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AMD

AMD Announces "Duron" Processor 209

Posted by timothy from the saddled-with-a-funny-name dept.
Intoxicated Duck writes: "ZDNet reported that AMD announced it's Duron processor this morning. Looks like they're trying to compete with the Celeron. Wait! wasn't the Celeron supposed to compete with AMD?" What about overclocking?
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AMD Announces "Duron" Processor More

AMD Announces "Duron" Processor

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  • ...you will call it a Moron chip.

    Damn, don't the marketing guys think of this stuff?
  • . . .as with the current Q2 Sellout of AMD chips, and size of the "Value" PC market, AMD is going to have to ramp up production seriously on this Duron chip to meet demand....

  • Duron? (Score:4)

    by Signal 11 ( 7608 ) on Thursday April 27, 2000 @10:17AM (#1105823)
    KAPLAH! The Klingon Empire fully endorses the use of this new processor. With it's large metal case it makes a sturdy weapons platform and is useful for sharpening your batleth.

    Much bloodwine was used in the creation of this ultimate tool - many of our warriors were killed infiltrating the evil Intel and stealing the Pentiumgram Schematics. With this station we will be the ultimate power in the universe! (oops, wrong storyline)

    Even the High Counsel likes it's smooth black design and holographic technology. The Duron sisters also appreciate it's diabolical looks! You will buy one today or DIE. KAPLAH!

  • Dual chip = 80's band? (Score:5)

    by Stiletto ( 12066 ) on Thursday April 27, 2000 @10:18AM (#1105824)
    If these were set up in a Dual-CPU configuration would you have to pronounce it Duron-Duron?
  • 128k on-die cache sounds great to me. Any benchmarks yet?

    I'm in the market for an Athlon, at least this summer, and it's great to see AMD get the business, but if I could get an extra $100 of purchasing power with one of these, I'd happily get a sweet video card or a larger hard drive as well as a chip that performs about as well as the Athlon I would have gotten.

    In the meantime, I suggest the name for the "new" competing Intel counterpart soon to be marketed should be the Caveon, as in "Caveat Emptor"... :)
    ---
    pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate [ncsu.edu].
  • I think I'll wait to see some results from the ThunderBird CPU. Full speed L2 cache. I heard it was coming out in June.

    -Foxxz

  • SMP? (Score:1)

    by night ( 28448 )
    Looks like a great chip. Unique cache setup (l1 has different data then whats in l2). Anyways anyone know if it will work with SMP and amd/via's
    new smp chipset/motherboard? If so goodbye
    bp6+celeron hello duran smp...
  • I'll stick to my AMD 5x86-133pr75

    Probably the BEST CPU that AMD ever made!

  • Wait, I've heard about this one... (Score:5)

    by Anal Surprise ( 178723 ) on Thursday April 27, 2000 @10:25AM (#1105829)
    The amazing Duron (tm) non-stick processor. So hot you can fry an egg on it! And its patented non-stick coating means no scraping and easy cleaning.

    The product namespace is getting so crowded that we're eventually going to end up driving Dodge Urethras and using computers with the new Pederast Pro processor.
  • And I might as well say it now

    Duron, ron ron. Duron ron.

    ;)
  • If you cant beat them might as well join them, looks like AMD may be learning a thing or two from intel.

  • I'd love to put these in a beowulf cluster... :)

    IN all seriousness, isn't AMD having horrible supply problems already?

  • In a bold move that some industry pundits perceive as a reaction to AMD's announcement of their Duron [duron.com] processor, Intel has announced the development of the Sherwin Williams [sherwinwilliams.com] processor, which combines the tried-and-true P6 core found in the Celeron processor with new enamel- and latex-based semiconductor technologies that the company claims will provide for "A more colourful computing experience".

  • Why bother? A newer faster chip will always be out, shell out the cash if you want it. I rather do that then run the risk of burning something up, and be with out it.
    The chip sounds nice on lower end computers, but I'll stick to my PIII.

    -= Majere =-
  • Well.. the side of the Borg cube did have "Intel Inside" on it....
  • Yeah, but Thunderbird doesn't really offer that much, when compared against AMD's next two offerings, Ripple and Night Train .

  • Info from AMD's website (Score:5)

    by SgtPepper ( 5548 ) on Thursday April 27, 2000 @10:29AM (#1105837)
    the Press Release is here [amd.com]. And the FAQ is here [amd.com]. The Spitfire has come a long way baby ;)

  • Re:Over clocking? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    NEWS FLASH:

    A PENTIUM III IS A LOWER END COMPUTER.

    END FLASH.
  • The article doesn't give the complete story.

