Dual Athlons Released 106
Malk-a-mite was one of the first to e-mail about the
announcement from AMD concerning their demonstration of a Dual Athlon workstation. It is using their "AMD-760 MP chipset, and next-generation Double Data Rate (DDR)
memory. "Update: 10/11 06:26 PM by H : My mistake. This was a dupe article - the older story went up yesterday - Microprocessor Forum.
Must own... (Score:2)
a demo does not a release make (Score:1)
Having said that... (Score:2)
...and can it scale to quad and higher processors?
It's out now what (Score:5)
As with all articles of thsi nature, take it with a grain of salt. I don't expect to see such machine available to any "REAL" people on the street until Dec-Jan time frame. Thats at the earliest.
Do the editors actually read /. (Score:4)
Gotta.. regain.. control.. over.. drooling! (Score:1)
I don't know what, but definately something.. special...
Excuse me, I need a tissue.
[serious moment]
Any word on the sort of pricing and raw POWER out of these babies?
I can't wait to try Q3A on this.. this.. behemoth of x86 archetecture.
[/serious moment]
Quads? (Score:1)
Cautionary Statement (Score:1)
So, AMD still isn't making any gaurantees.
See also... (Score:1)
Now if only.. (Score:3)
Arg. (Score:2)
<BR><BR>
Mind you, I'm drolling waiting for these things
Dave<BR>
'Round the firewall,
Out the modem,
Through the router,
Down the wire,
Arg! (Score:4)
Mind you, I'm drolling waiting for these things
Dave
'Round the firewall,
Out the modem,
Through the router,
Down the wire,
They haven't been released yet (Score:5)
Re:It's out now what (Score:1)
But yes, i dont expect to see these boards till jan, feb timeframe. Companies like A-Bit and ASUS still need to design the motherboards.
Sanchi
Re:Finally ... (Score:2)
--
Chief Frog Inspector
I love the net! (Score:4)
[sorry, the sarcasm key was stuck]
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If Bill Gates had a nickel for every time Windows crashed...
1st Beowulf 2! (Score:1)
Call it a DecAthlon.
Oh. Apparently the Olympics® have finished.
ps Does it run Linux?
Compatibilty? (Score:3)
I see in my BIOS that I can choose between MPS 1.1 and MPS 1.4. Does this refer to a hardware API that a MP OS utilises? If so, is the AMD product compatible with this, or the OSes have to be modified to handle some other standard (I thought I had heard AMD was doing things the same way as Alpha's).
What specs are they using to run SMP? (Score:3)
Amd's or VIA's chipset? (Score:1)
Does anyone know what VIA's planes for SMP are? I know that the KT266 should be out soon.
Sanchi
ddr good, smp good, rambus bad, RAMBUS BAD
Re:1st Beowulf 2! (Score:1)
Linux kernel developers even have simulations of AMDs next generation 64 bit CPU so that when it is released linux will be ready for it. woohoo!
having said that, it won't run linux until it's actually on the market, but that's beside the point
btw, does one need special athlons for SMP, or are all athlons SMP compliant?
Interesting (Score:3)
Cautionary Statement
This release contains forward-looking statements, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are generally preceded by words such as "plans," "expects," "believes," "anticipates" or "intends." Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements in this release involve risks and uncertainty that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations. Forward looking statements in this release include the risk that AMD will be not successfully introduce a commercially available multiprocessing solution and that such solution may not be accepted by the market. We urge investors to review in detail the risks and uncertainties in the Company's filings with the United States Securities Exchange Commission.
Re:Having said that... (Score:2)
and the Mustang supposaly can scale to 8 (i think) processers. But I would be very supriesed if AMD or VIA made a chipset for the it.
AMD probaly will make a run for the servers with the Sledgehammer OTOH with quad boards
Sanchi
ddr good, smp good, rambus bad, RAMBUS BAD
Re:Now if only.. (Score:1)
How about dual Durons? (Score:2)
If not, what would be the reason?
If it does, this will probably be one of the best things to come out since the Abit BP6 w/ dual Celery's. I mean it would still be cheap (or at least fairly priced), and you'd also get great performance.
Re:Quads? (Score:1)
Now with the Sledehammer I see AMD making a run at the backoffice with quad+ boards
Sanchi
ddr good, smp good, rambus bad, RAMBUS BAD
Linux support? (Score:1)
Du-Athlon and the Olympics (Score:5)
http://www.segfault.org/story.phtml?mode=2&id=39d
Dear Answer Guy,
I thought about buying an Athlon, but now my TV screams all the time about some Bi-Athlon and even Tri-Athlon. Is that just a vaporware or should I wait to buy such a beast?
