Industry Update - Q2-2005: Chipset wars, AMD's growing market share and more...
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 13, 2005 4:34 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
Rumor: AMD's Low Cost K8 with Integrated Graphics in 2008?
Apparently, AMD has been talking about doing a very integrated, very low cost K8 derivative for 2008. The CPU would feature an on-die memory controller like the current Athlon 64. However, it would also feature an on-die graphics core and I/O controller - effectively, removing the need for any chipset on the motherboard.If you'll remember a few years back, Intel had a similar chip planned, code-named Timna. Timna was supposed to integrate a graphics core and memory controller onto a single chip to drive total system costs down considerably, but Intel pulled the plug on the project at the last minute and shifted resources to what eventually became Centrino.
AMD is definitely in a good position to piece together such a highly integrated CPU, given that they have already integrated the memory controller on-die with much success. We do wonder where the graphics core would come from, as AMD would either have to design one from scratch or license the technology from another company. Given that this type of a CPU would be targeted at very low cost markets, it would almost have to be an in-house job. Granted, this is a very early rumor that may not pan out at all, so take all of this with a grain of salt.
In the more near-term future, AMD will be transitioning to an on-die DDR2 memory controller by the middle of next year with their new M2 Socket and Socket-F (for desktops and servers respectively). The initial design guides for boards based on these new sockets have been given to motherboard manufacturers, but the first samples won't be ready until the end of this year.
Finally, the last piece about AMD here involves Turion. Either AMD isn't very serious about Turion right now, or manufacturers aren't too impressed with it because we hardly heard any mention of the new mobile CPU at Computex from any of the notebook vendors. Many product roadmaps going through to the end of this year were completely devoid of any mention of a Turion based notebook.
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snedzad - Monday, June 13, 2005 - link
Not quite, #23. Pro edition of K8T800 chipset supports 939 sck., and non pro doesn't (intended for sck 754).Here is the evidence:
http://www.asustek.de/products/mb/mbindex.htm
Ciao
patrick0 - Monday, June 13, 2005 - link
I don't care about on-die Graphics, prefer if they just add some PCIe lanes on-die (at least 17).I/O controller on-die is a great idea.
overclockingoodness - Monday, June 13, 2005 - link
#15: I think you are wrong. The K8T800 Pro is for K8 Socket 754, so it won't support DC.Windaria - Monday, June 13, 2005 - link
You know... I still can not understand why anyone would really like the BTX format. From everything I have read, it seems as if it is specifically designed for air to be blown in the back and out the front.The problem is that, while that sounds great, it appears to compeletely fail to take into consideration the environment that a PC is in. Every time I have ever had fans on a computer suck in the back and blow out the front... they get clogged with dust in no time because the rear of the computer tends to attract more dust. As a result I always have to switch them around.
nserra - Monday, June 13, 2005 - link
Uli is profitable because they have very cheap to manufacture single chip designs, and they do a lot of chipsets for USB2 external HD, …..I am waiting for Uli come out with their SLI chipset with REAL AGP that can be a good buy, even without the SLI. I didn’t buy right now one of the 3 ASROCK ULi based boards just because of that.
I think that Uli, sis, via aren’t bad, the problem is the “effort” that mobo makers have with them. If they could do the same they do with intel chipsets…. I won’t even talk about the quality of components they use on those chipset companies…..
Nayr - Monday, June 13, 2005 - link
Actually #15, the K8T800Pro will support Dual-Core CPU's. VIA is only having a problem with the K8T890 Chipset and DC CPU's. It was on the front page a while ago.All in all, a good read and an interesting view on what's to come down the pipe line.
coldpower27 - Monday, June 13, 2005 - link
You can probably take this article regarding the marketshare figures for AMD chipsets with a grain of salt, with the anonymity of these figures.Yes AMD was/is, a leader of the US retail desktop sales, however current retail US desktop marketshare figures for H1 2005 are not unknown.
If they asked, motherboard manufacturer's primarily interested in retail sales, than these figures would be inline with the gains in the US retail desktop market.
Though the OEM would be a different story, Dell would probably get most of it's mobos from Intel itself.
Sunbird - Monday, June 13, 2005 - link
mmm, new movie,Chipset Wars, set on a island far far away...
Uli: "Sis and Via, I'm am profitable, come over, and we could rule the motherboards together!"
ceefka - Monday, June 13, 2005 - link
The shift with Taiwan mobomnfs is of course very nice for AMD, but doesn't Intel also make its own motherboards? And lots of them while we speak? How does that add in the total of motherboard making/selling?Anyway, you cannot expect the whole industry to go to sleep when so much speaks in favour of the Opteron and A64 especially since they are both coming in dual core also. AMD's growth is well deserverd.
The Sempron going 64-bit was expected and needed. This will give room for:
1. Hardware developpers to come up with the missing 64-bit drivers.
2. Software devoloppers to release some more 64-bit applications.
3. MS to eventually drop 32-bit support in favour of a full 64-bit (only) version.
The less manufacturers hanging on to 32-bit apps the faster the transition to 64-bit.
#9 Nice one. That Windsor core looks promising.
xsilver - Monday, June 13, 2005 - link
#15oh my bad -- yea I meant the s939 k8t800pro -- names are too damn similar :)
I have the abit av8
hope it supports dual core