Items tagged with K8
After more than six months of high-to-mid profile executive departures, AMD has major news to announce on its new executive hire -- and he's a welcome addition. Starting today, Jim Keller will serve as a vice president and the company's Chief Architect for CPU Cores. Keller has spent more than thirty years in the semiconductor business, including a few at AMD. When AMD brought members of DEC's Alpha team aboard in the late 1990s, Keller was one of the CPU architects that came along. Having worked on Alpha's EV5, Jim was lead architect on the first K8 project (the first iteration of K8 was eventually canceled and Fred Weber became lead architect on the design that came to market). Keller moved...
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Enthusiasts and professionals alike have long been curious about Bulldozer's performance. It's been hard to predict how the CPU will perform compared to Intel's Nehalem and Sandy Bridge; Bulldozer's unique shared execution units are a considerable departure from anything else on the market. Leaked benchmarks courtesy of openbenchmarking.org have shed some light on what we might see when the processor launches. David Kanter of Real World Technologies has compared the Bulldozer results against Magny-Cours performance, but warns that it's unwise to draw conclusions based on engineering samples. There's a dearth of information regarding which compiler options were selected or if AVX was enabled....
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This afternoon, AMD announced that its current CEO, Dirk Meyer, would be resigning immediately. Dirk, who took the helm of AMD on July 18, 2008, has guided the company through the difficult 18 months since. As AMD's Board of Directors notes, "Dirk became CEO during difficult times. He successfully stabilized AMD while simultaneously concluding strategic initiatives including the launch of GLOBALFOUNDRIES, the successful settlement of our litigation with Intel and delivering Fusion APUs to the market." What makes this situation unusual are all the things AMD doesn't say. The press release neither gives reason for Meyer's departure nor explains why Dirk is being ousted immediately after launching...
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To say that the AMD K10 has suffered delays is an understatement. Many in the industry were honestly expecting this holiday season to feature a heavyweight CPU bout for the ages, but sadly it looks like we'll have to wait just a little bit longer.While the entire world is getting ready for that bout, it seems that AMD has decided to transition many of their existing K8 CPUs over to the 65 nm manufacturing process.“The AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ will be the first to jump on the new 65nm K8 bandwagon with a 65W TDP. The previous Windsor-based chip of the same featured an 89-Watt TDP. AMD will also add 100 MHz to the core frequency of the Athlon 64 X2 5600+, now rated at 2.9 GHz. Total L2 cache...
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The gang over at CRN have managed to sit-down with AMD's CEO Hector Ruiz for an in-depth interview. Although the interview mainly focuses upon the economic status of the company, there are some interesting tidbits of information regarding AMD's upcoming K8L core and how AMD plans to roll out the technology. AMD's "Barcelona" core will be a native quad-core solution that many are expecting to give Intel's popular Core 2 Duo architecture some serious competition. Unfortunately, it sounds as though AMD will be unable to get the K8L core out to the masses and will be forced to have it trickle-out over time. Hopefully, AMD can find a way to get the new architecture...
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If you don't have hundreds or thousands of dollars to spend updating your new rig with one of AMD's socket AM2 CPUs, Thermalright is doing its best to keep your old AMD K8 CPUs running cool with their Thermalright SLK-948U until upgrading your processor isn't life threatening to you're wallet. "The Thermalright SLK-948U is an oldie but a goodie. This 635 gram chunk of copper is still a relevant heatsink however, resembling something akin to a metallic Toblerone with copper fins. It's this design which keeps the SLK-948U alive and kicking, and as you'll see in a moment more than capable for any K8 processor. The heatsink ships in a very plain cardboard box with a small...
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AS PCstats.com reports, $75 can certainly buy a decent Socket AM2 motherboard. Though Nvidia's nForce 590 SLI has more features, VIA's K8T890 is able to keep up performance wise, which makes it a viable gaming solution. "In this review of the ASrock AM2V890-VSTA motherboard we'll be looking at how the VIA K8T890 handles itself around the socket AM2 Athlon64 FX-62 processor. The ASRock AM2V890-VSTA Socket AM2 motherboard is the first motherboard to cross PCSTATS' test bench based on the VIA K8T890 chipset. This compact ATX motherboard has four 240 pin DDR2 memory slots which accommodate up to 8GB of DDR-2 memory. The AM2V890-VSTA...
