14 DAY TRIAL // The latest news on the Web points to the fact that Advanced Micro Device's upcoming Propus processor, a quad core chip, will not feature L3 cache. It seems that the Sunnyvale team plans to put some distance between its next-to-come Deneb CPUs, which will sport 4x512KB L2 and 6MB L3 cache, and will disable L3 cache on Propus, leaving it only with 4x512KB L2 cache per core.
According to news site Fudzilla, Propus will come to the market as Athlon X4 600 generation and not as Phenom II, as expected. For what it is worth, this may only be a speculation, for we can't see a strong reason for the chip maker to cripple its chip, especially given the fact that the CPU sports a completely different architecture than K8. The same source reveals that AMD's Rana tri-core chip will come as Athlon X3.
On related news, we learn that the company's upcoming 45nm tri-core Heka chip, basically a Deneb with one core disabled, is aimed at fighting against Intel's Core 2 and Pentium dual core line up, as they have similar price ranges. AMD will not be able to clock Heka over 3GHz, which may be a set back for the CPU since the fastest Core 2 chips are clocked at 3.33GHz. Due to this limitation, which will be spotted at least at launch, Heka will have some hard times fighting against the 3.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 CPU. If the clock speeds had been similar, AMD's chip would have had better chances.
AMD has put a lot of effort in creating its new 45nm chips, yet it appears that the odds are rather against it; at least, this is what Fudzilla reports. Although AMD's Phenom II is a great overclocker and comes approximately during the same time frame as Intel's Core i7, the chip is said to be a match rather for the Yorkfield-based Core 2 Quad, not Nehalem. At the same clock speeds, Deneb will end up faster than Intel's older chip, yet that will also depend on the benchmarks.
AMD has an advantage given by the overclocking capabilities of its chip in addition to its price. Core i7 may prove more expensive than Phenom II, although running faster. Another issue for AMD will also be the fact that the Core 2 Quad 45nm based Yorkfield is considered as one of the best overclockers on the block. Moreover, Intel may drop the price for its Core 2 Quad chips just to make the fight more interesting.