Friday, January 20th 2012
AMD Vishera Packs Quad-Channel DDR3 IMC, G34 En Route Desktop?
AMD might be a little sore that its "Zambezi" FX processor family based on its much-hyped "Bulldozer" architecture didn't quite meet the performance expectations of a ground-up new CPU architecture, but it doesn't want to take chances and build hype around the architecture that succeeds it. From various sources, some faintly-reliable, we have been hearing that the next-generation of high-performance desktop processors based on "Piledriver" architecture, codenamed "Vishera", will pack five modules or 10 cores, and will be structured essentially like Zambezi, since Piledriver is basically a refinement of Bulldozer architecture. The latest leak comes from the Software Optimization Guide for AMD 15h family (read here), which was picked up by CPU World while most of us were busy with CES.
CPU World compiled most of the features of what it suspected to be AMD referring to its future processors based on the Piledriver architecture, that's "Vishera" (desktop high-performance), "Terramar" (high-density server), and "Sepang" (small-medium business server) parts. The three are not the first chips to be based on Piledriver, AMD has a new mainstream desktop and notebook APU in the works codenamed "Trinity", which is en route for a little later this year. Trinity basically has an identical CPUID instruction-set as Vishera, Terramar, and Sepang, confirming their common lineage compared to today's "Bulldozer" architecture. The most catchy detail is of Vishera featuring 4 DDR3 channels.
The plot thickens where "HyperTransport Assist feature" is listed as being supported on Vishera. HT Assist is a feature found on AMD's enterprise socket G34 processors, which facilitates better inter-die communication between the two dies of a typical socket G34 Opteron processor. The G34 (LGA1972) package is a multi-chip module of two quad-core, six-core, or four-module dies, which combined have four DDR3 memory channels, and a number of HyperTransport links to communicate with neighbouring sockets and the system's chipset. Could this be the first indication that AMD wants to take on Intel LGA2011 HEDT (high-end desktop) using Vishera chips in the G34 package? It will be a while before we find out.
Apart from using common silicon between client and enterprise platforms, AMD does have a history of colliding the two.
Source:
CPU World
CPU World compiled most of the features of what it suspected to be AMD referring to its future processors based on the Piledriver architecture, that's "Vishera" (desktop high-performance), "Terramar" (high-density server), and "Sepang" (small-medium business server) parts. The three are not the first chips to be based on Piledriver, AMD has a new mainstream desktop and notebook APU in the works codenamed "Trinity", which is en route for a little later this year. Trinity basically has an identical CPUID instruction-set as Vishera, Terramar, and Sepang, confirming their common lineage compared to today's "Bulldozer" architecture. The most catchy detail is of Vishera featuring 4 DDR3 channels.
Apart from using common silicon between client and enterprise platforms, AMD does have a history of colliding the two.
229 Comments on AMD Vishera Packs Quad-Channel DDR3 IMC, G34 En Route Desktop?
Like I said before, gaming benchmarks all depend on your setup. And I fully agree, Bulldozer was not what we all expected, but it still does fine for everyday gaming. And for me personally it was a performance boost to go with a new AMD FX-8120 platform vs. my late PII x4 940 platform. The price was right and that was important for me. There was no way I would go back to Phenom II and I was itching for a upgrade.
www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews/1285/pg10/amd-fx-8150-black-edition-8-core-processor-vs-core-i7-2600k-review-deus-ex-human-revolution.html
Here are some links about it, but most of what I know about IOMMU/AMD-Vi came from Googling and getting back mostly links to Wikipedia, tech news sites, AMD docs(though AMD doesn't release as many docs as Intel does), and forum discussions. (Also, motherboard BIOS manuals are available.)
(I don't know if I read these particular documents back when I looked it up.)
- AMD Virtualization Technology (AMD.com)
- Wikipedia - x86 Virtualization (Wikipedia.org) - Section I/O MMU virtualization (AMD-Vi and VT-d)
- Optimal Virtualization with AMD Opteron™ 6000 Series Platform (AMD.com) - Some PDF that mentions AMD-Vi, search for it.)
Intel's counterpart is called VT-d. Intel makes this feature unavailable on most consumer CPUs/Motherboards(depending on where the northbridge is located). To contrast with AMD, all AM3(+) Athlon II, Phenom II, and FX CPUs support AMD-Vi when paired with an 890FX/990X/990FX board that supports it in BIOS (You can download+read the mobo bios manuals, and search the web for actual user experience).(Opterons/Xeons (as well as most server boards) also support these features, however, these are less relevant to this discussion.)
Why would AMD want to change it's socket? How would say Socket FM2 benefit over Socket AM3+? especially when AM3+ is serving it's purpose quite well.
Llano (Hudson 75 Chipset) Supports 1866 so that means that chipset is a lil stronger than AM3 for ram support.
Looking at the anandtech screenshot it looks like it might be an error as they have posted the results twice with the same resolution.
For all we know in W1zzards review Sandybridge might have been held back slightly due to lack of a proper driver.Maybe.
My feeling is with Anantech's review they used a Gulftown 6-core 990x with 12 threads. Maybe the software (Civilizations) wasnt coded to handle it, so the results were poor? But it is a strange result, personally I think its a glitch and the test should of been redone.
In response to your edit... neither of that relates to the Bulldozers performance though, there is no way it should have reached 95 fps average so yes, its definitely an error in their benchmarks, hopefully not deliberately lol. Civilization is a very cpu demanding game but it seems having more cores does not help much, I saw in another review the i3 2120 having very similar fps to the i5 2500k however overclocking the cpu gives a large increase in fps.
Bulldozer is a great gaming CPU, may not be the best but it still stands firmly with the rest. I have high hopes for this Quad-Channel Piledriver CPU.
:banghead: Seriously google is not that hard to use...
SUPERMICRO MBD-H8SGL-F-O ATX Server Motherboard So...
G34 actually has quite a bit of headroom...almost a shame they didn't go that route...
I have some ES chips that if they were only octos could probably be clocked much higher than the 3ghz they are now... (magnycours)...No....just no... lol
Server != Desktop
Server has 8 and 16 cores now and will have 10 and 20 cores then...
Server Already has quad channel... and I think desktop could use it...
There are 2 server sockets....
C32 which is a 2p almost copy of desktop with dual channel ram...
It has 4 and 8 cores now....
G34 is 2 of the c32 dies on one package hence 8 and 16...
From the looks of it there will be 2 new server sockets next round.
Which means AM3+ may or may not get 10 cores...
Its time for an LGA desktop socket with quad channel ram...
I honestly think they should combine C32s replacement with desktop for next gen.Because its old and doesnt have enough bandwidth....
Fm2 is different vastly and is meant for APUs ... a cheaper socket.
C2012 -> Quad-channel vs C32 -> Dual-Channel
FM2 -> Dual-channel vs No Change
Vishera AM3+
Komodo/Trinity FM2
Sepang C2012
Terramar G2012
G34 is 2 dies of C32 2x dual channel = quad
G2012 being 2 dies of C2012
Hmmm... looks like Vishera gets stuck with dual channel
Vishera gets Quad-Channel, which is one of the reasons for this thread. :D
G34 is EOL once G2012 comes
per first column IL has 4 channels not 2
per third column Terramar has 8 channels not 4
I don't think is accurate in the least...
I can easily see Quad-Channel memory for Piledriver Desktop CPU's. Bulldozer was suppose to be Quad, but AMD made last minute changes.
In order for AMD to further better compete, Piledriver may be fully based on there server CPU's but with AM3+ and/or FM2.