Maybe Barton is a hammer in disguise

[Deviant]

It seems to me that when AMD is so busy with Hammer that they can not do any thing else (as stated in many articles) and are putting all their effort int Hammer that Barton will come out with huge optimisations, enough to give it an extra 600+ on it's PR rating.

Maybe Barton is a Hammer without the on die memory controller, that means less pins, and it could fit onto existing motherboards.

This would be a good way to test it would it not? Why would AMD put so much effort into Barton if it is not going to be the mainstream CPU for long. It will almost be outdated when it comes out, unless it is of course a Hammer in disguise.

This is just some thoughts of mine, but what do you guys think?


Seems strange that so much can be done to an athlon that has been out for so long.

[_N_]

i heard somewhere that it's gonna be 64bit, is that true, I'm kindda lost at the Barton topic.

[Deviant]

Very interesting news about this, supporting the idea that I may be right. At least we know for sure that the Barton has some Hammer optimisations.


http://www.the-inquirer.com/?article=4492

[Grrr!!]

Seeing as though Deviant was quoted in that article, I'm not sure if I want to trust it!

It is an interesting idea though. I actually thought the Barton was to become the new Duron, while the Hammer would be the high end line.

[_N_]

looks like it will have the following:

512k L2 cache
SSE2
built on 0.13 micron

the 2800+ model will run at 1800MHz
the 3100+ model will run at 2000MHz

Socket A,

might be the low end hammer chip in a way?
cause some say it will have SOI and 64bit support, but if you think about it, I can't really see AMD doing something like that.

[I.R]

hehe this was mentioned over at the inquirer.... wouldn't 32bit and 64bit architectures be completely different...... I would have thought that the more complex the chip (64 bit) would have been much harder to scale...... current athlons are already running @ 1800Mhz so I think that may be AMD are holding this as the duron card..... AMD get a speedy budget processor with "little" work and can then spend their reasources on the HAMMERS.... only time will tell :p

[_N_]

if the athlon is gonna replace the duron, i don't care as long as it's cheap, and if they stick 512k L2 cache, i will be very very happy.

[Volodkovich]

Originally posted by Grrr!!
Seeing as though Deviant was quoted in that article, I'm not sure if I want to trust it!

It is an interesting idea though. I actually thought the Barton was to become the new Duron, while the Hammer would be the high end line.


Heh...maybe thats why theres a 995 hit count on this thread, yet under 10 posts? :)

[Grrr!!]

995! That is a lot. So who is the Inquirer Informant?

[Volodkovich]

Originally posted by Grrr!!
995! That is a lot. So who is the Inquirer Informant?

not really...u obviously werent here when Volenti's bong was linked off the front page of [H]ardocp....he had 40,000 hits :)

[Grrr!!]

No, I wasn't around back then. I'm only a newbie ;).

[Gh0s7 L3mUr]

Originally posted by Volodkovich


not really...u obviously werent here when Volenti's bong was linked off the front page of [H]ardocp....he had 40,000 hits :)

Lol

That thread will go down in OCNZ history. :D

[Geek4Life]

Originally posted by Volodkovich


not really...u obviously werent here when Volenti's bong was linked off the front page of [H]ardocp....he had 40,000 hits :)
Would be good to have that thread posted again. Or atleast a couple of the photos. :)

*looks at KJ*

[Grrr!!]

It'll be here (http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://overclockers.co.nz) somewhere.

[Stallion]

Looking at the AMD roadmap (which no one seems to have referenced) the Barton core will be an extension to the standard thoroughbred core (.13micron) with 512k L2 cache... The clawhammer initially will be .13micron moving (planned) to .09 in the 2nd half of next year... All the hammers will be x86-64 and all of the Dur/Athl-ons will be x86-32 (or IA32 if you prefer intels way)

[_N_]

i fully agree,

but, in every overclockers eyes, there is the little glitter of hope, just hoping, that maybe, it might be 64 bit.

remeber, dreams are free,

:D

Also of interest, AMD has tweaked Barton, the rapid-fire successor to Thoroughbred. Instead of using AMD's slightly pricier SOI (Silicon-on-Insulator) technology now debuting with Hammer, Barton will be produced with the same 0.13 copper Thoroughbred-style process. However, Barton's L2 cache doubles its predecessor's from 256kB to 512kB, which should bring significant performance improvements to programs utilizing larger datasets. AMD also hinted at possible tweaks to boost Barton's clock speed beyond Thoroughbred's.

and another quote,

Barton's boost comes from 256 Kbytes of extra level-2 cache, de Frere said. At the same time, AMD has decided not to add silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology to the part, which would have added more performance through the ability to scale to higher speed grades.

We looked at SOI adding more performance, and cache adding more performance, and decided that adding cache added the most performance," de Frere said. He said that AMD has only committed to the Duron brand name through the second half of this year. Meanwhile, the SOI technology will be first introduced in the 64-bit Clawhammer chip, still due at the end of 2002.