AMD Bulldozer in Dec 2010?

[thilanliyan]

http://tech.icrontic.com/articles/what-we-know-about-amds-next-generation-processors/
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=252218

Would be cool if true.

 

[GaiaHunter]

Nothing new except that "7 months away" which then as nothing else added to it.

Would be cool but unlikely (or at least not because that article says anything to make us believe so).

It still includes ontario on 32nm when there are rumours ontario will debut on 40nm.

 

[yh125d]

Do want before xmas. But seems unlikely, since all previous estimates have been 2011

 

[LoneNinja]

My Phenom 9850 is still more processing power than I need 90% of the time, I'm really looking forward to playing around with some of these new processors next year.

 

[Stoneburner]

My Phenom 9850 is still more processing power than I need 90% of the time,.

Yeah but the other 10 percent of the time is when you're actually using the computer!

I'm just kidding. I couldn't help myself.

 

[LoneNinja]

Yeah but the other 10 percent of the time is when you're actually using the computer!

I'm just kidding. I couldn't help myself.

I spend way too much time on a computer, lol. It's when I am rendering something in 3ds max or something else intense that I find my Phenom some what slow, I've honestly got the thing downclocked to 1.4Ghz the majority of the time my system is on.

 

[RussianSensation]

Bulldozer does have a hill to climb. About 20% performance increase just to match the Core i7 plus whatever gains Sandy Bridge brings to the table (which is probably another 20%). 2011 is going to be very interesting. I hope AMD netbook processors is good because the Atom is weak and we need something in a netbook worth purchasing.

 

[Idontcare]

Considering the timeline for Sandy Bridge versus Bulldozer I'd say it is really a pipedream at this point for people to hope for Bulldozer this Christmas.

Sandy taped out at the end of May, 2009 (nearly a full year ago). And it isn't scheduled to hit Newegg until Q1 2011.

When did Bulldozer tape out?

 

[Martimus]

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2010/05/15/amd-fusion-cpu-gpu-will-ship-this-year/1

Llano may come this year, but I really doubt that we'll see Bulldozer until Q1 2011 at the earliest. Risk Production on 32nm SOI is supposed to start about now, although I'm not sure if that still holds true, or if they would run at risk production for any of the three products.

 

[nyker96]

this rumor almost definitely not true. way too soon for expected
BD release considering everything.

 

[IntelUser2000]

Considering the timeline for Sandy Bridge versus Bulldozer I'd say it is really a pipedream at this point for people to hope for Bulldozer this Christmas.

Sandy taped out at the end of May, 2009 (nearly a full year ago). And it isn't scheduled to hit Newegg until Q1 2011.

When did Bulldozer tape out?

That's hard to tell. For Bulldozer, not even people closer to the source like Charlie seems to know when it taped out, or if it ever did.

For Sandy Bridge, Intel might be holding back some versions so they can replace every market segment at the same time.

 

[BD231]

Would AMD have really gone through the hassle of releasing Thuban/thermal enhancements if the Phenom is to be phased out as this article suggests?

At eight cores and a probable price premium it sounds more like BD might be a top end variant to start.

 

[ShawnD1]

At eight cores and a probable price premium it sounds more like BD might be a top end variant to start.

Sounds like they're going in the wrong direction then. Show me a $100 6-core and I'll totally get one.

I'm still loving the X4 620. It's a computer I built for my parents but it seems really fast every time I need to dick around with it and fix everything they broke. 3 trial versions of virus scanners running at the same time means there's still 1 core capable of doing actual work.

 

[Kuzi]

That's hard to tell. For Bulldozer, not even people closer to the source like Charlie seems to know when it taped out, or if it ever did.

For Sandy Bridge, Intel might be holding back some versions so they can replace every market segment at the same time.

Bulldozer doesn't seem to have tapped out yet, although AMD could be holding things close to the chest

I think you are right about Sandy, Intel doesn't feel the need to release it any earlier, and they could just hold back now and have a full scale release by early 2011.

Historically it takes about 10 to 14 months for a new CPU architecture to go from tap-out to actuall release, so if we assume Bulldozer tapes out soon, we shouldn't expect it to be released before Q2 or even Q3 2011 :/

 

[classy]

Well it looks like Intel believes its on the way soon.

Here is a blurb from off Anantech

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3712/intel-announce-super-westmereex-for-servers

They are prepping a current version of Nehalem to compete with MC and Bulldozer. So that would lead me to believe they have some info that BD is going to be released sooner than later. Sandy Bridge is due Q1 in 2011

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/di...ors_New_Infrastructure_in_Q1_2011_Source.html

It leads me to believe that one BD will come before Sandy is ready.

Also the fact that they won't release X4 960T in retail because they are focusing on future products.

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/18890

The firm tells us a Phenom II X4 product with Turbo Core technology may not ever happen, since the bulk of its efforts are now focused on next-generation products.

The only next generation product cpu wise is Bulldozer.

 

[intangir]

Well it looks like Intel believes its on the way soon.

