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In the Forums... |
Posted: June 5th, 2001 Written by: Tuan "Solace" Nguyen Analysis and Conclusion AMD has certainly come a long way, and introducing a dual processor platform for the first step is one small step for motherboard manufacturers but one giant leap for computing kind. The 760MP chipset marks the first step that AMD is taking in order to position itself as a leader. The 760MP chipset itself brings along a bunch of goodies that the server and workstation market have been asking of AMD for a long time now. Previously all things were met by the likes of Intel and the companies producing extreme high-end and less know processors like the Ultra SPARC and Alpha. The good thing for AMD was that it built a lot of high-end, SMP ready features into the Athlon from the start. At the beginning, the classic Athlon was already partially SMP ready with the previously unheard of point-to-point transaction bus. Being superior to Intel’s AGTL+ bus, AMD’s use of the PTP bus gave future multi processor Athlon systems the ability to scale higher and faster. Thanks to individual buses per CPU, a dual Athlon system wouldn’t have to share bus bandwidth like a comparing dual Xeon system. Today, we see the evidence that the technologies introduced in the first Athlon now plays a pivotal roll in the 760MP’s and Athlon MP’s success. Not just sitting around and relying on paved road, AMD decreased latency and increased efficiency be implementing SmartMP. Having features like MOESI Cache Coherency, enables two Athlon MPs to quickly and efficiently communicate with each other without going through system memory and using up memory bandwidth. Effectively like cache “sharing”, each Athlon MP can retrieve data from the other MP’s cache and thus, keep cache data mutually exclusive. Along with being able to swap cache data back and forth whenever needed, each CPU is able to monitor the other one's activities to increase efficiency and reduce cycle latency. While the new Athlon MP processor includes the new enhancements, the 760MP chipset itself doesn’t stand still either. It is the most sophisticated core-logic that AMD has ever engineered, and it’s not surprising. Including support for 64bit/33MHz PCI operation and later 64bit/66MHz operation, the 760MP is striving to relieve the bottlenecks associated with storage I/O. Besides this, the 760MP also brings along a “snoop” bus for each processor to monitor the other one’s operations. This enables each processor to send cache data to and from another directly through their independent buses through the core-logic. Besides striving to introduce a multi processor platform, AMD has spent time to engineer new features to take full advantage of multiple processors. No longer will they follow, but now they’re leading. Currently, there are still more things to come, especially when AMD implements its Hyper Transport technology into its core-logic. We’ll be able to see massive gains on competitively priced systems. All these technologies will spark a new wave of application and entertainment development not previously possible. For the server and workstation market, a 760MP platform is the sure way to go. Nothing really beats a 760MP/Athlon MP combo. Also, considering the highly integrated Thunder K7 solution, thin servers are possible as the board doesn’t even require a singe expansion card to operate. Should you as a consumer rush out and purchase a 760MP system right now? Not really. Waiting for 762MPX to come to market will be a smarter decision. By then, you will be able to get a second Thunderbird if you already own one already, and setup a cheap and powerful SMP system for a fraction of the cost of a Tyan Thunder K7 motherboard. Should you as a professional rush out and purchase a 760MP system right now? There’s no other choice I’d recommend.
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