“When I attended AMD technology day last Thursday, senior AMD managers poked fun at Intel’s NetBurst architecture and the fact that Intel will be “going back to their previous generation architecture, and that would be an improvement”. Most of the industry analysts in attendance began to laugh in the room and I couldn’t quite figure out what’s so funny and if they would still be laughing next month when Intel’s Core2 architecture is released,” George Ou writes for ZDNet.
“Last Friday when I saw the first set of independent benchmark results pitting a mid-end Intel E6600 ‘Conroe’ 2.4 GHz CPU (due next month) against the just released flagship extreme edition AMD FX-62 CPU, I started wondering if AMD worst nightmare was coming true. Intel’s ~$250 E6600 CPU annihilated AMD’s ~$1000 Extreme Edition AM2 based FX-62! This effectively means that AMD’s flagship desktop performance CPU will be obsolete by the end of next month when Intel released the CPUs codenamed Conroe. The 2.4 GHz Conroe E6600 CPU is a 65 watt part while Intel’s Extreme Edition Conroe CPU will operate at 2.93 GHz and still be 40 watts lower than AMD’s FX-62 which runs at 120 watt TDP. AMD’s power advantage over Intel’s current Pentium 4 NetBurst architecture just vanished in to thin air with the introduction of Intel’s Core 2 architecture next month,” Ou writes. “If that wasn’t enough of a beating, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes who writes for our new “Hardware 2.0” blog linked to these phenomenal overclocking feats with the Conroe 2.4 and Conroe 2.6 GHz CPUs clocking to 4.0 GHz and 4.26 GHz respectively! I’m hearing that these kinds of numbers can be achieved with self-contained water coolers from multiple sources while the AMD FX-62 can barely get to 3.6 GHz with sub-zero temperatures.”
“AMD pointed out that they’ve been ahead of the game for 3 years (on most benchmarks and the results were always close) and it’s inevitable for Intel to have a slight lead once in a while. The problem here is that this new Intel lead is not the usual leapfrogging where one competitor edges out the other, it’s a massive lead across the board,” Ou writes. “The Core 2 architecture will only be around for 2 more years until Intel shifts to something new. I asked Intel’s representative if this is the kind of paranoia that would make Andy Grove proud and he laughed. The truth of the matter is that AMD is what’s making Intel paranoid because they’ve taken a beating for the last 2 years at the hands of AMD. Who’s going to win the processor wars doesn’t matter because this is competition at its best and the consumer is the ultimate winner with better products at lower prices so let the wars begin!”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “LinuxGuy” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: Capitalism at its finest. Wouldn’t it be nice to see such paranoia on the part of Microsoft in regard to their flag-crate Windows? Get a Mac, force Microsoft to attempt to make a better Windows (without copying Apple’s work for once, please). And, then, may the best platform win (for a change). Anyway, it certainly sounds like Apple picked the right horse in the processor race; the one with massive resources that also has the renewed will to win.
Advertisements:
• Introducing the super-fast, blogging, podcasting, do-everything-out-of-the-box MacBook. Starting at just $1099
• Get the new iMac with Intel Core Duo for as low as $31 A MONTH with Free shipping!
• Get the MacBook Pro with Intel Core Duo for as low as $47 A MONTH with Free Shipping!
• Apple’s new Mac mini. Intel Core, up to 4 times faster. Starting at just $599. Free shipping.
• iPod. 15,000 songs. 25,000 photos. 150 hours of video. The new iPod. 30GB and 60GB models start at just $299. Free shipping.
• Connect iPod to your television set with the iPod AV Cable. Just $19.
• iPod Radio Remote. Listen to FM radio on your iPod and control everything with a convenient wired remote. Just $49.
Related articles:
Smart companies should consider Apple Macs to cut IT costs – June 06, 2006
Apple makes Intel Think Different; Mac-maker influencing Intel’s product roadmap – June 06, 2006
Intel says Core 2 Duo will ‘enable breakthrough performance’ – June 06, 2006
Report: Apple nears Xserve, ‘Mac Pro’ Intel switch – June 01, 2006
Intel gets aggressive on next-gen rollout schedules: Merom MacBook Pros, Conroe Power Macs, more – May 03, 2006
How soon before we see Conroe in the iMac?
iMacs will get Merom, not Conroe. iMacs are basically a MacBook with a detached keyboard and mousing system.
