Computex 2007: AMD's Barcelona and Other Products
by Gary Key on June 11, 2007 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
SeaSonic
SeaSonic had several power supplies at the show but focused our attention on their new X900 that features true 900W output, comes with four dedicated PCI-E connectors with two 8-pin adapters, and claims an efficiency rating up to 88%.
Arctic
Arctic Cooling introduced their new X-treme lineup of cooling products with the 8-heatpipe design being the one designed for overclocking. The unit features a 226 fin twin tower design, a 120mm fan, patented fan holder to eliminate humming, push-pin install design (yeah, we know...), and a six year warranty. The unit should be available shortly with an estimated street price around $50~$60.
Thermalright
Thermalright had samples for their upcoming IFX-14 twin tower heatsink that is expected to improve upon the already class leading Ultra-120 eXtreme unit. However, the hit of the show was the much needed water cooling unit designs on display for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 game consoles.
CoolIT Systems
CoolIT Systems showcased their new Liquid Cooling system for the AMD R600 reference design video cards that was jointly designed with AMD. The system is self contained; the main cooling system fits in a dual 5.25" drive bay and allowed an easy overclock to 950/983 in our RD600 CrossFire demonstration run. The cooling plates fit any standard reference design R600 card and will support the upcoming 1GB GDDR4 equipped XT cards. Estimated street price will be around $299 with availability next month.
More to Come?
Like many, we always want more, and in this case we want more information about how Barcelona will truly perform. Oh, we got some initial benchmarks, but performance is so clearly off at this point that it's not worth showing results. We do intend to get updated performance results once the BIOS/motherboards are up to speed, but for now we have to wait. We'll be working on a few final updates from the show on our return flight, but for now we leave you with this parting shot of a really cool (Ed: sorry!) booth, perhaps even with a booth babe just visible if you look close enough....
SeaSonic had several power supplies at the show but focused our attention on their new X900 that features true 900W output, comes with four dedicated PCI-E connectors with two 8-pin adapters, and claims an efficiency rating up to 88%.
Arctic
Arctic Cooling introduced their new X-treme lineup of cooling products with the 8-heatpipe design being the one designed for overclocking. The unit features a 226 fin twin tower design, a 120mm fan, patented fan holder to eliminate humming, push-pin install design (yeah, we know...), and a six year warranty. The unit should be available shortly with an estimated street price around $50~$60.
Thermalright
Thermalright had samples for their upcoming IFX-14 twin tower heatsink that is expected to improve upon the already class leading Ultra-120 eXtreme unit. However, the hit of the show was the much needed water cooling unit designs on display for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 game consoles.
CoolIT Systems
CoolIT Systems showcased their new Liquid Cooling system for the AMD R600 reference design video cards that was jointly designed with AMD. The system is self contained; the main cooling system fits in a dual 5.25" drive bay and allowed an easy overclock to 950/983 in our RD600 CrossFire demonstration run. The cooling plates fit any standard reference design R600 card and will support the upcoming 1GB GDDR4 equipped XT cards. Estimated street price will be around $299 with availability next month.
More to Come?
Like many, we always want more, and in this case we want more information about how Barcelona will truly perform. Oh, we got some initial benchmarks, but performance is so clearly off at this point that it's not worth showing results. We do intend to get updated performance results once the BIOS/motherboards are up to speed, but for now we have to wait. We'll be working on a few final updates from the show on our return flight, but for now we leave you with this parting shot of a really cool (Ed: sorry!) booth, perhaps even with a booth babe just visible if you look close enough....
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MrEMan - Monday, June 11, 2007 - link
So, can someone explain to me what exactly AMD has gotten from its (paid) collaboration with IBM?It seems that once again IBM is unable to deliver on converting from lab design to actual production implementation.
defter - Monday, June 11, 2007 - link
I recall that AMD has licensed some process technology from IBM (including SOI).
??? Barcelona is AMD's design, it has nothing to do with IBM.
MrEMan - Monday, June 11, 2007 - link
Yes, Barcelona is strictly AMD's design, but are the problems being encountered due to the design, or the manufacturing of the new processors?It seems to me that it is more a manufacturing problem, because the current Athlons and Opterons haven't had any great performance enhancements/clock speed increases over the last few years.
TA152H - Monday, June 11, 2007 - link
Neither have Intel products. The fastest product they released was 3.8 GHz, and that was two or three years ago?Neosis - Tuesday, June 12, 2007 - link
Are you comparing a netburst based CPU with these ones?Do you have any idea about Integer Pipelines and Cache Latency?
defter - Monday, June 11, 2007 - link
Sub 2GHz speeds and motherboard issues cannot have anything to do with manufacturing issues.Even though 65nm K8s have very low clockspeeds, they are capable of reaching 2.6GHz@65W TDP (2 cores), thus hypothetical K8 based quad core would reach at least 2.6GHz@130W TDP. Since Barcelonas clockspeed is currently limited to 1.6-1.8GHz there must be significant issues with the design itself.
archcommus - Monday, June 11, 2007 - link
Let's face it, AMD has no hopes until at least early-mid next year, and that's assuming things DO improve significantly. Maybe they can keep themselves afloat with mediocre video, notebook, and low-power chip sales until then. Who knows what they've been doing there for the past four years since the original A64 launch. I know they had a cancelled project, but that still doesn't explain this kind of delay/lack of progress over that much time.But in the end, you can't win them all. AMD was king a couple years back, and now they're losing. They won't go out of business, and maybe they'll be a completely different company with their first 45 nm/next gen products.
In the meantime, I guess I'm betting on a cheap C2Q upgrade sometime in the next year.
nicolasb - Monday, June 11, 2007 - link
There are number of references to "RD600" in this article that should probably read "R600".Gary Key - Monday, June 11, 2007 - link
Sorry about that, corrected, it was a long flight home yesterday. ;-)clairvoyant129 - Monday, June 11, 2007 - link
Not surprising, scaling is terrible... by the time AMD rolls out 2.6GHz, forget Penryn, Intel will have Nehalem out.