    They omitted the fact that the Duron will be extended to allow 2-way SMP.

    The new processor will be known as the "Duron Duron". The motherboard chipset required to support it will be known as "Da-Doo Ron Ron"

  • This was the Spitfire (Score:3)

    by Oscarfish ( 85437 ) on Thursday April 27, 2000 @10:30AM (#1105840) Homepage
    Spitfire was the internal name for this processor, just as Katmai/Coppermine were for P III chips. Spitfire is for the "value" segment while Thunderbird will be the new performance unit. Spitfire/Duron will have Integrated L2, a .18 micron fab process, and a "Socket A" packaging. Sounds a lot like the Celeron 2 [slashdot.org] to me.

    Here [anandtech.com] is Anand's Comdex '99 coverage, which is an excellent resource for those wanting to know more about AMD's future.

  • I hate to sound like a newbie here, but pants-shitting? eh? Is this some kind of variation on grits in pants or what?
    ~luge(OT, but whatever...)
  • The treachery of the Duron clan will not go unanswered!
  • I'm surprised nobody has noticed this, A M D has A-thlon at the top and D-uron at the bottom. My questions is what's in the middle? M-oron?

  • I submitted the SAME EXACT STORY this morning at 6am, with complete links to the amd website, duron web page, duron press release. 10 hours after my submission got rejected, I see this.

    Slashdot admins - I know you guys don't read this, since you guys make so many double posts, but if the rare chance that you do see this post, read this - you're not encouraging people to submit news. Eventually all the people that send you timely and interesting news are going to quit out of frustration, and you're going to only get hot grits news submissions.

    Go get your free Palm V (25 referrals needed only!)

  • Well, swell! I was wondering when I'd be able to get a processor that didn't clash with my sofa or curtains. Can they custom-mix them for me, or are the colors in the cans all you get?
  • I remember Celeron and now we'll have to use Duron,
    If this this tendency continues soon we'll have a chip named pr0n.
  • I remember in the not too distant past when Intel pretty much kept AMD flapping in the wind, snarfing up market crumbs wherever they could eek out a niche that Intel didn't find desireable enough to pursue. Well now - hasn't the little step-son grown up to pop the step-dad squarely on the nose. AMD is now toe to toe on the high end and the low end. And I for one love it!! Could it actually be possible!?!?!? DOJ and Linux (OK, so they're not technically allies) throwing egg on M$'s face and AMD whupping up Intel!?!? I must admit a bit of glee as I sit back and observe...

  • Re:Duron Duron (Score:3)

    by Mawbid ( 3993 ) on Thursday April 27, 2000 @10:37AM (#1105848)
    Hehehe, the string "5x86-133pr75" caught my eye and it took me a while to realise it wasn't leet speak!
    --

  • Duron (Score:1)

    by Spyky ( 58290 )
    Well at least sort of have a story to the name. From the article for the readers who don't read the story

    The processor's name, Duron, was derived from the Latin word "durare," which means "to last."

    Well, its a dumb name. But at least its not a "Pentium" which we swear, has nothing to do with 5. Its just a crazy coincidence. Then of course they start numbering from there. Pentium II Pentium II, oops I mean Pentium III. Those Intel dudes need to get on the ball. Here's one to try:

    latin root: volo, volare - fly
    Intel chip name: volentium!

    I'm sure I could think of more, but its been a long time since I had latin and the only other word I can remember is "dominus - master". Probably not exactly the image Intel is going for ;-)

    Spyky
  • I'm waiting for the Cyrix M2 to be rebranded as the Moron(tm) processor.
    --Shoeboy
    (former microserf)
  • I overclock on a regular basis. The main advantage is being able to squeeze some more life out of your processor before having to buy a new one.
    Also, if you're proficient at overclocking, you can purchase the fastest at the time, and make it even faster.
  • Weren't AMD's originally aimed at the value PC market? Does this company have any clue who they're targeting or why? Back in the days of the K6-II, each successive chip was pretty much just an overclocked version of the previous chip. Most of them ran quite hot. Are we headed back to those days? Doesn't the world have enough value computer hardware? AMD was actually starting to make a decent product with the Athlons...

    Let me make sure I understand this. AMD is pretty much the first company to mass market cheap processors. AMD profits. Other companies start manufacturing better cheap processors. Other companies profit. AMD makes good chips. AMD profits. Other companies return with even better chips. Other companies profit. AMD realizes they can't overclock their own chips much more. AMD has "original" plan: sell cheap chips. Rinse. Repeat.
  • I don't normally bitch about slashdot, it's a pretty good shop, but I must admit, I agree with this... Sometimes i'm suprised by the submissions they end up posting, when I /know/ a better one was submitted, and rejected, not necessarily mine, but someone elses.