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Digitimes reports that their industry sources have indicated that consumers will not see AMD's upcoming K8L CPU's until 2008. Equipped with memory controllers for both DDR2 and DDR3, the K8L CPU's will be supported on both Socket AM2 and Socket AM3 platforms. With Intel's Core 2 Duo (Conroe) processor about to launch, it appears as though AMD will be fighting for market share using pricing and the enthusiast-aimed 4x4 platform. Time will tell whether AMD will be able to fend off Intel's latest efforts to recapture the performance crown in gaming or if the company will be counting down the days until 2008. "In addition to the Athlon 64 X2, the production of AMD dual-core Athlon...
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It's a shame, really. After nearly one year on the market, Socket-939 Athlon64 motherboards are finally getting to a point where we've always wished they would be. Feature packed, refined, tweakable, and quiet. Why is this a shame? Well, as AMD is transitioning to their new Socket-AM2 interface, interest in Socket-939 platforms will undoubtedly dwindle away. However, there is a huge install base of Socket-939 users on the market already, and new Socket-939 processor sales will likely continue throughout 2006. So, while Socket-AM2 may be getting all the press lately, it's still Socket-939 that's the workhorse, powering the vast majority of AMD desktop and gaming systems...
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We spent some time in conference with AMD during their analyst call last week and for sure they are working real hard to keep Intel at bay, providing further innovation and continuing engineering on their existing platforms. RealWorld Tech has a perspective as well, with respect to what AMD is conjuring for their roadmap efforts. AMD's spring analyst day presented a lot of news on future plans, products and focus areas at the company. The most interesting part was a nice preview of the next generation K8 microprocessor. The K8L, as it has been dubbed, is a strong incremental improvement over the 65nm shrink of the K8. There will be several changes to the microarchitecture, most...
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Anandtech has just posted a article which compares Intel's Core architecture against AMD's K8 architecture. With Intel's new design just now showing up and AMD's having been sold for the last few years, it seems logical to assume that Intel should win this round and AMD will have to wait for the release of their next architecture to redeem themselves. However, don't go counting the K8 architecture quite yet as there are a few tricks up AMD's sleeve should they wish to keep the performance crown a bit longer. Compared to the excellent AMD K8/Hammer architecture, the Core CPU is simply a wider, more efficient and more out of order CPU. When I suggested to Jack Doweck that...
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Our friends at the Tech Report have just posted a review of MSI's latest socket 939 motherboard, the K8N Diamond Plus. This board is based on NVIDIA's nForce 4 SLIX16 chipset, and sports some unique features like a third PCI Express slot for graphics and integrated Audigy audio. If you're in the market for a high-end Athlon mobo, you'll want to check this one out. "SEEMINGLY CONTENT TO MAKE DO with the original nForce4 SLI, motherboard manufacturers have been slow to adopt NVIDIA's nForce4 SLI X16 chipset. For months, Asus' A8N32-SLI was the only Socket 939 motherboard capable of feeding 16 lanes of PCI Express to each of a pair...
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While the majority of our coverage here at HotHardware.com tends to favor enthusiast class products, the fact of the matter is affordable mainstream products are far more prevalent in the marketplace. Flagship video cards and overclockable motherboards are certainly nice, but there is a much larger market for highly integrated motherboards with a multitude of common features already on-board. With that in mind, we present to you the Foxconn WinFast 6150K8MA-8EKRS. Foxconn's WinFast 6150K8MA-8EKRS motherboard uses NVIDIA's relatively new GeForce 6150 + nForce 430 chipset with integrated graphics. Although the GeForce 6150 IGP isn't a pixel-processing powerhouse in comparison to most discreet graphics...
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Hey folks! The reviews are in for ATI's latest addition to the All In Wonder series, and VIA's latest chipset which features DualGFX Express. Enjoy! ATI All In Wonder Radeon X1800XL: Motherboards.org Viperlair Bjorn3D FiringSquad DriverHeaven X-Bit labs VIA K8T900: PC Perspective The Tech Report Legion Hardware ...
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With the adoption of PCI Express as a next-gen I/O technology, all of the major chipset manufacturers worked hard to bring compatible chipsets to market. Naturally, Intel was first on the scene with the 900 series chipsets. But on the AMD side, VIA was first to market with its K8T890 Chipset. Building on the successes of the K8T800, which competed on the same level as nVidia's nForce 3 250 and nForce 3 Ultra, VIA aimed to take things to the next level with new features and improved overall performance. By coupling the K8T890 Northbridge with the promising VT8251 Southbridge, VIA's first PCI Express ready chipset aimed to deliver a number of new features, the most notable...
