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Kozin, I (Igor) wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:CC86E164E4091C4D88A62DADB4AC647904E8F27F@exchange06.fed.cclrc.ac.uk"
type="cite">..
<pre wrap="">Yes, memory bandwidth can be a problem for Intel servers. Now. But we
all know this is going to change soon.
</pre>
</blockquote>
"Soon" ? We are hearing about a year.<br>
In the meantime AMD "Shanghai" with 4 cores on 45nm process ships this
year.<br>
Also 6MB of L3 cache.<br>
<br>
This bump basically puts the AMD line even with the Intel on clock
speeds with Intel.<br>
Meaning Intel will have to drop the prices on the higher clocks to be
competitive, a good thing for all of us.<br>
<br>
Come mid 2009 AMD releases "Istanbul" with 6 cores, 6MB L3 cache. <br>
HT3 means the memory bandwidth interconnects double in speed, <br>
pulling them well ahead of the new Intel designs in terms of memory
bandwidth.<br>
And, remember these still use simple DDR2. No FBDIMMS, DDR3, or other
expensive tricks.<br>
<br>
If we are forward looking, expect 8 and 12 core Opterons by the end of
2009.<br>
<br>
Fiorano chipset comes then too, with 4 x PCI-E @ 2.0<br>
<br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CC86E164E4091C4D88A62DADB4AC647904E8F27F@exchange06.fed.cclrc.ac.uk"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">More surprisingly Opteron based servers do not offer PCIe Gen2 just yet.
</pre>
</blockquote>
No, but not really needed (yet)<br>
Barcelona already offers 2 links to the CPUs at 8GB/sec, so supporting
enough PCI-E lanes for any board designs is easy.<br>
When you can support 4 x PCI-E 16 lanes RIGHT NOW ( as opposed to 4 x
PCI-E 8 lanes on Intel chipsets),<br>
Why do you need PCI-E 2.0?<br>
Especially when you have the memory bandwidth to support it.<br>
<br>
Until Intel chipsets get better bandwidth to RAM all the slots in the
world are irrelevant.<br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CC86E164E4091C4D88A62DADB4AC647904E8F27F@exchange06.fed.cclrc.ac.uk"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Perhaps it was long time ago when I checked it last time. The paper
cited above indicates very significant impact of PCIe Gen2 on the
bandwidth.
</pre>
</blockquote>
They do, on the newer chipsets.<br>
<br>
<br>
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<br>
<font color="black">
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<i>Hard Data Ltd. FAX: 01-780-456-9772</i><br>
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