    Ah well, what can you do though, really?

  • RONs (Score:1)

    by ivan37 ( 149147 )
    Kinda interesting they picked the same suffix: RON
    CeleRON, DuRON

    although the athlON is kinda close

    next they will be using IUM suffixes for their other processors...

  • Everything you could ever want to know about Duron (Score:5)

    by Upsilon ( 21920 ) on Thursday April 27, 2000 @10:44AM (#1105855)
    OK, I'm something of a processor new junky. I follow this kind of stuff with an unhealthy devotion, so I figured I'd explain to everyone what this is before /.'s general ignorance about the subject (From my perspective anyway. Remember, I'm obsessed with this stuff.) starts to show through.

    What is the Duron? Essentially it's AMD's answer to the Celeron. Right now their answer to the Celeron is the K6 series, but the K6 core has short pipelines and is not very optimized for high clockspeeds. The bottom line is that the K6-2 currently maxes out at 550 mhz (and in limited quantities) and it's not likely it will ever get much higher. The K6-2+ and K6-3+ (mobile chips only, with 128K and 256K on-die L2 respectively and the additional 3DNow! instructions which were added when the Athlon came out) currently max out at 500 mhz, and I doubt they'll ever get past 600 before they are phased out. Even 600 is a reach.

    On the other end of the spectrum there is the Athlon. The Athlon is a brand new core that is extremely well optimized for high clockspeed. These things reach high clockspeeds so well that AMD has to underclock them to meet their contracts with OEMs (who request a certain number of processors at each clockspeed). Obviously the Athlon is where AMD's future lies, but they are considerably more expensive to manufacture than the K6 series. The combination of a large die size, the need for externel L2 cache chips, and the slot packaging adds to the price. Furthermore, AMD is finally making good money selling Athlons for the high end. They don't want to simply cut Athlon prices to sell them for the low end. AMD needs something else for the low end market.

    Enter the Duron. The Duron used to have the codename of Spitfire while it was in development, so if you've heard that name before you know what it is. Basically, AMD took the Athlon core, optimized it a bit more to shrink the die and lower power consumption somewhat (although it's still made with a .18 process, it's just that the basic layout has been improved), and added 64K of L2 cache. Yeah, I know, 64K sounds tiny, but it's really not that bad. The most important thing about this cache is that it is an exclusive cache. In most processors, the L2 ends up duplicating the information in the L1 and only uses the amount of cache beyond the size of the L1 for additional data. For example, a Celeron has 32K of L1 and 128K of L2, however 32K of that L2 is simply holding the same information as is in the L1, giving you a total effective cache size of 128K. The Duron is different. Being based on the Athlon core, it has 128K of L1 plus the 64K of exclusive L2, which holds entirely unique data. This gives you an effective total cache size of 192K, 50% more than the Celeron which is the Duron's primary competitor. Plus, the Duron is based on the Athlon core, which is simply a lot better than the PIII core.

    The Duron itself will be released in a "Socket A" package sometime in June. Socket A is just like Slot A (which the Athlon uses), only it's a socket. The reason for the socket is because sockets are cheaper and the lack of external L2 makes a slot unecessary. The launch of the Duron will be preceded by a couple weeks by the launch of AMD's "Thunderbird" processor. The Thunderbird is just like the Duron only with 256K of exclusive L2 cache, giving it a total effective cache size of 384K. This processor should offer a real performance boost over the regular Athlon and will eventually completely replace it. Indeed, Thunderbird is just the code name. It will simply be called "Athlon" when it's released. The Thunderbird will be available for both slot A and socket A motherboards, giving those who already own a slot A motherboard an upgrade path.

    I hope I didn't leave anything out.

  • This name is also startlingly close to the product name used by Avanti to market polyurethane condoms. I approve of that -- if processors have to have silly names, they ought at least to have manipulable ones.
  • I can make a $40 celeron 333 run as fast as a pIII 500 or even faster, depending on the bus speed. If it burns out then who cares? Its only $40.
  • Heh. What if the ship is only 90% full of penguins? Does this mean that only 10% of the ship is really being used, while the other 90% stores penguins? "Normality has been restored. If there's anything else you can't deal with, you're on your own."
    ---
  • Who would have thought that AMD would have been inspired by that old 50's hit?
  • Maybe they're trying to make it sound like the Celeron name to put it in the same market segment... or whatever.
    CelerON - DurON. I wonder how much it cost to "create" or buy those names?

    Either way I think it sounds silly too.

