May 31 2003:

.: Continuing on from last months Coaster Ride, no sooner had the smoke cleared from last months hysteria, we were again thrown headlong into the latest round of tech releases and melodrama.

AMD have continued on with their fine tradition of paper launches by releasing the Barton 3200+ with 400FSB, Intel released their i865 Desktop chipset as well as the rest of the Northwood- C CPU line ( and actually had product available way before the official release date ), and Apple again remained in slumber , Tech wise, (despite some rather desperate wishful thinking from some rumor sites ), but did manage to get their Online Music Site running to the 2.5 % of the Planet who can actually use the service ! ? :-(

O.K , Lets Dig In..

I'll start with Cheapzilla this month.

Still riding high from their helium filled Opteron launch, AMD tried a little " focus shifting" to mask the continuing delays surrounding their AMD64 line by Paper Launching the new 400FSB spec'd Athlon XP 3200 +. The CPU itself is clocked at 2.2 Ghz, which is only a measly 40 Mhz more than the 3000+, but with the increased FSB, AMD are claiming that the 200 Mhz jump in branding is justified. Unfortunately the Benchmarks don't really support the claim, and it only emphasizes just how ridiculous AMD's PR ( performance rating )has become. While the added memory bandwidth offers up some improvements in a number of tests, most benchmarks indicated that the 3200+ only offers incremental improvements over the 3000+. AMD no doubt are desperate to get a few wins on the board, and by continuing to try and hoodwink the Green Guide Set by beating Intel to the imaginary 3.2 Ghz, they are hoping that the waters can be muddied enough that no one actually notices that all they are really offering up is little more than smoke and mirrors. Pathetic !!

All is not rosey on the Lateron (Opteron) front either.
seems all of the hot air from last month has done little to help the product actually appear anywhere except on paper. The total lack of available motherboards from either AMD or the 3rd Party manufacturers has left AMD with an added headache they really couldn't afford.
Of course the AMD Zealots have suggested that the Evil Chipzilla has strong armed the Taiwanese Motherboard manufacturers to delay the release of their products to sabotage the AMD offering getting any headway in the lucrative Enterprise Market. The reality is actually more to do with AMD not getting their shite together and actually supplying the 3rd parties with the appropriate chipsets to actually get the boards to market. Ah, but when has the truth ever got in the way of a good conspiracy theory.. ;-) And with that in mind ,there are already rumors that the Athlon 64 might be pushed back to next year. There may be an even more startling conclusion. There are indicators appearing that suggest the Athlon 64 isn't just going to be pushed into next year, but that it could be pushed altogether. You can read more Here

There have also been questions raised on the Opterons ability to scale, The Opteron launched at a far lower frequency than AMD were hoping. The original plan was to "pre-release" ( * As apposed to paper launch ??) chips on the market early this year at 1.4 and 1.6 GHz, and release the chips at 1.6, 1.8 and 2.0 GHz as the x42, x44 and x46 respectively. This plan was scuttled as unexpectedly low yields on the higher speed parts forced a 1.4 GHz to market. What is less clear is where the problem lies. The scaling problems with the Palomino and Thoroughbred chips were due to design, not process/production issues, and the Opterons look to be suffering the same fate. Doh !!!

The Athlon 64 is said to have the same problems as the Opterons, and is currently set to debut at 2.0 GHz with a 3400+ PR rating. Whatever the debut speed is, it will hopefully be competitive with the highest speed Pentium 4 available at that time. If AMD cannot scale the chip like they have listed on the roadmaps, they will quickly be left in the dust by Intel's Prescott chip.

Ah, Fun ahead for the Cheapzilla Boys.. Next..

With AMD's tale of woe you would think Chipzilla would take a breath and slow down a little.. No Way !

On May 21 Intel continued the onslaught by officially releasing the i865 Desktop chipset and the remaining Northwood -C HT CPU's clocking in at 2.4, 2.6, and 2.8, as promised and on time. The amazing thing is that compared to AMD's total lack of ability to actually deliver product, the Intel CPU's were available weeks before the official launch, and i865 motherboards were available on the day of release. But before we all get teary eyed, all is not wine and roses with the " new breed " , with problems being reported with the stability of both the new i865 and i875 chipsetted Systems. The reported problems stem from the unavailability of compatible DDR400 memory modules, and the extremely finicky nature of the boards to run at the more aggressive RAM timings. No doubt that the problems will be sorted , but its still definitely a little early to go " Prime Time ".

Also the shift to Serial ATA for the High Demands of Audio and Video is still an untested and unproven option except for those who love to live on the " Bleeding Edge" SATA is definitely an area that will be of great benefit to our specialist area ,with burst rates of 150Mb/s and sustained transfers approaching U160 SCSI, at a fraction of the cost, its definitely one to watch. I will be putting a New Westen Digital 36Gb/ 10,000 RPM SATA HD thru its paces over the next month , and for those who are wondering, Yes I do have a good supply of band- aides and Dettol !! ;-)