T-Bred Die Size

[Phelk]

Doing some quick calculations...

Take the palomino core and shrink it from 180nm to 130nm would make the die 52% in size. However the T-Bred die is actually 62.5% which makes room for 20% more of 'something'.

Seeing the Athlon core is quite mature (since the 'C' and Palomino enhancements) then one could well assume that the 'something' is additonal cache!

<font color=blue> Smoke me a Chip'er ... I'll be back in the Morgan </font color=blue>

 

[mr_gobbledegook]

I do believe Throughbred will bring AMD back on top of Intel making you think twice about Northwood.

I think AMD have deliberately stalled the launch of Throughbred until April-May 2002, because they are still tweaking parts of the processor to make sure it remains competitive with the Intels Northwood. However I think we <b>will</b> see an increased cache and slightly more refined design.

You can find a picture of an engineering sample of Throughbred <A HREF="http://www.tech-report.com/etc/2001q4/comdex/index.x?pg=1" target="_new"><b><font color=red>here</font color=red></b></A>

Notice how the Throughbred core is <i>rectangular</i> instead of square like the Athlon C and Palamino ? I believe this might be due to more cache or improved design. My only concern is that the picture clearly shows the throughbred does not have a heat spreader. I only hope AMD include one when they finally release it.

I think the 166FSB will be delayed 2 or 3 months due to lack of DDR333 Memory so we wont see Athlon XPs offically supporting 166FSB till June-July time.


<font color=purple>~* K6-2 @ 333MHz *~
I don't need a 'Gigahertz' chip to surf the web just yet ;-)</font color=purple>

 

[mr_gobbledegook]

Bumping up this post incase people missed it.

<font color=purple>~* K6-2 @ 333MHz *~
I don't need a 'Gigahertz' chip to surf the web just yet ;-)</font color=purple>

 

[somerandomguy]

You'll also notice that the Thoroughbred doesn't have those pads that help prevent a crushed core (you can see the 4 dark pads on the Palomino core in the second picture).
So have AMD taken a step backwards? More likely they will either put those pads back on, or give it a heat spreader.

"Ignorance is bliss, but I tend to get screwed over."