AMD's Istanbul coming soon...

Mr. Bluntman

Mr. Bluntman

Supreme [H]ardness
2FA
Joined
Jun 25, 2007
Messages
7,268
Apparently Istanbul silicon is very healthy and parts should be coming next month, with systems available to OEMs next month. I wonder how long before we will be seeing Phenom II X6 parts on the market? Oh, and here's a slide with a die shot for your viewing pleasure.

istanbul.jpg
 
That looks beautiful.

I'm assuming if going by the slides that Istanbul is a server-only CPU given the 2P, 4P, and 8P socket designations listed.

I wonder when we'll get the Phenom II X6 consumer versions then.

But, just imagine... an 8 socket serverboard with 8 of these CPUs at 6 cores each! 48 cores of processing power at one's disposal. Anyone with a server build in their own home (or work) think they might get one?
 
octoberasian said:
That looks beautiful.

I'm assuming if going by the slides that Istanbul is a server-only CPU given the 2P, 4P, and 8P socket designations listed.

I wonder when we'll get the Phenom II X6 consumer versions then.

But, just imagine... an 8 socket serverboard with 8 of these CPUs at 6 cores each! 48 cores of processing power at one's disposal. Anyone with a server build in their own home (or work) think they might get one?
Click to expand...

I might be able to get a demo but I'm still waitin gon my dual socket xeon/i7 box.
 
Not only did AMD announce the Istanbul release date in the 1st Quarter Earnings release, they also are launching a deluge of new quad core server parts. What AMD lacks in performance compared to Nahalem-EP they are definitely trying to make up for with broad selection. 40W quad cores w/ full cache and functionality? Yes please.

There hasn't been a lack of new products coming from AMD of late, that's for sure. Pretty stark contrast to what we saw in 2008, especially with the economy as it is. They still might be bleeding cash, but you can't help but look at the recent flurry of (successful) product announcements positively, both on the CPU and GPU fronts. If the past is any indication, an AMD that speaks out regularly is a much healthier AMD than the mute suits they were leading up to Barcelona.

As for the Istanbul showing up in an AM3 socket near you I kind of doubt it, at least for awhile anyway. They might be forced to release it in late 2H09 for performance competition's sake against the 6-core Westmere and to tide people over until Orochi (which may also come out earlier than expected with the recent rush for 32nm).

Barring any absolutely earth shattering performance increases, I think they have larger more profitable fish to fry than the super high end consumer market that an Istanbul part would cater to right now. Let the i7 have it. AMD can compete with the Core2s alright for the time being. An Istanbul in the consumer space would be the awkward stepchild that nobody quite has a place for, sort of like the FX line of yore only Intel's CPUs are markedly better than AMD's this time. It would be expensive, and how many applications would show a large enough advantage over a quad to justify the price? Would it even beat an equally priced quad i7 in anything worthwhile (maybe a few encoding apps and such)? Is it worth the investment in repackaging, retooling, branding, marketing, etc to go after what is essentially a media stunt? Like I said, maybe when Intel pulls the hexcore card but in its current situation AMD doesn't need to stretch themselves any more than necessary.

For right now I believe they should stick with the Socket F launches so they can try to save face after the brutality that the Nahalem-EP inflicted. Servers can nearly always appreciate a greater core density, the consumer space not so much. The consumer market would probably be better served with engineering efforts going toward a quad/dualcore + GPU package than going full bore towards the diminished returns of adding 2 CPU cores. Let the tech get cheaper, let the yields go up, get the Rx8xx chipsets launched, get the company in a better spot, THEN consider launching a 6-core Phenom when Intel launches Westmere.
 
They should. What if a consumer wants more than 4 cores but less than 6 cores!?
 
Mav451 said:
You had me at "months ahead of schedule". :D
Click to expand...

they had me at "Six" :p

But as Silent Sin said, there really isnt much room in the consumer space for a 6core CPU, and thus I doubt you'll see it before christmas, if then.
 
generally amd's server market is about a year ahead of the consumer market.. most likely if they do release an x6 it wont be til Q3 2010..
 
