Intel engineer discusses their dual-core design
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Intel engineer discusses their dual-core design
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Rob Stow
Guest





Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2005 9:55 pm    Post subject: Re: Intel engineer discusses their dual-core design Reply with quote

Bill Davidsen wrote:
Quote:
keith wrote:

On Wed, 17 Aug 2005 12:48:25 -0700, YKhan wrote:



http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/08/17/dualcore/index.php


I simply found it an admission of how far (and for how long) their
technological head is (and has been) up their corporate ass. Nine months
in development isn't that big of a deal, given that the "cores" are
already there. Years? Please! They don't simulate/verify in
multi-processor environments? *Amazing*!


If these cores are the desktop versions rather than Xeon, they were not
planned to be used in SMP, much less in dual core. I'd be interested to
get your spin on why they *would* test the desktop chip SMP.

Here's a more interesting question: Intel built the D/C chips on P4
rather than P-M, presumably so they could offer the ht model at a huge
premium. Given the low power and far better performance of the P-M in
terms of work/watt and work/clock, why not a dual core Pentium-M? Then
when the better P4 D/C chip is ready they could offer that?

Just curious as to the logic for the decision if anyone has any insight.


Probably has something to do with the fact that AMD64 is the
hottest thing right now. Intel just tacked two AMD64-capable
cores together in a MCP, and voila: a cheap AMD64-capable
multi-chip package that they could delude the masses into
thinking of as a competitor to AMD's dual-core chips.

Doing the same thing with the P-M is supposed to eventually
happen. Sort of. Apparently the next generation will be
dual-core and redesigned from the ground up instead of evolved
from the P3. Still haven't heard if it will be AMD64-capable.
Back to top
CJT
Guest





Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2005 10:44 pm    Post subject: Re: Intel engineer discusses their dual-core design Reply with quote

Rob Stow wrote:
Quote:
Bill Davidsen wrote:

keith wrote:

On Wed, 17 Aug 2005 12:48:25 -0700, YKhan wrote:



http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/08/17/dualcore/index.php



I simply found it an admission of how far (and for how long) their
technological head is (and has been) up their corporate ass. Nine
months
in development isn't that big of a deal, given that the "cores" are
already there. Years? Please! They don't simulate/verify in
multi-processor environments? *Amazing*!


If these cores are the desktop versions rather than Xeon, they were
not planned to be used in SMP, much less in dual core. I'd be
interested to get your spin on why they *would* test the desktop chip
SMP.

Here's a more interesting question: Intel built the D/C chips on P4
rather than P-M, presumably so they could offer the ht model at a huge
premium. Given the low power and far better performance of the P-M in
terms of work/watt and work/clock, why not a dual core Pentium-M? Then
when the better P4 D/C chip is ready they could offer that?

Just curious as to the logic for the decision if anyone has any insight.


Probably has something to do with the fact that AMD64 is the hottest
thing right now. Intel just tacked two AMD64-capable cores together in
a MCP, and voila: a cheap AMD64-capable multi-chip package that they
could delude the masses into thinking of as a competitor to AMD's
dual-core chips.

Doing the same thing with the P-M is supposed to eventually happen. Sort
of. Apparently the next generation will be dual-core and redesigned
from the ground up instead of evolved from the P3. Still haven't heard
if it will be AMD64-capable.

I think AMD has finally managed to tarnish "Intel Inside."


--
The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to
minimize spam. Our true address is of the form che...@prodigy.net.
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Bill Davidsen
Guest





Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2005 11:12 pm    Post subject: Re: Intel engineer discusses their dual-core design Reply with quote

Rob Stow wrote:
Quote:
Bill Davidsen wrote:

keith wrote:

On Wed, 17 Aug 2005 12:48:25 -0700, YKhan wrote:



http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/08/17/dualcore/index.php



I simply found it an admission of how far (and for how long) their
technological head is (and has been) up their corporate ass. Nine
months
in development isn't that big of a deal, given that the "cores" are
already there. Years? Please! They don't simulate/verify in
multi-processor environments? *Amazing*!