-Ox Ford from Ohio
Dear Ox Ford,
Olympic Fever has struck the airwaves! Unknown to most people, the Athlon is the official microprocessor of the 2000 Olympic Games. To better suit Olympians, AMD came out with a Bi-Athlon and Tri-Athlon. These are actually multiprocessor units that have many advantages over their single-processor sibling. First, the processor speeds have been doubled, allowing the CPU to use time-sharing more efficiently (time-sharing is sometimes called "cycling," which is also an Olympic event). Processes can be re-prioritized in hardware, allowing certain applications to get a greater time share which causes it to run faster (also called "sprinting," which is an Olympic sport). Also, think of the Athlon as a unicycle, the Bi-Athlon as a bicycle, and the Tri-Athlon as a tricycle. The Bi-Athlon and the Tri-Athlon are much better at handling an unbalanced load, namely because they have more wheels. All of these things make the Athlon family the number one choice among Olympic athletes.
Re:How about dual Durons? (Score:2)
AMD has no plans to cripple the duron like Intel crippeled the cellery.
Now will you beable to OC you 900mhz Duron to 1.1ghz? who knows. I still have to see a locked processer from AMD even tho they said that after week 54, all processers will be locked. (my local computer store just got a shipment of 750s week 60 and none were locked)
Sanchi
ddr good, smp good, rambus bad, RAMBUS BAD
Re:Interesting (Score:2)
If you buy stock in this company because you read we'd make product X, and we didn't actually make product X, or product X was a dismal flop, or product X killed 100 people in a real bad explosion and our stock drops to 30 cents per share, don't say we didn't warn you.
Re:Linux support? (Score:2)
Re:Interesting (Score:1)
If I may be the Nth to say... (Score:1)
Dual Athlon GOOOOOOOOD!
(Locked clock multiplier BAAAAAAAAD!)
I have been so looking forward to the opportunity to get me some dual AMD action... I hope it won't be too long before they're on the market.
-TBHiX-
Re:Interesting (Score:1)
----
Re:What specs are they using to run SMP? (Score:1)
Sanchi
ddr good, smp good, rambus bad, RAMBUS BAD
Re:How about dual Durons? (Score:1)
The downside is that basically high performance but low-market-end stuff doesn't get SMP. Celeron is probably a fluke because it uses the PII core. Was the Duron even designed with SMP in mind?
and again a double posting... (Score:1)
Iwan
Re:Now if only.. (Score:2)
Re:If I may be the Nth to say... (Score:1)
Snachi
ddr good, smp good, rambus bad, RAMBUS BAD
Slashdot story posters are weird (Score:1)
Geek Boy -- dreaming of Dual 1.5ghz
ah ha! (Score:5)
Folks, now you know what to do if you want your news submitted. It's easy to get rejected on the submission queue, but apparently if you e-mail [mailto] an editor, even redundant articles [slashdot.org] will get posted!
Do keep in mind though that e-mails [mailto] from a large group of people might cause too much junk in the mailbox [mailto], but if e-mail [mailto] is a good way to punish redundant posts [slashdot.org] or get higher priority than in a submission queue, by all means e-mail [mailto] is the way to go!
Slashdot's port of English is not POSIX compliant. (Score:1)
Yes, "DEMONSTRATED" == "RELEASED"
Idiots.
Drolling? Or Trolling? :-) (Score:2)
I'll be quite happy to not bother drooling about this for another six months while AMD shakes out any bugs in implementations of mobos, memory interfaces, and distribution. And they should be "less than spectacularly expensive" by that point too...
OT (Score:1)
That's on EVERY press release! (Score:1)
Re:Cautionary Statement [Nothing to worry 'bout] (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Charts and hand-waving. (Score:1)
I'm in love with Slavoj Zizek,
www.endofhistory.com [endofhistory.com]
Info on upcoming Athlon chipsets (Score:4)
Of course, I think I'll wait for the second itteration of these chipsets. By then they will have most of the kinks worked out, and the platform optimized. Also, by then the Athlon will be much faster per dollar.
--
"You never know when some crazed rodent with cold feet
might be running loose in your pants."
Re:Having said that... (Score:1)
Re:Now if only.. (Score:2)
The short answer to your question, is no, the iSMP stuff won't work... however the alphaSMP stuff is already there, and shouldn't require too too much porting to x86 for the athlon.