Duh MDN, do we really want Microsoft software to be better?
What would happen to Apple if Vista was a good, safe, secure and reliable operating system? Mac users would be forced to switch if they wanted a job or to run any software.
Even Steve Jobs doesn’t see much room for improvement in the Mac or Mac OS X, they are turning into PC’s right before our eyes. Even the iPod now doesn’t even have Firewire anymore.
Conroe may be too hot for the iMac. We may have Merom instead.
“iMacs are basically a MacBook with a detached keyboard and mousing system.”
I think you mean MacBook Pro
I wonder where the “Apple-Made-a-mistake-picking-Intel” crowd are.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”tongue wink” style=”border:0;” />
How long before we see a new iMac? Forget which chip it ends up getting, will there be a redesign to really take advantage of all this new power?
Intel is undercutting AMD, pricing their chips purposely to destroy the compeition.
IBM is gone from the desktop, AMD is next. Then all we will have left is Intel.
Of course then watch the innovation increase at a rapid pace when there is no competition.
By the way most PC’s don’t need all that performance, most are used as dumb terminals anyway. Word and Excel, perhaps a database.
3D games are all going over to more powerful consoles.
Sure some acedemics and research may buy the new powerful processors, but IBM is already in that space with the Cell processor.
Cell = 1 general purpose PPC processor surrounded by 8 more dedicated processors. The more “Cells” added, the more powerful the whole computer becomes.
It makes these Intel processors look weak.
I’m tired of ads in RSS please stop putting ads in the RSS… I’ll see your ads when I click to see what you’ve posted I may even click on an ad or two on your main site, but please stop putting ads in the RSS reader… whats the point of RSS of you have to look through ads to see what you want to read … I understand ads and why you need them but give me a break, you’ll make your money already
Off-topic:
MDN – please DO NOT persist with your new practice of inserting ads into the site’s RSS feeds. This is simply taking things too far. RSS feeds should offer users a clean, easy to navigate way of viewing the stories that interest them, free from the clutter of the “main” page. You’ve got every kind of advertising imaginable already (which I’ve so far tolerated), but this is just taking the p*ss. Please stop this practice or you’ll lose me and I’m sure quite a few other readers.
For Pete’s Sake:
do some research:
the Cell looks incredible on paper, untill you look into the details: it’s a one-trick-pony that cannot be used in a “normal” computer.
Apple chose well but the same could be said if they chose AMD. This is what is best about being in the mainstream CPU market. AMD and intel are continually leapfrogging each other.
Right now (core for core) IBM still has a lead with the PPC – but because of the lack of competition they will not be pushed as hard to improve. I am glad they moved to intel, but I would have prefered the mainstream had moved to the PPC – t is simply better.
for Pete’s sake
I hope that you are kidding when you wrote:
“Of course then watch the innovation increase at a rapid pace when there is no competition”.
This is the opposite of what happens when there is no competition, why would you continue to ?
Sorry but I need this kind of power in my home computer.
Why?
Ever reencode video from one format to another?
Use iDVD and author 2 hours of video?
Do this on a regular basis and that nice fast G5 is tied up doing video stuff all the time.
I want to handle video quickly and not have to wait hours for it to finish.
RSS mainly exists to avoid adverts. If you, and others, persist in doing that kind of shit, then there will be RSS v2.0 and a whole new ream of alphabet soup which summarises to “STOP PUTTING ADVERTS IN, DICKHEADS”.
R,
Don’t complain about MDN’s ads. Complain that Safari’s RSS is plain stupid. Firefox’s is so much better. Why should I have to open a page to read the news from a site? Isn’t RSS supposed to give me the ability to not have to do this? In Firefox, only the headline is displayed and its displayed as a bookmark. This way, I can scan all the headlines for MDN by simply clicking on my MDN RSS folder rather than having to open a page up for MDN.