If these cores are the desktop versions rather than Xeon, they were
not planned to be used in SMP, much less in dual core. I'd be
interested to get your spin on why they *would* test the desktop chip
SMP.

Here's a more interesting question: Intel built the D/C chips on P4
rather than P-M, presumably so they could offer the ht model at a huge
premium. Given the low power and far better performance of the P-M in
terms of work/watt and work/clock, why not a dual core Pentium-M? Then
when the better P4 D/C chip is ready they could offer that?

Just curious as to the logic for the decision if anyone has any insight.


Probably has something to do with the fact that AMD64 is the hottest
thing right now. Intel just tacked two AMD64-capable cores together in
a MCP, and voila: a cheap AMD64-capable multi-chip package that they
could delude the masses into thinking of as a competitor to AMD's
dual-core chips.

The 64 bit is a good point. For many applications AMD dual core or Intel
dual core will be equally satisfactory, and in most cases will perform
about as well as two-way SMP. No delusion needed, they compete.
Quote:

Doing the same thing with the P-M is supposed to eventually happen. Sort
of. Apparently the next generation will be dual-core and redesigned
from the ground up instead of evolved from the P3. Still haven't heard
if it will be AMD64-capable.

I had hoped for a drop-in dual core P-M for my notebook, but I wasn't
really expecting to get it :-(


--
bill davidsen
SBC/Prodigy Yorktown Heights NY data center
http://newsgroups.news.prodigy.com
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daytripper
Guest





Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2005 11:24 pm    Post subject: Re: Intel engineer discusses their dual-core design Reply with quote

On Fri, 19 Aug 2005 15:28:58 GMT, Bill Davidsen
<davidsen@deathstar.prodigy.com> wrote:
[snipped]
Quote:
Here's a more interesting question: Intel built the D/C chips on P4
rather than P-M, presumably so they could offer the ht model at a huge
premium. Given the low power and far better performance of the P-M in
terms of work/watt and work/clock, why not a dual core Pentium-M? Then
when the better P4 D/C chip is ready they could offer that?

Just curious as to the logic for the decision if anyone has any insight.

So a D/C P-M DP with ES available early fall '05 (like, soon) hasn't been
publicly announced yet?

I guess I better not talk about one, then...
Back to top
Rob Stow
Guest





Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2005 11:56 pm    Post subject: Re: Intel engineer discusses their dual-core design Reply with quote

CJT wrote:
Quote:
Rob Stow wrote:

Bill Davidsen wrote:


keith wrote:


On Wed, 17 Aug 2005 12:48:25 -0700, YKhan wrote:




http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/08/17/dualcore/index.php



I simply found it an admission of how far (and for how long) their
technological head is (and has been) up their corporate ass. Nine
months
in development isn't that big of a deal, given that the "cores" are
already there. Years? Please! They don't simulate/verify in
multi-processor environments? *Amazing*!


If these cores are the desktop versions rather than Xeon, they were
not planned to be used in SMP, much less in dual core. I'd be
interested to get your spin on why they *would* test the desktop chip
SMP.

Here's a more interesting question: Intel built the D/C chips on P4
rather than P-M, presumably so they could offer the ht model at a huge
premium. Given the low power and far better performance of the P-M in
terms of work/watt and work/clock, why not a dual core Pentium-M? Then
when the better P4 D/C chip is ready they could offer that?

Just curious as to the logic for the decision if anyone has any insight.


Probably has something to do with the fact that AMD64 is the hottest
thing right now. Intel just tacked two AMD64-capable cores together in
a MCP, and voila: a cheap AMD64-capable multi-chip package that they
could delude the masses into thinking of as a competitor to AMD's
dual-core chips.