Here is a blurb from off Anantech

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3712/intel-announce-super-westmereex-for-servers

They are prepping a current version of Nehalem to compete with MC and Bulldozer. So that would lead me to believe they have some info that BD is going to be released sooner than later. Sandy Bridge is due Q1 in 2011

I don't think that link implies anything of the sort. That was an announcement of Westmere-EX, which will go in the same socket as Nehalem-EX, which was released in March 2010. The EX segment processors typically lag a year or more behind the more normal EP/EN/desktop processors of the same generation (Nehalem-EP was released March 2009), and there's generally at least a year between successive EX generations, so I wouldn't expect Westmere-EX before spring 2011.

Smith said "We have just launched Nehalem-EX, and these platforms typically have a ... two-plus year lifetime."

So all it's saying is Intel expects Bulldozer sometime before 2012, whenever they introduce Sandy Bridge-EX, which will likely involve a new socket. And that isn't all that soon.

 

[extra]

Sounds really optimistic to me.
I bet we'll see Llano by the end of the year. If not a hard launch, at least a soft launch.

I hope we see Bulldozer then, but I doubt it--I bet it'll be around this time next year.

 

[Idontcare]

I hope we see Bulldozer then, but I doubt it--I bet it'll be around this time next year.

If it hasn't taped out yet then I seriously doubt they will have it ready for commercial release in less than 12 months.

If Barcelona TLB had not happened then I could see AMD management being less risk averse and more aggressive with the timeline (i.e. willing to cut more corners and do less rigorous validation)...but since TLB bug happened there is no way AMD management is going to cut any corners when it comes to the robustness of their Bulldozer validation efforts.

I will be pleasantly surprised to see Bulldozer available for purchase at Newegg in 12 months, but I think we'd have heard AMD make a little more noise over Bulldozer taping out (similar to llano at a minimum) if it had happened by now.

 

[Martimus]

I just found this quote from AMD about Bulldozer tapeout:

jtaylor : Kyle, there will be a number of updates in this blog about our APU development and roadmaps; power features in the x86 cores is just the first. We plan to sample x86 “Bulldozer” based products to AMD customers in the first half of this year, with launch in 2011.

http://blogs.amd.com/fusion/2010/02/08/amd-talks-llano-x86-innovation-isscc/#comment-28

 

[busydude]

I just found this quote from AMD about Bulldozer tapeout:

http://blogs.amd.com/fusion/2010/02/08/amd-talks-llano-x86-innovation-isscc/#comment-28

Interesting comments!! A user asked about the bandwidth of llano and, as usual, John passed it up saying "It has not been disclosed yet".

 

[JFAMD]

I think we'd have heard AMD make a little more noise over Bulldozer taping out (similar to llano at a minimum) if it had happened by now.

Tape out of products falls into a category that is generally governed by Regulation FD; it can be material to the business, so it has to be released in the proper forum as it is sensitive information.

It is not a question that we would answer in a web forum; typically, if we ever make a statement (and for many products in the past we have not indicated tape out), it comes from the CEO in either an analyst meeting or a earnings call. This is to ensure that we are following all financial regulations. I can think of 2 products that I am shipping right now where we never publicly stated any tape out info, so I recommend not tying a lot to the tape out statements.

 

[cbn]

Interesting comments!! A user asked about the bandwidth of llano and, as usual, John passed it up saying "It has not been disclosed yet".

Is there any way AMD could add Bandwidth to Llano system memory through other means? How about sideport?

 

[Fayd]

I spend way too much time on a computer, lol. It's when I am rendering something in 3ds max or something else intense that I find my Phenom some what slow, I've honestly got the thing downclocked to 1.4Ghz the majority of the time my system is on.

only time i use my computer to its CPU limit is when i'm encoding video.

and i set that up and walk away. it's done when i come back.

till some new way of using a computer comes out, it's sad for me to say, but i think my computer is fast enough.

 

[Idontcare]

Is there any way AMD could add Bandwidth to Llano system memory through other means? How about sideport?

Why not just add GDDR3/5 to the mobo (llano requires a new socket anyways, so new mobo is guaranteed to be involved) same as they add it to the graphics card now?

Or we could see dimms for DDR3 and dimms for GDDR5. Add what you want, when you want.

Bandwidth does not have to be a limitation with Llano, unless they are really striving for Llano to be a cost-sensitive SKU with hopes that using DDR3 bandwidth and capacity will be good enough.

 

[IntelUser2000]

Bandwidth does not have to be a limitation with Llano, unless they are really striving for Llano to be a cost-sensitive SKU with hopes that using DDR3 bandwidth and capacity will be good enough.

That sounds expensive. GDDR3 DIMMS likely have different pin and signal configurations and its not widespread to be add-in when Llano starts shipping, which jacks up price.

I'd think HD5570 performance would be fine. If not to cannibalize their own product lines. Graphics cards aren't going to raise the bar that much higher in 6-12 months.

The better way would be doing it Clarkdale-style, but rather than the GMCH on the other die(because its already integrated), the memory for the GPU would be on MCM within a package.