  • Duron = A Good Thing(tm) (Score:5)

    by tred ( 29362 ) on Thursday April 27, 2000 @10:51AM (#1105861)
    Yes, Duron is Spitfire with a cheesy AMD marketing name, but I can live with the name for the value. The high mark for price has been put at $175, and for clock speed is 700MHz. So we're looking at a 700MHz 128k full speed on die cache for 175 bucks. Where do I sign up?

    As for overclocking potential, my (not so humble) opinion is that it will be a hell of an overclocker. Look at the K7 - err Athlon, and this is basically a K7 with on die cache. Rumors were that the release of Spitfire - err, Duron, was delayed because it was actually beating the Athlon in benchmarks. So like the Celeron the clock speeds will probably lag behind the Athlon.

    As long as they overclock as well as I think they will, I know I'm getting one. As a hardcore overclocker (and op in #celeron, efnets biggest overclocking-based channel) I think getting a chip that's gonna run at 900mhz or 1ghz for less than 200 bucks is about as good as it gets. Don't be scared by the 'value cpu' label. This is the K7 core with faster cache, albiet less of it.

    Bottom line? They'll probably be faster than a P3 at the same clockspeed, for at most half the price. And that's without even putting overclocking into the picture. Don't you love competition?

  • From a Russian point of view ... (Score:4)

    by Poligraf ( 146965 ) on Thursday April 27, 2000 @10:52AM (#1105862)
    The name is lame :-(

    For an English speaker this Latin-derived name may associate with "durable", but for the Russian speakers it will probably associate with "durak", that means fool in Russian.

    As for me, I like the idea of dual Thunderbird better ;-)
  • The AMD processor that interests me most is the Professional version, the one that supports multiple processors. I hope they do something innovating in this area. They made some great progress on processors, let's see if they can come up with some new ideas on multiple processors as well.
  • A while back, Nike had the 'Air Incubus', a women's sneaker... they changed that one pretty quick once they figured it out...

    incubus n. 1) an evil spirit supposed to descend on sleeping persons. (often to rape women)

    Oops!

  • Re:ThunderBird (Score:3)

    by TheReverand ( 95620 ) on Thursday April 27, 2000 @10:54AM (#1105865) Homepage
    From this news source [intel.com]

    Intel is proud to announce it's newest line of processors, created to combine the speed of AMD [amd.com] with the iMac [apple.com] style of computer, The MD 20/20/86. The MD will come in grape, banana and fruit punch.

    Warning! Use of these processors in multiple cpu combinations, especially if flavors are mixed may cause your computer to be blurry-eyed, slow, late-rising and generally hungover in the morning.

  • I remember when Athlons were new; I bought one. And a motherboard. And suffered the consequences.

    I think I'll wait until this new 'duron' has been on the market a couple of months before checking it out. Just to give the motherboard manufacturers a chance to get things right.

  • DMCA ANNOUNCES NEW MORON PROSECUTOR

    DMCA promises staying power with Moron. The new chip is based on Congress prosecutor technology and will target citizens in the market for value HRs.

    By B. Elgin, Slashdot News
    UPDATED April 27, 2000 7:41 PM PT

    NEW YORK -- Digital Millenium Copyright Act Inc. promises staying power with a new brand of prosecutor designed for low-cost Human Rights.

    The prosecutor's name, Moron, was derived from the Greek word "mOros," which means "foolish, stupid." Moron was announced Thursday by Steve Case, DMCA's chairman and CEO, at the oligarchy's annual shareholders meeting.

    Moron, based on DMCA's (DCgov: DMCA) Congress prosecutor technology, will target consumers in the market for low-cost HRs.

    Moron will be available this summer in sub-$10,000,000,000 companies. (Already available in $10 billion+ companies.) DMCA will offer the new law at higher court speeds than its MPAA, which has topped out at $550 billion, but is unlikely to charge much more than the $550 billion MPAA, which was introduced at $187,000 in campaign contributions.

    The corporate benefit, the company said, will be low cost and much higher performance.

    "We want (companies) to know they've got something good and solid, and they won't have to spend another $1,000,000 in six months or a year," said Mark Bode, Congress marketing manager.

    I could keep going, but I'll spare you my very odd sense of humor...

