14 DAY TRIAL // There were a lot of rumors flying on the World Wide Web about the next generation of AMD processors, the Barcelonas and to the delight of the competing company, most of them pointed to low clock speeds and equally low performance marks alongside with development problems and so on. Now, with only a few days before the much awaited launch, AMD steps up and talks about the first native processor quad core design in the world releasing a number of important pieces of information.
The main issue than concerned the Barcelona class of processors was their expected low running speed and AMD confirms that the very first processors will arrive with a 2GHz frequency on the 10th of September, but gradually the clock speed will be increased to 2.3GHz and the faster central processing units will be available sometime during the fourth quarter of the year. Barcelona is vital to the smaller processor manufacturer as it will give it a product that is finally able to compete with Intel's Xeons. As Intel already has a line of server intended processors, the Xeons, running at 3GHz, it is very important for AMD to increase the running speed of the Barcelona CPUs even if a direct comparison between the two classes of processors is difficult to make as their internal architectures are very different.
While AMD always had slower working speeds and made do with a number of technical improvements in order to reach Intel and even leave it behind, the clock speed is pretty important too, being one of the few technical specifications most computer users understand, as opposed to the more esoteric HyperTransport or integrated memory controller. According to the news site informationweek, there will be no less than three power classifications for the new AMD CPUs and accordingly three rather distinct lines, each with its own power-dissipation figure. The first and the lowest line will be called HE, for Highly Efficient and it will have a thermal design envelop of 68 W, while the second line, the Standard Performance (SP for short) will sport a 95W thermal design. The true high speed and high performance line of Barcelona processing units will arrive under the designation of Special Edition or SE and will feature a 120W thermal design envelop. Comparatively, Intel stayed with the more conservative TDPs like 50W, 80W, 95W, 105W and 120W.
On the 10th of September, only the SP Barcelonas at 95W which are clocked 2GHz and the HE processors at 68W running at 1.9GHz will be launched, but they will be upgraded to faster versions in the fourth quarter of the year. The high speed Barcelona will not be available until the fourth quarter, when they will ship in at clock speeds of 2.3GHz and higher and they will come with a thermal design envelope of 120W.