Yes, you will need a new kernel that doesn't currently exist.
Re:What about dual Durons? (Score:1)
My offtopic slashdot bitchfest... (Score:2)
Also, anyone else notice that trolling/flamebaiting has gotten really bad lately? Especially the clever AC who launching personal attacks against active posters (maybe its Signal 11...) I'd hate to adjust my threshold to +2, but it looks like there isn't much choice anymore, since moderation sure as shit doesn't seem to be making a difference.
rant mode off... for now
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Dual Chips (Score:1)
Re:How about dual Durons? (Score:1)
The athlon supports smp, the duron supports smp. The p2 supports smp, the celeron supports smp... except, intel attempted to hobble the celeron by attempting to remove it's smp support. The main reasons were marketing reasons, not even vaguely technical, and are rather obvious.
-t
It doesn't matter much... (Score:3)
It's not like VIA is competing with AMD. AMD designs reference chipsets because their processors (which are what they are really interested in selling) are unusable without. AMD can't make much money on selling chipsets, so they'd just as soon that somebody else take up that business. But somebody has to design the thing before it can be produced, and AMD foots the bill for that.
--Lenny
Re:Interesting (Score:1)
Kent
Re:1st Beowulf 2! (Score:1)
Re:Amd's or VIA's chipset? (Score:1)
Re:If I may be the Nth to say... (Score:1)
There's been no proof that anyone has processors with the infamous "missing pins" that are supposed to be the final locking solution if you believe rumors. AMD has never stated they will do this either.
Re:What specs are they using to run SMP? (Score:1)
Re:It's out now what (Score:1)
Yeah, considering it's their trademark and all..
OK seriously, check out CPU ScoreCard [cpuscorecard.com] to see the greatest value: an athlon. Whoot whoot!
Beowulf (Score:2)
Re:Quads? (Score:1)
droollllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll. ack have to clean up keyboard. drool is makghing ists hardsg tos typesk.
Snacih
I think I get it (Score:1)
Re:Do the editors actually read /. (Score:1)
Re:What about dual Durons? (Score:1)
Re:Du-Athlon and the Olympics (Score:1)
Though, I suppose that could be misinterpreted as an Athlon from Digital.
Re: (Score:1)
adding more processors (Score:2)
Happy Happy (Score:1)
Ren: Dammit Stimpy, you eeediot! Now we can't buy another PrOn Server until the Quantum Processors are released. You couldn't have waited could you, COULD YOU!
Did Hemos ever pass an English class? (Score:2)
Just my pet peeve on Slashdot.
Lets Recap. (Score:1)
I summitted this article yesterday, before the original [slashdot.org].
Then I see it was rejected. OK, fine.
Then about 2 hours later I see the same article that I got rejected on got posted.
Then, I mention this in the articles discussion, and get flamed on.
Then I come to
*Slap*
On top of all that the duplicate article has a title that is not even accurate!
--
At least the AMD troll post has changed. (Score:1)
Re:Yeah, when can Iwalk into CompUSA and buy one? (Score:1)
and people call me a moron (Score:1)
On another note here are some other story lines that I submitted that were rejected.
Meet Prody Parrot, this was rather cool it is a talking parrot / assistant for windows and the software is supposed to come with SB live cards.
I don't want a lot, I just want it all!
Flame away, I have a hose!
Re:My offtopic slashdot bitchfest... (Score:1)
Re:My offtopic slashdot bitchfest... (Score:2)
----
Re:Now if only.. (Score:1)
Moderators! (Score:1)
---
Re:1st Beowulf 2! (Score:1)
Socket seems to be the wave of the future, but it would be nice if they would at least support the "older" slot cpus. I'd love to buy one.
-Nastard-
The problem is the Athlon "bus" (Score:2)
processor Athlon and no larger configurations
have appeared is that the Athlon's FSB makes it
difficult to do.
Unlike the intel processors, the Athlon connects
to the Northbridge via a point-to-point connection
(i.e. not really a "bus" at all). The interface
is named (inacurately) the "Socket 2000 bus" or
"S2K bus" for short.
The problems with S2K for SMP are several:
1) The Northbridge has to have a complete set of
data and address signals for each processer.
This is a lot of pins; especially if you're
talking about more than 2 proccessors.
