AMD - Intel competition will definitely continue. We were astonished last year with the Intel's latest Core micro-architecture release called Core2. It was quite a replacement for the good old Netburst architecture. We also know that this Core2 architecture will be further upgraded and newer releases definitely will hit the market.
AMD's response was already expected: Quad FX (also known as the 4x4 platform), which is dual socket and dual-core, should be the main competitor with Core2 until K8L. Analyzing and comparing their architecture is weird because Core2 is 65nm while the 4x4 is 90nm. We could simply state that the manufacturing cost differences are huge. Also performance per watt is arguable. To be honest, AMD's quad platform was eagerly awaited for months by enthusiasts with high expectations. These expectations were justifiable, but most of them weren't even matched.
Check out the picture below. It's a Quad FX-based motherboard. You can see the dual processor support-two sockets.
AMD was forced to bring something new to the market to compete with Intel's latest Quad Core Extreme (QX6700-Kentsfield). Unfortunately AMD's QuadFX platform's performance was not capable of competing with the mighty Kentsfield. Apparently in some tests the Quad FX turned out to be a bit slower than the old AM2 platform due to some memory latencies.
Performance per wattage is another disappointment. The Intel's Kentsfield is one single quad-core processor while the QuadFX is a dual processor platform with two dual-core processors -- 4x4. Therefore, it's understandable that the power consumption and heat dissipation of the Quad FX platform is way higher than the Kentsfield's. Check out the following picture... it's a Kentsfield.
Anyway, what we can see is that both AMD and Intel are doing their best, and even pushing to go the extra mile. While the QuadFX platform with its outrageous costs comes closer to the Kentsfield, we can see a promising future for both of them. There are huge expectations surrounding AMD's K8L platform (code name: Barcelona) which is finally 65nm. Also we can't forget about AMD's Opteron Series and the Socket F's release. Socket F is the newest socket for high-end Opteron servers (Santa Rosa) and it has a 1207 pin layout.
Enthusiasts also expect a lot from the chip code named Barcelona. Barcelona is going to be based on the K8L platform with quite a few features (i.e. Hypertransport 3 and L3 shared cache). We can just hope that the Barcelona won't disappoint us.
Now what about Intel? Of course they won't just sit back, relax and wait until AMD engineers develop newer architectures and products. Apparently Intel's future plans are on the 65nm and the 45nm. Somewhere near the end of 2007 we should see the release of Penryn, a dual-core CPU for laptops on the 45nm architecture and with 3-6MB L2 cache -- that's huge.
On the desktop, the Allendale Core2 family will be extended, and newer product releases are expected on the 65nm. Intel will also hit the 45nm field for desktops with the Yorkfield and Wolfdale, two new core releases. The first one is quad-core (2x6MB L2 cache) while the second one is dual-core (6MB L2 cache). In the server and workstation fields there are no great expectations. But there is the possibility of future releases of the Tigerton and Harpertown.
So the year 2007 looks like it will continue the serious competition between AMD and Intel.
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