    B. Elgin

  • Why has the computer industry returned to a Ghz verison of the 80's?
    Sure the technology is better, but everything is becoming more and more proprietary hardware! Doesnt anybody remeber the goold old Pentium days, where you could buy a S7 motherboard, and then decide on a P5, Cyrix, Amd, or whatever the hell else you wanted for a processor.
    If one sucked, you could go by the other and plug it in, or if a better one came out you could by that. Now if you want cheap performance, you can buy a S370 and get a celeron, but if you want to upgrade you would have to buy a new motherboard. I mean come on at least the non-propritary software advocates should complain about this.
    I say open-source the hardware and go back to the good-ole days of mix'n and match'n! I say not only is Intel at fault but AMD as well. What about IBM ,what type of motherboard will you have to buy? Why dont we just all go back to SPARCs and APLHAs fo as similar as the chips are getting now. I say Phah! on the whole industry!
  • Haven't been fed lately?
  • Do a dejanews search on alt.comp.hardware.overclocking and see how many people have burned out their cpu's. None. People have been running their celeron 300a's at 450 since they originally came out, and so far no ill effects. How can it affect the mobo to begin with? You can't just randomly pick a bus speed and burn out the mobo. Its designed to run at that speed. Instead of a cpu lasting 10 years it might last 5, which is forever in computer terms.
  • I like didactium myself 8^) It has what the french call a certain... I-don't-know-what...
  • "Your software will become one with the GPL. We have analyzed the legalese of your software licenese as not being able to withstand us. Your lawyers are irrelevent! Resistance is futile! Your archaic programming practices are authority driven! We wish to improve outselves. You must comply! Your software will adapt to service us!"

  • Re:ho hum (Score:5)

    by tjwhaynes ( 114792 ) on Thursday April 27, 2000 @11:02AM (#1105873)

    In all seriousness, isn't AMD having horrible supply problems already?

    It depends what you mean. AMD is having far less trouble turning out it's high end chips (ie Athlons above 800MHz) than Intel is with its equivalently clocked PIIICu's, as evidenced by the chip availabilities. From the look of things, it's the K6-2/3 line which is pretty much already spoken for, so if you want one of those, you are probably going to have to search for it. On the other hand, you might as well get a low-end Athlon or a budget Duron anyway and you get the advantages of a 21164-derived FPU which scrags any Intel processor and a nine-way instruction scheduler. Oh, and against the Celeron, both the Athlon and the Duron have 200MHz buses in contrast to the 66MHz one on the Celery. Take your pick ... it's not hard ... I'll not rush you ...

    Cheers,

    Toby Haynes

  • This would be far far less of a problem if they implemented a moderated submission queue. It's working pretty well for kuro5hin [kuro5hin.org], although that site is too new to tell exactly how it's going to go.

    This isn't the same as the question answered in the FAQ -- a moderated queue would address all of the problems mentioned there.

    --

  • I think that Cmdr Tacho already responded to this style of complaint elsewhere. They often batch news stories and then stagger their release. The result from our end is that what looks like a scoop is actually old (but unreleased) news.
    --
  • Really; I think you're thinking of Palpatine's Imperial forces, which, being a Navy & Army that spans a galaxy, can whup the Klingons with one white-armored arm tied behind each Stormtrooper's back.

    For those who don't know what I'm talking about, there's a character in a Star Wars book named Kyp Duron who gets rescued from the spice mines of Kessel, gets turned to the dark side by a supposedly long-dead Sith Lord, goes searching out his brother who was an Imperial conscript, and ends up destroying the system that the Empire uses as its training grounds--his brother with them.

    Ugh--I can see it now "Lucasfilm sues AMD for copyright infringement."
  • From now on, can we just assume that someone says "what about overclocking?" whenever there's an article about a CPU? That way we don't have to read it every time.

  • Does this mean I'm going to score if I buy one of these processors?
    Will it protect me if I do?

    ;-)

    Sorry, couldn't resist
  • great post, dude. it seems like we used to get more of these back in the good ol' days of slashdot. now we just get schmucks like me making useless comments.
  • It's a pr70 according to AMD, and according to comparisons between it and the old P60 I once had, the P60 is faster.

    What I'd like to know is why'd they release the 133 (and then orphan it) when the 120DX4 chips were selling like hotcakes?
  • ..but it's the first thing that really jumped into my mind when I saw the name.

    #include
    Imagine the marketing! With your new AMD chip, you can crunch your numbers blazingly fast, allowing you enough time to paint the town pink [duron.com]!

    ... or something along those lines.

    Ok. So it's been a long week.
  • Damn, don't the marketing guys think of this stuff?

    The real question here is: "Do marketing guys actually think at all?"

    I for one, believe that they only mimic and don't actually think on their own.

