On the same note as my post about the 3 core IBM chips for XBox I ran across this on Digg. AMD, which I've been buying, and a fan of, for many years, is showing off their three year plan for satisfying our future computing needs.
"AMD plans to offer processors with more than two cores in 2007."
By 2007 they'll be offering more than 2 cores per processor? Well, if IBM is doing it now with 3 cores, why is it going to take a few more years for AMD? With programs today taking more and more processing speed, it'd be nice if they could speed this up a bit.
"Future AMD mobile processors are expected to have technology to more efficiently and effectively sense and control processor temperature."
Are expected to? And...? Speculation is great, but when you're trying to sell a vision you should probably not used word like 'might' or 'expected to'. It doesn't show confidence. They say pretty much the same thing about the Advanced Thermal Management. Tell us what you're doing, not what might be done. You know that they're working on technologies far in advance of releasing them. These 8 core processors that they say will be here in 2008, they're working on them now! Overall, this 'roadmap' doesn't really tell us much. Speculation, and that's about it.
One thing I did find interesting is their outlook on memory in 2008.
"DDR3 is the next evolutionary step in DRAM technology. DDR3 is designed to offer users higher memory bandwidth compared to DDR2. Anticipated interface speeds are 1066MHz, 1333MHz and 1600MHz. DDR3 also operates at a lower voltage (1.5V) than DDR2 (1.8V), offering lower power. AMD, along with its infrastructure partners, plans to incorporate and support DDR3 technology in 2007."
Processing power is great, but it's not the be all end all. Take your 3.2GHz PC and try running it with 256MB PC2100 DDR266. Take that out and run 1GB or more of PC3200 DDR400. It makes a difference. Running your PC with RAM at speeds of 1600MHz will make a difference, and I can't wait.
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