Adapt Safari. Firefox definitely has you beat on this one.
If you read some of the comments to the original article, you will see that the majority are calling BS on Intel. There are all kinds of links to testing that indicates Intel is blowing smoke in regards to performance of these new chips. I didn’t read or analyze them all, but there are sure a lot of people doubting Intel’s data.
RE: no brain-cells
> the Cell looks incredible on paper,
> untill you look into the details: it’s a one-
> trick-pony that cannot be used in a “normal”
> computer.
Your right, but nevertheless, the possibilities of the Cell for applications beyond gaming looks intriguing:
Researchers Analyze HPC Potential of Cell Processor
Is there any way to go back in time and laugh at all the switch whining?
“Wouldn’t it be nice to see such paranoia on the part of Microsoft in regard to their flag-crate Windows?”
That will never happen for two reasons. Gates and Balmer. They can never beleive that any portion of their empire is in any danger from anyone. How quickly they forget that at one time Novel was about 80% of networks and Ms was about 20%.
The Cell looks incredible on paper, untill you look into the details: it’s a one-trick-pony that cannot be used in a “normal” computer.
Right it’s only ONE general purpose CPU as compared to 2 in a Core Duo or 4 in a Quad.
But one can also place 4 Cells in a box like a Mac Pro and get all the same general purpose processors like a Quad, in addtion to 32 dedicated processors to render video with.
It would be awesome, no 3D video card needed.
The Cell technology is scaleable, each Cell added increases the performance as they all work with each other.
“If you read some of the comments to the original article, you will see that the majority are calling BS on Intel. There are all kinds of links to testing that indicates Intel is blowing smoke in regards to performance of these new chips. I didn’t read or analyze them all, but there are sure a lot of people doubting Intel’s data.”
If you read the article. you notice that it also refers to “independent benchmark results.” This means that Intel had no more to do with the results than AMD did.
Please note that it is the independent geek shops, not the fanboys of any vendor, that are verifying the superiority of Intel’s new chips over AMD’s best. It is true that Intel had rested on its laurels for many years and allowed AMD to eat into its market.
And Intel has a past history of failure in making new architectural advances as opposed to purely semiconductor processing advances. Remember, you old guys, the IAPX-432, Intel’s p-code instruction set microprocessor that was going to take the world into the new age of 32 bit computing? It was a total disaster. The first Intel 386 was also a disaster, but Intel was able to fix it. Then came the Itanium, for which few could generate decent application code. And the Pentium 4 was and is a disaster, even if Intel sold a lot of them. So there is room for skepticism.
But every test of the new chips — using the Core 2 architecture — show that it is a winner. Apple is riding the right horse.
BTW, I have not decided yet on whether or not the Cell Processor has potential. The scientific guys claim that, with one small change, it will be eight times faster at one eighth the power per core as the competition. But now I read that Sony has run into a disastrous design bug that slows down reads of the locally, per core, memory by three orders of magnitude, making the Cell a failure. What is the truth? We will have to wait for it to be sorted out.
But Apple is in top position for some years to come.
Jeff & R
Want to get rid of the ads? Show only the headlines in Safari RSS? Learn your software!
Adjust the Article Length in the right hand column. Just below Search Articles and above Sort By.
The Force can be with you.
“R,
Don’t complain about MDN’s ads. Complain that Safari’s RSS is plain stupid. Firefox’s is so much better. Why should I have to open a page to read the news from a site? Isn’t RSS supposed to give me the ability to not have to do this? In Firefox, only the headline is displayed and its displayed as a bookmark. This way, I can scan all the headlines for MDN by simply clicking on my MDN RSS folder rather than having to open a page up for MDN.
Adapt Safari. Firefox definitely has you beat on this one.”
Actually, I don’t like the way Firefox handles it. I like being able to lump lots of RSS feeds together into one giant page. Then, I can glance and see that there are X new articles that I haven’t looked at for my computer news websites. In Firefox, I’d have to check about 10 different bookmarks to look at them and then it still doesn’t tell me if they are new or not.
Adapt Firefox. Safari definitely has you beat on this one.