Doing the same thing with the P-M is supposed to eventually happen. Sort
of. Apparently the next generation will be dual-core and redesigned
from the ground up instead of evolved from the P3. Still haven't heard
if it will be AMD64-capable.


I think AMD has finally managed to tarnish "Intel Inside."



Finally ? Where have you been hiding for the last 4 or 5 years
? AMD has had the better CPUs for desktops and 2-way servers
and workstations since the Athlon XP and MP transitioned from
0.18 to 0.13 microns. Even before then the Athlon XP and MP
outperformed the P4 and Xeon - but also ran pretty danged hot.

The only CPU market Intel has held the technological edge in for
the past 4 or 5 years has been the mobile market, where the
Pentium M has been king and looks like it will reign for a while
longer.
Back to top
CJT
Guest





Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2005 12:15 am    Post subject: Re: Intel engineer discusses their dual-core design Reply with quote

Rob Stow wrote:

Quote:
CJT wrote:

Rob Stow wrote:

Bill Davidsen wrote:


keith wrote:


On Wed, 17 Aug 2005 12:48:25 -0700, YKhan wrote:




http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/08/17/dualcore/index.php




I simply found it an admission of how far (and for how long) their
technological head is (and has been) up their corporate ass. Nine
months
in development isn't that big of a deal, given that the "cores" are
already there. Years? Please! They don't simulate/verify in
multi-processor environments? *Amazing*!



If these cores are the desktop versions rather than Xeon, they were
not planned to be used in SMP, much less in dual core. I'd be
interested to get your spin on why they *would* test the desktop
chip SMP.

Here's a more interesting question: Intel built the D/C chips on P4
rather than P-M, presumably so they could offer the ht model at a
huge premium. Given the low power and far better performance of the
P-M in terms of work/watt and work/clock, why not a dual core
Pentium-M? Then when the better P4 D/C chip is ready they could
offer that?

Just curious as to the logic for the decision if anyone has any
insight.


Probably has something to do with the fact that AMD64 is the hottest
thing right now. Intel just tacked two AMD64-capable cores together
in a MCP, and voila: a cheap AMD64-capable multi-chip package that
they could delude the masses into thinking of as a competitor to
AMD's dual-core chips.

Doing the same thing with the P-M is supposed to eventually happen.
Sort of. Apparently the next generation will be dual-core and
redesigned from the ground up instead of evolved from the P3. Still
haven't heard if it will be AMD64-capable.



I think AMD has finally managed to tarnish "Intel Inside."



Finally ? Where have you been hiding for the last 4 or 5 years ? AMD
has had the better CPUs for desktops and 2-way servers and workstations
since the Athlon XP and MP transitioned from 0.18 to 0.13 microns.
Even before then the Athlon XP and MP outperformed the P4 and Xeon - but
also ran pretty danged hot.

The only CPU market Intel has held the technological edge in for the
past 4 or 5 years has been the mobile market, where the Pentium M has
been king and looks like it will reign for a while longer.

While I tend to agree with you, the perception among the masses has been
different, IMHO. But being "the hottest thing right now" changes that.

--
The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to
minimize spam. Our true address is of the form che...@prodigy.net.
Back to top
Hank Oredson
Guest





Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2005 12:15 am    Post subject: Re: Intel engineer discusses their dual-core design Reply with quote

"Robert Redelmeier" <redelm@ev1.net.invalid> wrote in message
news:lxkNe.3038$r54.2267@newssvr19.news.prodigy.com...
Quote:
In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips Terje Mathisen
terje.mathisen@hda.hydro.com> wrote:
There are several reasons why engineers are very poor at lying:

-) "I'm an engineer, my credibility is my main capital."

-) "Salesmen, la[w]yers, PHBs and several other types that I really
don't like do it, so I want to distance myself from them."

-) It is just so inelegant. :-(

If I absolutely _have_ to lie, it must be by omission: I'll
still tell the truth and nothing but the truth (as I understand
it, of course), but unless you ask me specific questions about
those parts I'm skipping, I might not tell you all of the truth.