But how long was it after we saw Shanghai that Deneb parts were available? Not that long...
 
Sounds exciting. I guess I can just skip the tri-core / quad-core and just jump to what would it be call? Sex-core? I like that :D
 
morfinx said:
Actually, it was quite an accomplishment to pull it in so much. It was originally scheduled for Q4 introduction.

It's on a single die, see the picture in OP.
Click to expand...

Even then... X3's are X4's with a core disabled, I doubt they're shipping out octo-cores with 2 disabled... :eek:
 
Blazestorm said:
Even then... X3's are X4's with a core disabled, I doubt they're shipping out octo-cores with 2 disabled... :eek:
Click to expand...

yep, if they were building cpu's with two full x4 dies, they might just as well go for intels throat and dump a few octo-cores on the market. TDP wise they should be able to, with a 40w quad opteron out already, take two of those, bump up the clocks 40% and BAM 125w TDP octo-core opteron at 2.8 GHz
 
so amd's moving towards more varying amounts of cores, cache and power usage to stay competitive with intel?
 
THIS is why I have waited to upgrade from my E8400. I felt so guilty for going Intel and have been waiting for AMD to come out with something I dont need but really really want. GO AMD GO!
 
Even though the show's over, they should throw in Battlestar Galactica's Six as part of their advertising campaign. :D
 
Pray to god that it goes to am2+ ;). If it still has the ddr2 backward compatibility i'm getting one for sure on am2+.
 
Conker said:
Pray to god that it goes to am2+ ;). If it still has the ddr2 backward compatibility i'm getting one for sure on am2+.
Click to expand...

Nope - not gonna happen (well not for AM2; DDR2 compatibility i believe would be available for Socket F)
 
...Istanbul ... Constantinople ... Istanbul ... Constantinople ... :D I hope that rings a bell for some of you!
 
VanFanel89 said:
Nope - not gonna happen (well not for AM2; DDR2 compatibility i believe would be available for Socket F)
Click to expand...

He is saying he hopes the make a desktop part to follow, not that he wants to shove a socketF part is his board. It looks very hopeful that a desktop AM3 part will follow, which will work on an AM2+ platform if the current scheme holds.
 
ElMoIsEviL said:
that's a pure marketing line.

No.. AMD needs 6 cores in an attempt to try and stave off Intel's Nehalem based Xeons.
Click to expand...

ugh, what did you expect, AMD to not try and gain more business ?

obviously while it's good marketting, it's also smart on their end, if a customer wants to drop in 6 core chips into their existing servers why not? AMD just made another sale, to top it off, some people want more power per server in terms of space taken, so again why not?

over all I'd say 10 4 socket 6 core machines = 240 cores > 10 4 socket 4 core machines = 160cores. so you can cram 1/3 more processing power into the same space
 
cant wait to unlock the extra 2 cores in this to make it an 8 core cpu
 
See what happens when you give ol' Hector the boot? AMD will regain ground soon!
 
Digital Viper-X- said:
ugh, what did you expect, AMD to not try and gain more business ?

obviously while it's good marketting, it's also smart on their end, if a customer wants to drop in 6 core chips into their existing servers why not? AMD just made another sale, to top it off, some people want more power per server in terms of space taken, so again why not?

over all I'd say 10 4 socket 6 core machines = 240 cores > 10 4 socket 4 core machines = 160cores. so you can cram 1/3 more processing power into the same space
Click to expand...


Exactly. AMD isn't reinventing the wheel here. They are offering a drop in upgrade which gives a great boost at minimal cost and effort, which in tough economic times makes sense. In my eyes this is very smart and strategic.
 
DrFreeze said:
istanbul is a six core die, no extra cores to unlock

now if amd start die-harvesting partially broken istanbuls into quad cores...
Click to expand...

Wouldn't put it past them, LOL. Or perhaps we will see 5 core Opterons?
 
I don't think they would ever offer disabled core parts in the server market. Not good for the rep! Maybe some 5 core PII's though!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top