AMD's Phil Hester has recently criticized what he calls the "core for cores sake" approach to churning out microprocessors. In light of those comments comes an interesting rumor about a new triple-core desktop microprocessor that AMD could be releasing as early as January.
According to the Inquirer, the so-called Phenom X3 -- which would have three processing engines as opposed to the quad-core Phenom FX series -- could give the company some much-needed leverage against Intel, at least from a marketing perspective. While it's a relatively easy matter to disable one core, Intel wouldn't be able to effectively produce a tri-core processor at this point because of the way the company currently approaches quad-core -- slapping two dual-core dies into a single-socket CPU. AMD, on the other hand, can do tri-core due to its Direct Connect architecture, which provides a dedicated channel between the CPU cores and from each CPU out to the system memory.
While it's still unclear whether the rumored tri-core chips will simply be based quad-core chip with one core disabled, it's largely believed that the processors will at least tout the same architectural selling-points as their quad-core relatives like the shared L3 cache and HyperTransport technology.
That said, a triple-core chip wouldn't necessarily be a homerun for AMD. Other than to point out that its competitor doesn't have one, it's not immediately clear how AMD would market such a chip as it would theoretically compete with both dual-core and quad-core Intel processors, as well as AMD's forthcoming quad-core Phenom and its existing Athlon X2 chips.
Source
According to the Inquirer, the so-called Phenom X3 -- which would have three processing engines as opposed to the quad-core Phenom FX series -- could give the company some much-needed leverage against Intel, at least from a marketing perspective. While it's a relatively easy matter to disable one core, Intel wouldn't be able to effectively produce a tri-core processor at this point because of the way the company currently approaches quad-core -- slapping two dual-core dies into a single-socket CPU. AMD, on the other hand, can do tri-core due to its Direct Connect architecture, which provides a dedicated channel between the CPU cores and from each CPU out to the system memory.
While it's still unclear whether the rumored tri-core chips will simply be based quad-core chip with one core disabled, it's largely believed that the processors will at least tout the same architectural selling-points as their quad-core relatives like the shared L3 cache and HyperTransport technology.
That said, a triple-core chip wouldn't necessarily be a homerun for AMD. Other than to point out that its competitor doesn't have one, it's not immediately clear how AMD would market such a chip as it would theoretically compete with both dual-core and quad-core Intel processors, as well as AMD's forthcoming quad-core Phenom and its existing Athlon X2 chips.
Source