So how do you answer when your wife asks: "Does this dress make
me look fat?" :)

"Of course it doesn't dear!"
(Well, maybe pleasing plump, chubby ... but not "fat" of course.)

Quote:
The concept of a "duty of truth" is a practical justification.
One really should not lie (even by omission) when one owes information
to someone, and they may be reasonably expected to rely upon it.

For example, I have no trouble lying to a saleman saying "I'm busy"
rather than telling him "Your product is grossly overpriced,
I'm insulted you think I'm so stupid as to fall for it, and I
find you obnoxious." The latter may be entirely true, but it is
valuable information (feedback) the saleman has not earned.

A certain amount of lying also eases social interactions.
See the Jim Carrey movie "Liar, liar". Of course, you may
claim that engineers are poor at social interactions :)

--

... Hank

http://home.earthlink.net/~horedson
http://home.earthlink.net/~w0rli
Back to top
Anton Ertl
Guest





Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2005 8:15 am    Post subject: Re: Intel engineer discusses their dual-core design Reply with quote

Bill Davidsen <davidsen@deathstar.prodigy.com> writes:
Quote:
Here's a more interesting question: Intel built the D/C chips on P4
rather than P-M, presumably so they could offer the ht model at a huge
premium. Given the low power and far better performance of the P-M in
terms of work/watt and work/clock, why not a dual core Pentium-M? Then
when the better P4 D/C chip is ready they could offer that?

<speculation> The Pentium M has no multi-processor capabilities, so
making it dual core would have required more work and have had a
longer time-to-market than for the Pentium 4/Xeon. Why does the
Pentium M not have these capabilities when the P6 had them originally?
In the change from the original P6 to the Pentium M they replaced the
bus interface with a Pentium 4 style one; maybe they added one that is
not multiprocessor capable. Or they eliminated multiprocessing
capabilities in other places in order to save power and chip area.
</speculation>

Also, the dual-core chips are for the performance-hungry users. And
the performance chip in Intels marketing is still the Pentium 4 (not
sure if one core of the fastest Pentium D is faster than the fastest
Pentium M, though).

Followups set to comp.arch.

- anton
--
M. Anton Ertl Some things have to be seen to be believed
anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at Most things have to be believed to be seen
http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/anton/home.html
Back to top
YKhan
Guest





Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2005 8:15 am    Post subject: Re: Intel engineer discusses their dual-core design Reply with quote

Bill Davidsen wrote:
Quote:
Here's a more interesting question: Intel built the D/C chips on P4
rather than P-M, presumably so they could offer the ht model at a huge
premium. Given the low power and far better performance of the P-M in
terms of work/watt and work/clock, why not a dual core Pentium-M? Then
when the better P4 D/C chip is ready they could offer that?

I can't see Intel even having worried about whether it had HT or not.
They just wanted a dual-core in working condition, HT or no HT. The
fact that they were able to get some HT-enabled DC processors out of it
is a bonus as far as they are concerned.

Regarding why P4 instead of P-M? My assumption is that P-M is too
complicated to simply join together side-by-side to get a dual core. I
think P-4 is a major hack job anyways, dual-core or no dual-core. They
mentioned that they layed out the circuit patterns of the P4 on a
computer, and let the computer take care of rearranging it. Whereas the
P4 may have had a lot of places free to attach communications lines
between the cores, and if they don't, all they have to do is have the
computer relayout the design so that places to put comm lines appear in
convenient locations.

Yousuf Khan
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Terje Mathisen
Guest





Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2005 10:42 pm    Post subject: Re: Intel engineer discusses their dual-core design Reply with quote

Robert Redelmeier wrote:

Quote:
In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips Terje Mathisen <terje.mathisen@hda.hydro.com> wrote:
If I absolutely _have_ to lie, it must be by omission: I'll
still tell the truth and nothing but the truth (as I understand
it, of course), but unless you ask me specific questions about
those parts I'm skipping, I might not tell you all of the truth.


