Demophobe
Joined: 17 May 2004
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 Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2006 4:00 pm Post subject: AMD + ATI = Cool. |
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Looks like AMD is buying ATI folks.
| ArsTechnica wrote: |
AMD has the money in the bank to buy ATI, and they have the fab capacity coming online to expand their integrated circuit business beyond CPUs. An ATI purchase would give AMD a solid core logic chipset, and the unprecedented capability to go head-to-head with Intel at the level of the whole platform. Indeed, by leveraging cHT, Socket AM2, and the multipurpose DSP capabilities of an ATI GPU, AMD would have the ability to put together unique system architectures that would be tailor-made for the gaming/enthusiast and high performance computing (HPC) markets.
AMD/ATI would no doubt continue to develop standalone, PCIe-based graphics cards for the mainstream market, giving them a significant place in Intel-based desktops. The possibility that in 2007 you could build a system with an AMD GPU and an Intel CPU makes for an interesting dynamic, to say the least. It could be that Intel and NVIDIA will work more closely together to exclude AMD/ATI from Intel systems, but at this point it's hard to make specific predictions. The best we can do is to note that anything that's positive for AMD�and this merger would certainly be positive for them�is unlikely to spell good news for Intel. |
Wow. Really exciting news that will definately benefit the consumer. There is so much going on in the AMD camp right now to fight the "Core Duo" line from Intel. K8L ("4x4" = effective quad-core - 2 dual-cores working with cHT, dual-socket mainboard) is the most likely first defense, but in the long run, it looks like cHT (coherent Hyper-Transport) flexibilty which will be the killer.
In a nutshell, cHT uses a mainboard with 2 sockets, at least one of which will be/can be the CPU. The other socket can be user-defined to a degree; be it another CPU or GPU or even some server-centered co-processor arrangement. The results could be pretty amazing. A CPU and GPU sharing a pool of DDR2 system memory (soon maybe DDR3) that is easily expandable, no bridge needed for them to talk, a super-fast communication bus and between the GPU and CPU, and no need for a graphics card at all. It would add up to more cost efficiency (which hopefully translates to lower pricing) and a wicked fast setup.
So, the 4x4, quad-core CPU solution (K8L) will be the first incarnation of a flexable, dual-socket idea that really could be a revolution. The K8L is predicted to lose to Conroe in head-to-head benchmarks where single-threaded applications are used (Conroe has a higher core-clock, as usual), but it really is only a warm-up for a bigger plan. Besides, when AMD do get into the total platform market that Intel have enjoyed doing solo for a long, long time, they will be competitive in other areas they have never been before, and can recover some of the benchmark losses in other ways.
The possibilities are huge if the takeover goes through. Intel will have no market unchallenged by AMD, which again, can only benefit the consumer in all areas; pricing, development and general competitiveness. Conroe is a great chip and it will indeed take a revolution to knock it off it's throne.
This is the most exciting tech news since Nvidia entered the chipset market. The difference being that ATI are pretty well established in that market already and the entry costs for AMD are already paid out. All they have to do is go for it.
This is really cool. I am actually excitied about the PC again for the first time in a long time. |
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