  • You didn't mention the big deal about the thunderbird, that the caches will run at processor speed instead of 1/2 or 1/3.
  • Funny - my 5x86, clocked at 160MHz, has been performing like a P90 for quite a few years now...
  • It only had a 2MB graphics card but it ran Descent 2 blazing fast, even at 640X480. I never understood why, but I loved that computer, even when my friends had PIIs. I think my dad donated that chip & motherboard to a charity, and now it's running linux and serving websites for several local non-profits. I'm so proud!
  • "Ah well, what can you do though, really?"

    Well, there's... http://www.kuro5hin.org/ [kuro5hin.org] where they let readers vote for which submitted stories should reach the front page, and then there's http://theGEEK.org/ [thegeek.org] which is also pretty cool.

    Don't get me wrong, I love Slashdot. When I want to read news, I come to /. but when I want to write news, I got to theGEEK or kuro5in.

  • Someday I'm going to start a processor company and name my flagship "Betsy."

    tcd004

  • Isn't 'Duron' a brand of condom?

    --KMM

    =-=-=

  • Well.. the side of the Borg cube did have "Intel Inside" on it....

    Then Intel's days are numbered [deja.com].
  • Pardon my ignorance, but I can't find these anywhere. Where might I look for specs on one of these? Do you have a link, please?

  • However, instead of referring to it as Mustang mobile, AMD is now calling the mobile chip Corvette.

    They should've called it Mustang Convertible or something... Anyway, isn't such obvious usage of other companies' trademarks prohibited?
  • Hardon
  • I didn't see any info about SMP support. If this is the case WOOHOO!
  • Is it just me or does this name sound like a brand of condoms?
  • I never managed to get a stable overclocked 5x86.. Not even the one I had on the specially equipped PTC mobo.. What clock/multiplier/voltage?

  • Marathon (Score:3)

    by Pope ( 17780 ) on Thursday April 27, 2000 @11:29AM (#1105901)
    No way!

    It's "Durandal" from the Marathon series!
    It will soon take over each of its users and trasform them into time-travelling space marines!

    Pope

    Freedom is Slavery! Ignorance is Strength! Monopolies offer Choice!

  • Competing With Intel (Score:5)

    by Kismet ( 13199 ) <pmccombs@@@acm...org> on Thursday April 27, 2000 @11:30AM (#1105902) Homepage
    If I were to release a processor to compete with the Celeron, I would call it the Asparagon.

  • That explains K6-III disappearance. (Score:3)

    by liberty! ( 80607 ) on Thursday April 27, 2000 @11:39AM (#1105907) Homepage
    I have noted that the K6-III has disappeared from the stores, and this explains it. It is a matter of product positioning. The K6-III had more cache, and fit the SS7 socket, but had a larger die than the K6-2. Why spend acres of silicon in on line 25 in Austin making K6-III parts, with a larger margin on the cheaper K6-2, when a new middle line processor is in the works.

    Ah, economics... The new part needs shelf space by itself, so kill off the neato part nearest it.

  • But then, in some areas it's coming back together again. The new VIA/Cyrix CPU will use Socket370, and possibly later on both SSE and 3dNow! (thus making programmers' lives easier) Also, since the Alpha and AMD CPUs use the same bus, there has been talk of making them able to use the same motherboards as well. That would be interesting!

    However, in a way it doesn't matter as much. Yes, I do own lots of machines and enjoy swapping parts between them. However, what with CPUs having to improve their voltage/bus attributes in order to get better performance, many times a new CPU in an older board won't be doing its best anyway. I really don't mind CPUs being tied to the board so much, so long as my PCI cards, RAM, keyboards, etc. are still interchangeable. I don't think than CPU designers should have to limit themselves to several-year-old socket technology. Plus, if we try to get them all to use the same socket, then the advantage obviously goes to the mfr. who designs it--and the chances of getting AMD, VIA, and Intel together to design something are rather slim.

    If everyone behaves themselves and uses as little processor specific assembly code as possible, then we should even be OK when the CPUs start to have different instruction sets...though a lot of things will REALLY go crazy then (Sledgehammer vs. Merced vs. lots of older CPUs still hanging around).

  • 2 more tidbits.

    Thunderbird will be manufactured with copper
    interconnects at the new Dresden Fab.

    Duron (Spitfire) will be manufactured with
    aluminum interconnects at the Austin Fab.
  • Yes, it is very cool. There is only one thing that has to be done with the AMD processors and that's getting SMP going. If the Duron had SMP capabilities, it would be the coolest consumer chip out there.

    Sure, maybe you can do it with a Celeron, but it's not an explicit selling feature. It's not touted as SMP - it can only be hacked into it. I think SMP is the way to go for more capable machines in terms of multi-tasking without having to optimize the living hell out of everything. Plus, imagine all the fun you can have programming parallel algorithms! Woo-hoo!