So how do you answer when your wife asks: "Does this dress make
me look fat?" :)

"I think that other one is even nicer."
Quote:

The concept of a "duty of truth" is a practical justification.
One really should not lie (even by omission) when one owes information
to someone, and they may be reasonably expected to rely upon it.

Sure.
Quote:

For example, I have no trouble lying to a saleman saying "I'm busy"
rather than telling him "Your product is grossly overpriced,
I'm insulted you think I'm so stupid as to fall for it, and I
find you obnoxious." The latter may be entirely true, but it is
valuable information (feedback) the saleman has not earned.
:-)


Terje

--
- <Terje.Mathisen@hda.hydro.com>
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"
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Nick Maclaren
Guest





Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2005 11:39 pm    Post subject: Re: Intel engineer discusses their dual-core design Reply with quote

In article <de7q2q$i0m$1@osl016lin.hda.hydro.com>,
Terje Mathisen <terje.mathisen@hda.hydro.com> wrote:
Quote:
Robert Redelmeier wrote:

For example, I have no trouble lying to a saleman saying "I'm busy"
rather than telling him "Your product is grossly overpriced,
I'm insulted you think I'm so stupid as to fall for it, and I
find you obnoxious." The latter may be entirely true, but it is
valuable information (feedback) the saleman has not earned.

:-)

Hmm. I have no difficulty in telling him the former, though I would
leave out the remark about his obnoxiousness as unprofessional.

I have several times told salesmen and even technical staff that
their product would be cancelled, on the grounds that it would fail
in testing, including once when it had a shipment dated of under
6 months off. I told them I had seen it attempted N times before,
it had failed every time for fundamental reasons, and I didn't care
how senior the executive was who had told them it would succeed
THIS time - he didn't know what he was rabbiting on about and I did.
I may have used those words :-)

That particular product was virtual shared memory, as a platform
to run arbitrary SMP programs on a distributed memory system.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.
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Niels Jørgen Kruse
Guest





Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2005 10:07 pm    Post subject: Re: Intel engineer discusses their dual-core design Reply with quote

keith <krw@att.bizzzz> wrote:

Quote:
On Thu, 18 Aug 2005 09:59:19 -0700, icerq4a wrote:

keith skrev:

On Wed, 17 Aug 2005 12:48:25 -0700, YKhan wrote:

http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/08/17/dualcore/index.php

I simply found it an admission of how far (and for how long) their
technological head is (and has been) up their corporate ass. Nine months
in development isn't that big of a deal, given that the "cores" are
already there. Years? Please! They don't simulate/verify in
multi-processor environments? *Amazing*!

The only amazing thing here is that you don't seem to understand the
article and appear to know nothing about microprocessor development.

Uh, right. Since that's (microprocessor development) what I do for a
living, I suggest that *you* read the article again. This time you
might try reading for comprehension. Intel blew it big time, as did you.

Mudslinging apart, the admission is not new. It is a long time ago that
Intel top brass talked about a sudden 90 degree right turn.

What is new, is that we now know that Intel wanted to be able to match
cores with the same performance per watt in a package. Without that
ability, you have to disable the core that runs, but not well enough. Or
waste a good core. We now know that that package is cheaper for Intel
than disabling a core.

--
Mvh./Regards, Niels Jørgen Kruse, Vanløse, Denmark
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Patricia Shanahan
Guest





Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2005 10:19 pm    Post subject: Re: Intel engineer discusses their dual-core design Reply with quote

keith wrote:
Quote:
On Fri, 19 Aug 2005 15:28:58 +0000, Bill Davidsen wrote:


keith wrote:

On Wed, 17 Aug 2005 12:48:25 -0700, YKhan wrote:



http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/08/17/dualcore/index.php


I simply found it an admission of how far (and for how long) their
technological head is (and has been) up their corporate ass. Nine months
in development isn't that big of a deal, given that the "cores" are
already there. Years? Please! They don't simulate/verify in
multi-processor environments? *Amazing*!


