AMD has taken an alternate road when it comes to CPU design and implementation, and that road has led them down the trail of non-CPU speed nomenclature (AMD Chips are named by model number not actual CPU speed) and the frontier market of 64-Bit computing. Intel has also now changed their nomenclature as well, joining AMD in model number designation over CPU speed identifiers. It is not very often that you see Intel bend to new ways, as usually they lead the pack when it comes to dictating market practices. It seems times they are a changing as not only has Intel bent they have also let AMD win the high-end CPU race as they set their sights in a different direction. AMD is no longer the underdog folks, they now hold both the low and high end CPU market as far as performance values are concerned, and even though Intel may still make the most sales, AMD now holds the speed crown. Intel's focus has now been aimed at Prescott LGA775 chips, featuring new CPU packaging and model number identifiers. They do this in a turnaround move, shifting their sights to other aspects of processor technology instead of solely concentrating on having the fastest CPU.
Problems associated with heat will have an impact on how CPUs will be designed in the future, and instead of the sole focus being raw CPU speed, we will see CPUs being designed with dual internal cores and more advanced instruction codes. Dual core CPUs will be able to handle many more tasks and more efficiently run your system, especially in the multitasking environment. Adding more cache to the CPU in lieu of increasing the clock speed will be the road AMD will take if they get better yields by increasing the dies size and adding the increased cache effectively. Although the move to the 90nm is not being fully embraced at the moment by AMD, that has not held them back in their efforts to have the fastest CPU in the high-end market and the FX-55 still uses the 130nm strained silicon on insulator process to hit the 2.6GHz mark. AMD like everyone else has had problems with their efforts to move to the 90nm process as power density issues plague the new design and will have to be rethought and implemented in a different manner in order to resolve the problems efficiently. So far only lower speed CPUs have been released by AMD in the 90nm process with the fastest topping out at the 3500+.
The release of the new 4000+ was kind of a strange thing for AMD, as in reality it turns out to be a renamed FX-53, which is a 2.4GHz CPU with a 1MB cache. Strange, why not just keep the FX-53 on the market instead of the renaming and release of the 4000+? Probably since Intel cancelled its plans on the release of a 4.0GHz CPU AMD just decided to use a little flash in the pan to make it seem like they had a market ready CPU solution that broke the 3GHz barrier. Oh well, I guess it really doesn't matter much to the consumer, but it is a bit odd in the least and a hollow victory in the real sense. The release of these CPUs coincides with the release of NVIDIA's NF4 chipset that promises to breathe new life into the AMD platform. The FX-55 at least offers something new and different in their CPU lineup and is not just a renamed chip. The Socket 939 platform has panned out well for AMD and as more manufacturing partners jump onboard this can only get better for them. I was very pleased with the quality of ideas that went behind the nForce4 features and these are things that will help gain them an even more solid foundation on which to build their platform. In my humble opinion Intel has always been able to handle the multitasking environment better than AMD, but for the gamer it looks AMD may be cleaning house on the boys in blue.
Read about the nForce4 chipset here.
