Sunday, August 12th 2007

Barcelona issues

With the passable launch date of September 10 there seems two be a couple of problems with the chip and compatibility. It seems that the Dual Dynamic Power Management will not work without a BIOS update, and with a supported motherboard. This is something to be expected from knowing that some features will not be supported on former socket types.

"It seems the CPU itself is capable of engaging in CoolCore operations, but not Dual Dynamic Power Management (formerly "Split Plane," which allowed each core to operate independently with different voltages and clock speeds). It won't be able to handle these power saving and performance enhancing aspects of operations from the core alone. The motherboard must be brought into the mix in an active way to help reduce power consumption and save energy when the many cores are not in high use."

The other issue while not truly being an issue is the 128-bit floating point. There simply isn't any software on the market to take advantage of it. Hearing something like this isn't new to the PC market at all. The 64Bit CPUs are just now starting to see the light after a few years of their release, and Dual core CPUs are also just now starting to be implemented into applications. It's safe to say that the 128-bit floating point technology may take some time before developers start using it.
Source: HotHardware
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7 Comments on Barcelona issues

#1
a111087
oh well... not big prob for me
Posted on Reply
#2
Wile E
Power User
I expected as much. I don't care about the power saving issues personally, but having 128bit FP supported would be nice.
Posted on Reply
#3
mandelore
well.. these are not really issues imo. we all know with a proper am3 board these things will probs be supported, and we all know about the loss of specific abilities when utilising the backwards compatability
Posted on Reply
#4
Jess Stingray
Whoa, when did September 10 become launch date? I did'nt know that... oh well, upgrade sooner then :)
Posted on Reply
#5
kwchang007
Not really any problems here. Better FP than programs can handle is good, and meh split planes in a quad core......nice feature, but I can do without.
Posted on Reply
#6
a111087
Ben ClarkeWhoa, when did September 10 become launch date? I did'nt know that... oh well, upgrade sooner then :)
It was on Vr-zone a cope of days ago
btw, they should call it Phenom 128 :D
Posted on Reply
#7
largon
Dual Dynamic Power Management (formerly “Split Plane,” which allowed each core to operate independently with different voltages and clock speeds (...)
That's plain BS. :rolleyes:
There's only 2 "power planes"; one for the NB, another for the 4 four cores. Execution cores on a K10 can be driven with different multipliers but not voltages. The cores are always driven with the exact same vCore.
The other issue while not truly being an issue is the 128-bit floating point. There simply isn't any software on the market to take advantage of it. Hearing something like this isn't new to the PC market at all. The 64Bit CPUs are just now starting to see the light after a few years of their release, and Dual core CPUs are also just now starting to be implemented into applications. It's safe to say that the 128-bit floating point technology may take some time before developers start using it.
Whoa! This piece of news just continues to amaze!
128bit FPU has nothing to do with the proverbial 64bit CPUs. Almost all SSE2 instructions are 128bit wide... Hothardware should consider leaving IT news to someone who has a clue about these things.
:rolleyes: :shadedshu
Ben ClarkeWhoa, when did September 10 become launch date? I did'nt know that... oh well, upgrade sooner then :)
That's Barcelona launch. Phenom is still far, far away.
Posted on Reply
Apr 25th, 2024 22:22 EDT change timezone

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