If these cores are the desktop versions rather than Xeon, they were not
planned to be used in SMP, much less in dual core. I'd be interested to
get your spin on why they *would* test the desktop chip SMP.


Spin? Like to load them words, eh? One reason to do SMP testing is that
it's "easy" to test cache coherence with two processors. Two processors
can bang the caches pretty hard against each other.

Do you really think Intel has no SMP verification capabilities? Do they
not "borrow" tools from one organization to another? There's more here
than meets the eye. Someone dropped the ball, big time!

I'm a bit confused. You are talking "verification", but the article
talks about "testing tools and processes".

I thought "verification" meant determining the correctness of the
design, but "testing" often refers to the part of the manufacturing
process that tries to determine whether a newly manufactured chip
conforms to the design.

In those senses, verification of an SMP design should include simulation
of multiple processors. Testing should apply to each chip separately,
because if you put two or more chips together and the result fails, you
only know that one of a set of chips is bad, not which one it is.

Are you using the words that way? If not, could you define
"verification" and "testing"?

Patricia
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keith
Guest





Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2005 10:53 pm    Post subject: Re: Intel engineer discusses their dual-core design Reply with quote

On Thu, 18 Aug 2005 09:59:19 -0700, icerq4a wrote:

Quote:

keith skrev:

On Wed, 17 Aug 2005 12:48:25 -0700, YKhan wrote:

http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/08/17/dualcore/index.php

I simply found it an admission of how far (and for how long) their
technological head is (and has been) up their corporate ass. Nine months
in development isn't that big of a deal, given that the "cores" are
already there. Years? Please! They don't simulate/verify in
multi-processor environments? *Amazing*!

The only amazing thing here is that you don't seem to understand the
article and appear to know nothing about microprocessor development.

Uh, right. Since that's (microprocessor development) what I do for a
living, I suggest that *you* read the article again. This time you
might try reading for comprehension. Intel blew it big time, as did you.

--
Keith
Back to top
keith
Guest





Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2005 11:05 pm    Post subject: Re: Intel engineer discusses their dual-core design Reply with quote

On Fri, 19 Aug 2005 15:28:58 +0000, Bill Davidsen wrote:

Quote:
keith wrote:
On Wed, 17 Aug 2005 12:48:25 -0700, YKhan wrote:


http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/08/17/dualcore/index.php


I simply found it an admission of how far (and for how long) their
technological head is (and has been) up their corporate ass. Nine months
in development isn't that big of a deal, given that the "cores" are
already there. Years? Please! They don't simulate/verify in
multi-processor environments? *Amazing*!

If these cores are the desktop versions rather than Xeon, they were not
planned to be used in SMP, much less in dual core. I'd be interested to
get your spin on why they *would* test the desktop chip SMP.

Spin? Like to load them words, eh? One reason to do SMP testing is that
it's "easy" to test cache coherence with two processors. Two processors
can bang the caches pretty hard against each other.

Do you really think Intel has no SMP verification capabilities? Do they
not "borrow" tools from one organization to another? There's more here
than meets the eye. Someone dropped the ball, big time!

Quote:
Here's a more interesting question: Intel built the D/C chips on P4
rather than P-M, presumably so they could offer the ht model at a huge
premium. Given the low power and far better performance of the P-M in
terms of work/watt and work/clock, why not a dual core Pentium-M? Then
when the better P4 D/C chip is ready they could offer that?

Absolutely. ...which makes the SMP verification issue even more
strange.

Quote:
Just curious as to the logic for the decision if anyone has any insight.

Search me. I've given up trying to explain Intel's moves; too bizare.

--
Keith
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