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Albatron nForce4 K8SLI @ Bjorn3D: "Sometimes us reviewer tend to forget that not everyone have the money to buy one of the latest and fastest cards available. Instead of a GeForce 7800GT or GeForce 7800GTX many instead have opted for cheaper, but yet capable, GeForce 6600GT. But what if you have one of those and want to in a cheap way increase the graphics performance? NVIDIA has the solution with SLI. Pop in a second card and in theory get double the performance. Today I am looking at one of the cheaper SLI-capable motherboards on the market, the K8SLI from Albatron. " Dual Graphics Card Showdown: CrossFire vs SLI vs 16X SLI: "We compare using the X850XT PE in CrossFire mode versus...
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Foxconn manufactures a wide range of products, ranging from video cards, to connectors, and as we'll explore today, motherboards. Over the years, we've had some experience with Foxconn, and while their products have not always been hardcore-enthusiast friendly, they have produced decent products. Today we'll be sampling Foxconn's WinFast NF4SK8AA-8EKRS, as they aim to bring an affordable, but high quality, SLI solution to the AMD Platform. Higher end motherboards from ASUS and Abit can retail for well over $160, and unfortunately many of us can't afford that. The Foxconn WinFast NF4SK8AA-8EKRS currently retails for around $125, however, which is a much more reasonable price for someone who wants...
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Good afternoon folks! It's been a while since we posted any links to the BIOS Optimization Guide over at Adrian's Rojak Pot, but he's been constantly adding new content to the ever growing list of BIOS features. Also in the news, well future news anyway, is the release of Quake 4 this friday. I'll breakout a "Woot!" for that! Wireless Industry Leaders Promote Next-Generation Wi-Fi Technology to Accelerate IEEE Standards Development The Enhanced Wireless Consortium has developed a specification that is designed to enable consumers to enjoy new levels of wireless performance, coverage and interoperability prior to ratification of an 802.11n standard. The EWC specification defines...
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Hey everyone! Today's latest hardware headlines are ready, enjoy the news. Goodnight folks. Mushkin: Now is the Time for Change @ Bytesector "Mushkin has decided that change is good and that now is the time for change. There are always minor changes with each style of memory. Mushkin's choice to change all this is a wise one, but it has more purpose than just aesthetics. Their new heatspreaders offer 58% more surface area coverage over their old design. Let's see this bad boy and you can judge for yourself whether you want this in your system." Four CPU Coolers from Thermaltake Tested @ X-Bit labs Today we are going to witness a breath-taking race among four processor air coolers from...
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Today's hardware headlines have arrived. I still have a few things I need to take care of, so without further ado, the news... Computer Memory Basics @ Big Bruin "Memory is an essential component in any computer system, and as with most things, bigger and faster are always a good thing. But, if your budget doesn't allow for a few GBs of the highest performance modules out there, having the appropriate amount of good quality memory can make a tremendous impact on system performance, reliability, and user happiness." Corsair COOL Water-Cooling Kit @ SystemCooling "When you hear the name Corsair, you probably think of their top quality RAM. With water cooling becoming more popular...
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Hey folks, I hope ya'll had a good weekend. I'm a little short on time, so I'll skip the chat and let you jump straight into the news. Enjoy! ASUS K8N-DL and Dual Opteron 252 @ LostCircuits "It still appears that one of the main problems AMD has been facing in the past, that is, great processors hampered by the lack of chipset support still rears its head, existing platforms are somewhat stale, bordering on obsolete technology. This is where nVidia's nForce4 Professional core logic aims to fill the void. Currently, less than a handful of boards are out there but we have secured one of them, namely the ASUS K8N-DL and run it through the paces. Several BIOS revisions later, we are still not...
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Good afternoon folks! Looking for something interesting to read? How about the 7800GT reportedly having 20 pipes. Need more? There's a good chance ATI's R520 will be available for purchase at it's launch date. Still not enough? Well, we've got plenty more below! Albatron K8SLI Review @ AMD Zone "While overclockers may want to steer clear with only an average feature set those looking to mod, or just wanting some more case real estate for watercooling can take advantage of the smaller depth. You won't find a board packed with extras, or high end hardware, or extra SATA ports. The bottom line is that the Albatron K8SLI is an interesting implementation of the nForce 4 SLI with a low cost, and...
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