    Affordable SMP - that would be the very cool thing. None-the-less, I'll probably buy a Duron, if I get the money.

    Woz

  • didn't we just see this? (Score:3)

    by ostrich2 ( 128240 ) on Thursday April 27, 2000 @12:06PM (#1105923)
    Great! First Real decides to nest a browser in their player nested in a browser, and now AMD is going to compete with chips designed to compete with AMD!

    Maybe the AMD chip will be just a little slower than the Intel chip for a little less money. Then, Intel will come out with a chip that costs even less, but runs a little slower. Then, AMD comes roaring back with a chip...

    Pretty soon, both Intel and AMD will be shipping out little pieces of cardboard with smaller and smaller corrugation. "Now, the Intel Celeron 7000 is just a little slower than the Celeron 6500, but what are you going to do, use both Megahertz at the same time?"

  • Okay, this is one post too many with this kind of gripe. To be honest I am very tired of seeing them. Something needs to be said about this, so it might as well be me.

    I respect your right to post your opinion on this subject in the Slashdot forum. However, there is a lot that needs to be said in defense of the Slashdot admins. The following important facts are never considered in posts like yours:

    They are only human, they also make mistakes.

    There are several different admins [slashdot.org], not just one of them. Sometimes they don't each know what the other admins have reviewed or posted recently. One admin may accept a story another rejects.

    Guestimating the amount of crap they must have to filter out on a daily basis, I figure their record is pretty good.

    They probably gauge the importance of a topic on how many submissions they get. Being the first submitter gets you nothing. If you are the first one (or the only one), you probably won't get the credit unless it's earth-shattering news.

    If you feel slighted by having them reject your stories, you really need something better to do with your time (unless you are a journalist ;) ).

    If you're looking to make an impression on the /. community do it with well written posts rather than with story submissions.

    I do agree with you though about the double posting of stories (IBM supercomputing, patents). The last few have been only characterizable as gross errors.

  • "Zorak" - there is no such a word (or it's some archaic word I don't know).

    As for the "brak", it has two meanings:
    1) Marriage
    2) Flaw, defect, defective merchandise.

    Looking at the divorce statistics, you should admire the wisdom of the Russian folk ;-)))))
  • I mean, what were the AMD guys thinking??? I love AMD, and I even bought a K6-2 knowing that a Celeron would have been faster, out of loyalty to AMD and dislike for Intel. But, "Duron"? Isn't that the name of a popular brand of paint? I believe it's "Duron Paints and Wall-Coverings" or some such. http://www.duron.com So, they've named their new processor after paint. Wonderful. Don't tech guys ever go into hardware stores? What is Joe Average going to buy, a computer with a fast-sounding Celeron processor, or one that sounds like it doubles as a listing in a paint chip catalogue. AMD, I love you, but call it something else.

    What was wrong with the code-name "Spitfire," anyway? The only other thing called a "spitfire" is an old type of fast sportster. It's a cool name, and counters "Celeron" quite nicely. A consumer sees "Celeron" and "Spitfire" chips and they sound competitive--remember that AMD needs John Q. Public to buy the chip, not just Slashdotters who know what they're buying beyond name. But, an average joe sees "Celeron" versus "Duron," and it's fairly obvious which one sounds better. Guys want fast, not just durable, and impressions count in selling any product.

    Again, I hate to put too much emphasis on just a name, but, it's a marketing nightmare. It's a paint company name, and it sounds slow instead of showy. Gee, sounds like it should be the name for the new Cyrix chip, eh? ;-) Come on, AMD, wake up and change it before it's a marketing nightmare. Joe Average doesn't want a computer that's named after paint he can buy at any hardware store, and Joe Average is the main consumer for this value chip.

  • The Bridge To Total Computer Freedom (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    All of my computer's problems are caused by its being infested with the spirits of 75-million-year-old dead space-aliens.

    Fortunately, the upcoming Elron(tm) processor will take care of those pesky dead space-aliens once and for all.

    Now if only the Elron(tm) processor didn't cost $100,000, it'd be nice...
  • Who developed the Pentium?
    A guy named Pentovski, a russian that came from Elbrus. Intel reigned the market several years.

    Who developed the Athlon?
    A guy, dunno his name, that came from the Alpha team. But of course it's the _whole team_ that matters... and didn't we hear rumors that a lot of good people were leaving Intel last year?
    Indeed I have yet to see their first decent product this year ;-)

    Elbrus rules!
    Somebody fund these people and shake the CPU market!
  • A consumer sees "Celeron" and "Spitfire" chips and they sound competitive--remember that AMD needs John Q. Public to buy the chip, not just Slashdotters who know what they're buying beyond name. But, an average joe sees "Celeron" versus "Duron," and it's fairly obvious which one sounds better. Guys want fast, not just durable, and impressions count in selling any product.

