I rarely see new procs hitting servers before Desktop/Workstations. Servers always require a tad bit more care.
The processor release will be done based on business priorirty. Even last year, I believe Woodcrest was released before Merom and Conroe because that's where Intel was hurting the most. In the last two quarters Intel has made good inroads into the lost Server market share and they would want to continue the trend. Barcelona is the biggest threat to that plan. Intel may have to counter Barcelona quad-core Opterons with higher processor and FSB speeds but to keep the power/heat down they may have to go to 45nm Penryn.
I believe in 2007, the only Penryn based processors we will see are going to be the higher speed parts; the lower speed parts will continue to be 65nm.
I apologize for my ignorance on the deeper technical issues of CPU's... I don't quite understand what the difference between 45 and 65nm really is other than transistors that are closer together, making them faster and more efficient.
Interestingly, the apple website claims to have 65nm processors in their MB's
"The Intel Core 2 Duo uses Intel’s groundbreaking 65-nanometer process — resulting in transistors so small, you could fit a hundred inside a single human cell."
What exactly does this mean in comparison to the 65nm CPU's you guys are talking about? Will the new one allow for more cache and a higher BUS speed as well as a faster CPU?
it means many things:-)
if c2d is produced using 45nm process, the result will be cheaper, since on a single waffer yield is higher. real estate on a waffer, likes real estate in real life, is scarce commodity. also it means you can pack more stuff into the same size of chip and make it more powerfull. but the side effect of it is heat! so packaging is quite challange. if same functional c2d is shrinked, the power needed to drive the transistor can even be lower. so if power usage is reduced, heat problem can be relieved a little bit. but if putting more stuff, heat is still a big problem. speed could be result of the better gating performance from transistor made by new materials.
Comments
I rarely see new procs hitting servers before Desktop/Workstations. Servers always require a tad bit more care.
The processor release will be done based on business priorirty. Even last year, I believe Woodcrest was released before Merom and Conroe because that's where Intel was hurting the most. In the last two quarters Intel has made good inroads into the lost Server market share and they would want to continue the trend. Barcelona is the biggest threat to that plan. Intel may have to counter Barcelona quad-core Opterons with higher processor and FSB speeds but to keep the power/heat down they may have to go to 45nm Penryn.
I believe in 2007, the only Penryn based processors we will see are going to be the higher speed parts; the lower speed parts will continue to be 65nm.
Expected release schedule:
>3 GHz Quad Core Xeons
followed by
>3 GHz Quad Core Desktops
followed by
2.8 GHz Dual Core Mobile Extreme Edition
What does this reduce in wattage by penryn mean for laptop battery life?
I read Intel is looking for 5+ hours for most configs. More efficient backlighting should help as well if that takes off this year.
I apologize for my ignorance on the deeper technical issues of CPU's... I don't quite understand what the difference between 45 and 65nm really is other than transistors that are closer together, making them faster and more efficient.
Interestingly, the apple website claims to have 65nm processors in their MB's
"The Intel Core 2 Duo uses Intel’s groundbreaking 65-nanometer process — resulting in transistors so small, you could fit a hundred inside a single human cell."
What exactly does this mean in comparison to the 65nm CPU's you guys are talking about? Will the new one allow for more cache and a higher BUS speed as well as a faster CPU?
it means many things:-)
if c2d is produced using 45nm process, the result will be cheaper, since on a single waffer yield is higher. real estate on a waffer, likes real estate in real life, is scarce commodity. also it means you can pack more stuff into the same size of chip and make it more powerfull. but the side effect of it is heat! so packaging is quite challange. if same functional c2d is shrinked, the power needed to drive the transistor can even be lower. so if power usage is reduced, heat problem can be relieved a little bit. but if putting more stuff, heat is still a big problem. speed could be result of the better gating performance from transistor made by new materials.