Just over two short years ago, the race for processor superiority was one waged on the megahertz front. Intel was pushing higher clock frequencies on its Prescott-based Pentium D chips, releasing SKUs like the Pentium 4 672 at 3.8GHz and the Pentium D 960 at 3.6GHz. In fact, processors released during this era remain the highest-clocked parts ever shipped from either consumer chip manufacturer. AMD (highest processor frequency to date: 3.2GHz Athlon X2 6400+) was not really able to break Intel’s hold on the public belief that more MHz = more performance, but it is now pretty much unanimously agreed upon that AMD processors sporting significantly lower clock speeds than their Intel counterparts were the superior parts.

Now that new, far more efficient processor architectures have been implemented in all shipping products from both companies, the misconception that high frequencies are best is starting to fade. Tweaks made to the underlying architecture and die shrinks have proven to be just as effective as frequency jumps over the past two years. This has proven to be true most significantly with Intel’s latest die shrink to 45nm with the Penryn-based members of the Core 2 family. More significantly, however, and far more akin to becoming the focus of public attention, has been the emergence of multi-core computing. Though the advantages of Quad-core computing are not exactly what most would call beneficial to the everyday tasks carried out by the average consumer, more and more systems are being shipped from major manufacturers like Dell and HP equipped with Quad-core processors from both Intel and AMD.

With the well-publicized Octo-core Nehalem from Intel on the way, AMD has announced new details regarding its upcoming Shanghai processors. One derivative of Shanghai, currently codenamed Istanbul, will be what AMD calls “native six-core”. When Intel’s first Quad-core processors shipped, AMD was the biggest proponent of the idea that putting two dual-core processors on the same package did not a “true” Quad-core processor make. With Istanbul, AMD has clearly conceded that propaganda as mostly meaningless, because one variation will be a Dodeca-core (12 core) processor consisting of two six-core processors on the same package.

The new processors will utilize AMD’s currently existing-but-not-really-working HyperTransport 3,0 technology for Inter-processor communications, which should significantly speed up latencies when compared with Intel’s current offerings. To combat the tri-channel memory controller that will be incorporated in Intel’s upcoming Nehalem, Dodeca-core Istanbul processors will be able to utilize the dual-channel memory controllers from each set of cores to effectively produce a quad-channel memory controller. Shanghai processors have already taped out and are said to be working internally at AMD. Shipments are said to begin towards the end of the year.

Source: DailyTech

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