2) Even if you had the pins, the drivers for S2K
need to be quite powerful (~50 mA per signal to
ground). So you need to add a lot more ground
pins to handle the current and the power
dissipated by the drivers starts to be a
problem.
3) The biggest issue is the manner in which SMP
cache coherency is managed. Because there is
no shared bus, the northbridge must "probe"
all of the other processors whenever one of
them changes the state of a cache line (read,
write, evict, etc.). Now, the bandwidth of the
interface used to probe an Athlon is equal to
that of its output address bus. So, a dual
processor system is relatively easily handled
by sending all of the addresses issued by one
processor to the other. Going beyond two
processors with this scheme fails due to
poll bandwidth limitations. Adding I/O
bandwith to the mix only makes things worse.
Problems #1 and #2 above are solvable by brute
force (e.g. big packages, multiple chips, heatsinks, etc.).
Problem #3 is much harder to solve. The only way
I know to do it is have the Northbridge maintain a
separate set cache tags that duplicates the tags
in all of the processors. That way, a processor
needs only be probed when the state of a cache
line that it actually holds is changed. It's
doable but makes for a very large chip that's
difficult to verify. That's how Hotrail was
implementing their 8-way Athlon server chipset.
It's a real shame that they decided to drop it.
I suspect that part of Hotrail's decision was
based on AMD releasing their plans for
Sledgehammer and the "LDT" bus (which has many
advantages over S2K).
Re:ah ha! (Score:2)
Also the first thing I did on reading the press release was search the old stories for "AMD" + "dual"
No story on it yet.... so I sent it in.
Silly me I should have thrown SMP into the search.
Malk-a-mite
Re:Great news (Score:1)
Re:Kewl :) (Score:1)
The VIA chipsets are very flaky.
Re:Quads? (Score:1)
One promising sign is that the grey ape has emerged from his rocky den and is eying the new ferel female. We hope that copulation will ensue, and that a multi-CPU banana will be the result, and therefore this historical dialectical process will come to know itself and realize its idea. We believe that freedom is the idea of spirit and that spirit is reason in and for itself. The means for this realization, or cunning of reason, is the passions of the ape as both as an nCPU machine and as object of history, and its form is the state of the process (running, sleeping, blocked, zombie.) The N CPU machine is a moment in the development of the N+1 CPU machine, and for each such moment, as for all, thee owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the setting of the sun.
Re:Quads? (Score:1)
Does Hemos not read Slashdot??? (Score:2)
Re:and people call me a moron (Score:1)
It is not my 'spelling' or use of html tags.
suckdot hates my posts it is that simple!!
If you submit an article you have to preview.
Again I say -> GFY
I don't want a lot, I just want it all!
Flame away, I have a hose!
Re:Quads? (Score:1)
Please tell me exactly why you deem a 4-CPU computer to be "impossible" at this time?
However, before you answer, you may like to ponder the impossibility that is the 64-CPU Sun StarFire, a computer which has 64 CPUs and exists today (indeed, as done for a while), as but one example to prove you wrong.
Re:Quads? (Score:1)
Re:Quads? (Score:1)
Re:Beowulf (Score:1)
Re:Info on upcoming Athlon chipsets (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
P4 vs dual Athlon (Score:1)
I do have a feeling that setting up a dual Athlon box will be more affordable that the P4 rig. P4 has the massive heat sink, special power supply and *intel pricing*. The dual Athlon may also need a special power supply ... hope the need for that deminishes as AMD get their beasts to work on lower voltages.
It would be interesting to see which is the badbay of the block. I do beleive that the dual Athlon well be the badboy when it comes to bang for the buck.
then again ... we'll just have to wait and see how this plays out. I like the AMD pricing now ... but believe that it won't stay this way forever ... they are slowly getting the acceptance they deserve and if demand exceeds supply, there will be no downward pressure on their prices (especially as they tread into clockspeed areas where the P!!! are getting burnt).
Re:Twice is Once Too Much (Score:1)
I'd rather see 2;Funny.
The story *was* the same as another one posted on the same day. Where are the news here?
And an anal-retentive moderator tells me I'm a Troll? Do you have a clue about what troll means?
I just can't believe it.
I *demand* meta-moderation
____________________
Re:It was a gag. (Score:1)
Re:Quads? (Score:1)
You said that a quad-CPU machine is impossible today, and then proceeded to give absolutely no reasons to back up your invalid claim.
Therefore, I ask you again - why do you believe quad-CPU machines are impossible today, given that they already exist?
Re:Quads? (Score:1)