On Monday AMD announced that they have completed the design for dual-core server and desktop processors. Dual-core server processors will ship in the middle of 2005. While dual-core desktop processors will ship in the second half of 2005. AMD isn"t the only one working on getting dual-core processors out the door. Intel, IBM, and Sun are also developing their own versions of a dual-core processor. AMDs dual-core processors will be based on the company"s successful AMD64 technology.
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) shed a little more light on its previously disclosed plans for dual-core processors Monday, announcing that it has completed its design for dual-core server and desktop processors and will ship products in 2005. Both dual-core processors will be based on the company"s AMD64 technology, said Fred Weber, vice president of engineering for AMD"s Computation Products Group. That architecture includes 64-bit extensions to the 32-bit x86 instruction set as well as an integrated memory controller that helps AMD move to dual-core designs, he said.
A dual-core chip is simply two separate processors on a single chip. In order to deliver the sharp increases in performance that have characterized the chip industry for over a decade, chip designers have been looking for another way to increase performance without increasing the chip"s clock speed and therefore the amount of power it consumes. The industry appears to have settled on dual-core designs as the way it will keep those performance gains going through the middle part of this decade. Sun Microsystems Inc. and IBM Corp. have already released dual-core chips for servers as a way to increase performance without resorting to faster clock speeds, and therefore increased power consumption.