    I dunno, but when I hear "Celeron" I think of our favorite water based vegetable, then I think about that vegetable on a motherboard, and the water leaking out and shorting my board, then I just get mad, intel is trying to ruin my hardware! Damn intel! Damn you to hell!

    -- iCEBaLM

  • Re:Good old 80's are back... WTF? (Score:3)

    by QZS4 ( 7063 ) on Thursday April 27, 2000 @01:45PM (#1105955) Homepage

    Well, back in the 80's CPU:s were soldered to the motherboard. The socket method wasn't used until the 486:s came out (or thereabouts), which would be in the early 90's.

    Hell, in the early 80's even the memory was soldered to the motherboard, to upgrade you had to use an (expensive) ISA-card. Same for CPUs, there were 286 plugin cards for the 8086es.

    If you want a truly modular computer, go get a PCI backplane, a CPU card, a disk controller card and whatnots. Not very common in home computer systems, but they do exist for industrial PCs.

  • Duron == Polyurethane for extra thin condoms! (Score:4)

    by divec ( 48748 ) on Thursday April 27, 2000 @01:46PM (#1105956) Homepage
    It's true! Durex Avanti condoms are made of it. Look here [durexavanti.com] to find out about them.
  • They made a song about this chip in the 60s...

    Da Duron-ron-ron Da Duron-ron... :)

  • Spitfire is the name of a british WWII era airplane.

    I too dislike the name Duron, it rhymes with moron. and celeron... "sell and run" it sounds so cheap...


    Zetetic
    Seeking; proceeding by inquiry.

    Elench
    A specious but fallacious argument; a sophism.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • There's a russian word "zorok" meaning sharp-sighted, perspicacious, etc. (masculine singular short-form adjective).
  • How about "Duren", meaning bad, evil, nasty, ugly, etc. I personally like "durman" meaning drug/narcotic, but that's a little further removed.
  • Hey, this made me think of The Hobbit and LotR! :) Remember the Halls of Durin? And the line of Durin?

    I wonder if the people at AMD did that intentionally, as a geek-effect. :) Hey, everyone loves LotR, right?

    -------
    CAIMLAS

  • for the Russian speakers it will probably associate with "durak", that means fool in Russian

    Interesting - dúr means "stupid" in Irish as well.


    In Welsh, "duron" is the last five letters of the word for "dictionary". But that's a bit more tenuous I suppose.

  • They are only human, they also make mistakes.
    Right, so let's have moderated story submission and cancel out human error.

    There are several different admins, not just one of them. Sometimes they don't each know what the other admins have reviewed or posted recently. One admin may accept a story another rejects.
    Moderated story submission, so there's just one queue we're all looking at.

    Guestimating the amount of crap they must have to filter out on a daily basis, I figure their record is pretty good.
    Moderated story submission, so we can all help out.

    They probably gauge the importance of a topic on how many submissions they get. Being the first submitter gets you nothing. If you are the first one (or the only one), you probably won't get the credit unless it's earth-shattering news.
    Moderated story submission, so the importance of a topic can be more accurately gauged.

    If you feel slighted by having them reject your stories, you really need something better to do with your time (unless you are a journalist ;) ).
    Moderated story submission, so we have no one to pin blame on for being rejected.

    If you're looking to make an impression on the /. community do it with well written posts rather than with story submissions.
    Ok.
  • There are some market forces that are hindering the adoption of SMP.

    1) OEMs don't like the idea. Most home users, facing a slow and outdated system, will simply buy a whole new system. If there were space for an extra CPU, they might start plopping in extra CPUs and RAM instead of buying a whole new system. Just look at all the "Afterburner" type chips that let a 486 motherboard run a Pentium CPU. Now multiply that benefit by 2.

    2) While Intel likes it when big ass computers use 4 or 8 Xeons (the "Wait, why didn't I just buy an UltraSparc" configuration) because they make a load of money, they don't reaaaaally like SMP at the lower end. They make much higher margins on one cutting-edge cpu than they do on two celerons or even lower end Pwhatevers.

    Now if a Transmeta chip could do SMP, that would be sweet! Those things are tiny and low power. Having an 8 or 16 CPU motherboard wouldn't take up a closet or require your own hydro-electric plant to run. So a 700Mhz Crusoe ~ 500Mhz PIII. Who cares! Look at the price/performance! (I believe the Crusoe was either $35 or $105. Either way, cheaper than a PIII 500)

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