Intel's 2 Billion Transistors CPU Gets Pictured, Details

The chip features a huge, 30 MB cache pool

By: Bogdan Botezatu

Intel's 2 billion transistors Itanium processor, also known as Tukwila, managed to stir up some attention lately, as it's not every day you see a chip packing such amount of transistors. Tukwila is a quad-core part built on the 65-nanometer process node that comes with a huge amount of cache memory.

The Tukwila behemoth is built on a 21.5x32.5 square-millimeter die and will run at a default clock speed of only 2 GHz. However, the true power of the processor does not lie in its clock speed, but rather in the huge on-die cache announced to reach 30 MB. Moreover, according to Gelsinger, the processor will also support hyperthreading, which would allow the chip to simultaneously handle up to eight instructional threads.

Earlier this week, during the pre-IDF briefing, Pat Gelsinger, Intel's senior vice president and general manager of the Digital Enterprise Group, spilled some details about the upcoming chip, that is alleged to deliver twice the performance of the dual-core Montvale (the 9100 series Itanium).

Another novelty in the processor's design is the use of the new QuickPath Interconnect (QPI), and dual integrated memory controllers. The new performance achievements will also shift the processors' market, and Gelsinger claimed that, despite the fact that system integrators such as SGI, Hewlett-Packard and NEC are currently using Intel's Itanium series of chips for traditional high-power computing purposes, the new chip will be targeted at mission-critical applications in the future.

The processor's thermal design power is rated at 170 watts, yet Intel announced another stock keeping unit, that will come in a smaller thermal envelope of "only" 130 watts. Given the fact that the Tukiwlla is built on the previous-generation, 65-nanometer process node and packs two billion transistors on the same die, its thermal performance is still acceptable.
Intel announced that the Tukwila chip will show up on the market in the last quarter of the year.

Source: Softpedia

AMD Starts Shipping Its Tri-Core Toliman Processors

By: Bogdan Botezatu

AMD has just started shipping its latest processor offering, comprised of triple-core Phenom processors, also known as Tolimans. At the moment, the chip manufacturer is only shipping the chips to OEM vendors and system integrators, but they are not available through AMD's retail channels yet.

The chips are 65-nanometer processors that will power AM2+ motherboards supporting HyperTransport 3. They will be included in the Phenom X3 product family, comprised of quad-core chips that come with one of the cores disabled.

The chips are alleged to come with 2MB of L3 cache, but the chip manufacturer declined to offer further details about the processors' technical specifications. However, top-tier PC vendors including Dell and Hewlett-Packard have already announced tri-core Phenom-powered computing systems.

For instance, Dell has listed the technical specifications of its OptiPlex 740 business desktop systems, that will come with a tri-core CPU featuring 1.5 MB of L2 cache and 2MB of shared L3 cache. Dell's tri-core update to the OptiPlex 740 family will start shipping during the second quarter of the year.

Hewlett-Packard is currently working on a desktop system powered by the Phenom 8600B tri-core processor that is alleged to reach core frequencies of 2.3 GHz. The 8600B chip will also feature 1.5 MB of L2 cache and 2MB of shared L3 cache.

UK-based PC vendor Mesh Computer has already unveiled its tri-core CPU-powered desktop systems. Both the Matrix XXX Plus and the Matrix XXX Pro computer models are built around the same AMD's Phenom 8600 tri-core processor.

Advanced Micro devices is touting its new tri-core offering as being a better choice than dual-core chips, as the third core will bring additional horsepower in performing mundane, yet CPU cycles-consuming tasks, such as antivirus scanning. However, there are a few problems that need AMD's attention. First of all, the tri-cores will be built on the already buggy B2 silicon stepping, that will require a BIOS patch in order to work normally. This means that the chip will lose 15 percent of its computing power to ensure its stability.

Previous rumors claim that the three-core processors will be available to OEM vendors only, so it's going to be a long time until you see boxed versions of the Phenom 8400 running at 2.3GHz and the 8600 running at 2.3 GHz.

Source: Softpedia