Intel shows dual core mystery chip?

[raretech]

<A HREF="http://www.linuxworld.com/story/46296.htm" target="_new">http://www.linuxworld.com/story/46296.htm</A>

I'm not sure what the deal is with this, or when it exactly happened. I didn't catch it on any previous coverage of IDF. Maybe I missed it? Interesting.

<i>Forget AMD and Intel, those are for fanboy lusers. The C3 is where it's at. Via Rulez!</i>

 

[Mephistopheles]

This is obviously just a misunderstanding. It's not quite clear what that was on LGA775, but it was definitely dual core.

In any case, some even reported that that processor was P-M based, while others said it had something to do with netburst. I don't think Intel actually spilled the beans on all details - even because they're not so sure of how and what they will be launching and in what fashion anyway. It's not necessarily a bad thing, it just means they wouldn't risk listing features and exacting details when they were in the process of still deciding those details and developing the platform.....

After all, if everything was already ironed out, the thing would have been launched by now, eh? We know very precious little about dual core K8s as well, but we don't actually expect anything revolutionary in terms of technology - heck, it's just two processors slapped together on a die....

The only dual core chip about which we have some further details is montecito, and that's because it's being touted as hell. And it has new technologies as well, unlike dual core K8s, which just use current techs, or (as far as we know) dual core P4s/PMs...

 

[raretech]

<i>And it has new technologies as well, unlike dual core K8s, which just use current techs, or (as far as we know) dual core P4s/PMs...</i>

Yeah, it's *ONLY* dual K8s, but it's an elegant and long planned implementation of it. Montecito may have new techs, but what good is it going to do the rest of us? I can drop substantially more amounts of money on a system than the typical geek thanks to my business, but I can't afford Itanium. If I can't afford it, then I know that most people can't.

Thus, while montecito is neat to read about, it's the dual core Xeons I want more info on, because those are the ones we can afford and will impact most of us. Montecito is largely irrelevant for the vast majority of us.

I suppose I could just sell my truck when montecito comes out, get setup with a nice dual processor system, and tell my clients they have to come to my office because my wife is using her car. Then when they're here, I could boast about my beast of a machine, how it's processors have all this great new tech, and how I can now develop for all their EPIC needs once they too, sell their cars and buy new systems.

<i>Forget AMD and Intel, those are for fanboy lusers. The C3 is where it's at. Via Rulez!</i>

 

[Mephistopheles]

Not for you and me of course, but those who buy xeons might also be interested in Itanium. The ones who are interested in itanium are university researchers, for instance.

I'm personally not interested in it, obviously.

However, I'm a physicist and I work at a physics institute that might be willing to purchase an Itanium, if there were good reasons to do so. I might consider recommending it as a component for the biggest computer around here - and by biggest machine I'm referring to a quad-cpu system with something like 64GB system memory... this system, of course, has like 85-90% of its costs in memory, not in CPUs, so it doesn't really shake the price a lot to go with Itanium if compared to a quad-opteron. The quad Itanium option is buyable alright.

Surely enough, though, I'd be reluctant to recommend it if Intel didn't include in montecito's chipset - bayshore - a way to better utilize system resources. I think this will be the case too, because Intel has repeatedly stated that Montecito will have upwards of 3x the bandwidth that current systems have. This is indicative of a point-to-point bus... And that means a lot for Itanium.

This 4-CPU, 64GB (could still be 32GB, the jury's not out on that) will not be used by a single person; it will be used by the whole institute. The institute is currently staffed by around 100 professors, nearly all of which do research, and most of those could put heavy floating-point math to good use. These guys rely heavily on floating-point and very heavy and extensive calculations...

The institute has recently asked for some of the state's money (it's a state university) in order to completely revamp the computational capabilities. I think that currently, the best systems we have are two quad-processor alpha servers with 4GB memory each (they've lasted a long time and are great), one cluster of 4 dual Athlon MPs 2000 (with the horrendous 760 chipset - not a good purchase, even more so considering it was done like late last year), and one cluster of 4 dual-processor 2.4Ghz Xeons with 533Mhz FSB and 3GB memory each.

Currently, we're considering a cluster of 64 dual-processor Opteron-based nodes (128 CPUs total) and one bigger quad-processor machine. Not a lot has been decided, because the money will probably only be available some 6 months from now - and after that time, the CPU landscape might have changed... (at least I hope so!)
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Mephistopheles on 09/14/04 09:37 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[raretech]

There ya go. That's exactly the future of Itanium right there.

I'm working on my BS Physics degree right now. I didn't go to college when I was younger, so I'm getting a late start now. How's your linear algebra and do you do work in quantum mechanics at all?

<i>Forget AMD and Intel, those are for fanboy lusers. The C3 is where it's at. Via Rulez!</i>

 

[Mephistopheles]

Linear algebra is one very pretty topic. However it's one of those things that is only beautiful if you don't actually have to study it through to hardly. I.e. knowing it is great, learning it is a pain the ass. (strange to say something like that, isn't it?)

Quantum mechanics is great, though. I've been studying it (cohen's quantum mechanics textbook, both volumes) for quite a while now; it's quite interesting.

Currently, I'm looking for something to do a master's degree in next year... I'm quite interested in quantum physics at basic levels, but I also like to deal with computers. Programming is also a hobby of mine.