Duron64 Poll:

[PrideGL]

To run a dedicated 64bit application you need a 64bit chip.

However to run 32bit software you need a 32bit chip or a 64bit chip that can handle the 32bit code (the Hammer) Intels big boy chip cant do 32bit code (or not well at all), I always forget its name.

There is then crossbred software that have the code in both types 32 and 64 so that duing the install it will detect what it is and use the correct code base on it. (This I assume will be the common one when it gets going)

Thanks for the information.
Wil 64-bit bring a whole new level to gaming?

 

[PCphreak]

Intels big boy chip cant do 32bit code (or not well at all), I always forget its name.

Itanic
(Itanium)

@ everyone else...

AMD is probably using the Athlon XP (K7) as the lowend initially, because it will be atleast months to a year before 64-bit apps are mature enough to warrant using.
Because at the time of releasing the K8 for desktop, it's 32-bit execution performance due to clock speed won't be enough over the Athlon XP's to justify it's (K8's) higher price.
Therefore, by the time 64-bit apps are mature- Athlon-64 will be at a great enough clock speed with lower prices to allow the Athlon XP to be discontinued & the Athlon-64 to become mainstream.

-PC

 

[TinMan]

The first biggie to hit the games market will be Unreal Tournament 2003, they are finishing off the 64bit version as we speak and they said in one irc room that the game looks to run "very nice" on the new platform.

I assume that means they have a 64bit platform to use it on.

 

[TinMan]

Just to add quickly, there are 3 main reasons why we cant play with a K8 yet:

1. Microsoft (yes spelt right there) does not want to released until XP 64 is complete, there is some agrement somewhere on this I was told.

2. The clock speeds could be better than they are (though that aint a biggie)

3. I think there is only a few 64bit apps out there that could be used and they are linux based.

 

[PCphreak]

3. I think there is only a few 64bit apps out there that could be used and they are linux based.

Yep. I think it'll be that way for sometime after K8's release.
Of course even when the new 64-bit apps are released, chances are they won't be anything more than just a recompile. To get the full benefit from 64-bit K8, apps should be rewritten & optimized. To obtain these mature apps will naturally take some time, since the K8 has just recently sampled.

I think it should be pretty clear to people, that the developer will benefit from 64-bit before we (general consumer) do- especially game developers. Naturally the K8 has to be available to these developers before we start to see the benefit of K8 in our apps.
And K8 won't be shipping till 2nd half this year...people would be better off upgrading now till June while prices are rather low, & then upgrade to K8 & 64-bit in mid '04 when it's prices have came down and has more of a benefit over 32-bit. By this time Athlon XP will be on it's way out of the door.

-PC

 

[kevmarks]

I think the XP's where scheduled to be the new duron, and hammer will be the new XP. No, celerons are not 64bit. However, they will be. Intel is rumoured to have 64bit in the prescott, only its disabled. The core after that is definatly 32/64 bit. They can choose to enable the 64bit portion if they want. This will mean 64bit celerons. All this is a few years down the line (if at all) so I wouldn't get your hopes up.

If AMD could come out with a celeron priced hammer chip that handles SMP, this will be there best bet at the budget (i.e biggest) server market. Even if it does have a crippled cache.

 

[Gnufsh]

Intel will only go 64-bit before the end of the decade if AMD does really, really, really well with it. Other wise, we're talking after 2009 and in the shape of Itanium, not X86-64.

 

[OC Detective]

Of course they should! It would sell like hot chocolate in Denver, IMO. I know I won't be able to afford a full blown Clawhammer, but a nice little Duron64 or whatever would be sweet.

Is it a sure thing that AMD is coming out with a 64-bit with 256 kb of L2 cache?

It is already codenamed Paris and will probably come out early next year.

 

[Captain Hilts]

I don't think that the amount of L2 for the desktop Hammer has definitively stated yet. I have heard that it will have between 256kb and 1mb, but maybe there will even be different versions.

As for the future chips, if you look at the roadmap the follow-up is San Diego, not Paris. The only thing we know about that right now is that it's to use a 90nm process.

 

[OC Detective]

The San Diego is a shift in technology 0.13 to 0.09 so is naturally the follow-on but also a step change whereas the Paris is just an extension of the Athlon64 with less cache and not a follow on. I would expect the budget model to come out before the 0.09 technology.
http://www.vr-zone.com/Home/news177/news177.htm#2853

 

[False Christian]

Interesting. So what's next? a 128-bit AMD CPU? 256-bit? 512-bit?1024-bit? You get the picture.

 

[TinMan]

128 and all the others prop wont appear for a long time. But the next thing is like nothing before it and it dont say either intel or AMD on it.

I speak of the "IBM CELL" upto 16 cores on 1 CPU claiming 1000 (yes 3 zeros) times faster than what you see today. This is also being helped by sony who are using it in the PS3 (playstation 3 for the non gamers) but also by Toshiba who dont realy have a use for such tech at the moment so that makes me think.

 

[Farleytron]

Since the full blown 64-bit AMD will be the Sledghammer...

...and the medium level one will be the Clawhammer....

...the budget "Duron-esque" one should be called the....

......"Tack-Hammer" !??!?!

 

[Caffinehog]

32 bit can only address 4gb of memory and can only quickly do calculations with numbers up to 4294967296. 64 bit computing will be able to address more memory than you can imagine, and quickly calculate numbers up to 18446744073709551616.