AMD debuting power-efficient quad-core Barcelona feature

When you think quad-core CPU, current draw may not be the first concern that comes to your mind -- unless you administer a few dozen or hundred such boxes, in which case electricity, airflow, and air conditioning are no longer mere minor concerns. Thankfully for quad-core AMD hopefuls, their new Barcelona chip will feature an enhanced PowerNow setup that allows each of the chips four cores to operate at four varying clock speeds, independent of one another and depending on load. Despite adding another couple cores to the die, AMD claims this will help cut power by another 10 watts per chip (which definitely adds up in aggregate); we do sincerely hope they're right. We'll find out more when the Barcelona makes yet another splash, this time at the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC).

[T221 @ Feb 13th 2007 5:08AM]

Seems counterproductive for Intel and AMD to tout low power consumption products, snipping 10 watts here and there when Nvidia and ATi are producing more power hungry graphic cards. Personally, I am tired of all the heat that comes out of these cards and the ridiculous watercooling as the solution. I think Intel and AMD is beyond the Mhz wars, and now into core wars with a look at power efficiency. Nvidia and ATi seem to be stuck in the Mhz wars.

[s i d @ Feb 13th 2007 5:55AM]

"I think Intel and AMD is beyond the Mhz wars, and now into core wars with a look at power efficiency. Nvidia and ATi seem to be stuck in the Mhz wars."

how can u blame them wen people celebrate these wars on websites like engadget :) moreover only because u know wat sucks u know wat's cool eh!

[Russell @ Feb 13th 2007 1:20PM]

I've got a raging clue... High end video cards aren't used in servers, therefore don't play into marketing to datacenter planners.

For the people who really care about 10W, it's a good thing. It'll also be a good thing for laptops when they move that tech there, particularly since most userland apps are not very SMP efficient.

One core at 2.8 and the other 3 at 0.6 sounds good enough for even some moderately powerful apps, then the power is also available on demand at the expense of battery life.

[CeeJay @ Feb 13th 2007 1:17PM]

ATI were stuck in the more performance = more current game but since AMD bought them, we can be certain that they won't continue on that path.

However the upcoming R600 won't see any AMD improvements to efficiency because it takes a long time to design and develop the tech that goes into a GPU. When AMD bought ATI, the R600 was already too late in it's development cycle to risk changing the design.
I sure the generation after R600 will be far more power efficient.

[Ayle @ Feb 13th 2007 10:18AM]

Think about it this way : If they manage to reduce the cpu power consumption more this may prevent you from buying a cold fusion reactor to power you your next quad-SLI configuration......

[WordMon @ Feb 13th 2007 2:06PM]

Mhz is a losing war b/c of Moore's Law. That's why AMD and Intel are going to multicore processors.

The Free Lunch is Over, or soon to be over... :-D
http://www.gotw.ca/publications/concurrency-ddj.htm

[peshue @ Feb 13th 2007 6:59AM]

Video cards are getting pretty ridiculous, but if you're talking about servers, like in this article, then video cards don't matter.

[dave @ Feb 13th 2007 9:53AM]

this looks to be awesome (power efficient probably means they switched to 65nm, which means they can actually compete with core 2 quad and i don't have to watch my stock wither downwards), but i thought that after Brisbane, AMD was gonna switch the names from cities to stars.