Intel 'abandoned' AMD in the 4-core chip race

When Intel introduced the latest 4-core and 45-nanometer Penryn processor chips, AMD also launched the Quad FX to compete. However, tests show that AMD products are still a long way behind Intel.

Based on the same microarchitecture as Core 2 Duo, Penryn is Intel's first microprocessor manufactured on 45 nanometer technology (its current chips line the 65 nanometer standard). This technique means they create smaller transistors (only 1/3 of the current product) and thus can put more such transistors into a piece of silicon. When the size is reduced, the transistor will consume less power. In addition, when there are more transistors in a chip, the processor will operate faster with clock pulses of up to 3 GHz.

Source: Gizmodo Penryn will appear in the mass market in the second half of 2007, on desktops, laptops and servers. " Penryn chips are being produced and will reach consumers in the shortest time ," said Rob Willoner, Intel's technology expert. " This processor also has new features that support multimedia and wireless networking ."

AMD's Quad FX platform essentially works with two Athlon 64 FX-70 dual-core processors combined, also known as dual socket processors. This technology is based on Nvidia's nForce 680a chipset, supporting up to 12 SATA ports and 4 PCI-Express cards.

According to AMD's technology, two sockets are placed on the motherboard and connected by the Direct Connect architecture that it developed. On each socket, they will place a dual-core processor (either the 2.6-GHz FX-70, the 2.8-GHz FX-72 or the 3.0-GHz FX-74) to form a 4-core chip set.

Quad FX (another name like 4x4 or QuadFather) is designed to support Windows Vista operating system. But because it uses 2 socket slots, only Ultimate, Enterprise and Business versions take advantage of the second processor. The Home Basic and Home Premium versions will not recognize this 2nd chip.

In addition, the Quad FX's drawback is a large power consumption (when operating at the highest capacity with only one graphics card, this number is 600 watts). However, this chip can also control all 8 screens at the same time using 4 video cards on the PCI-Express slot. The Quad FX also proved to be inferior to the 4-core, 2.6 GHz socket QX6700 chip.

Performance evaluation of QX6700 (Intel) and Quad FX (AMD) chips, according to which Intel products proved superior. Photo: Gizmodo.