Opteron FX?

A few days after we posted news on the Athlon FX, we also received news about a new version of the AMD Opteron processor. According to our source, this new processor will be a crippled version of the Opteron processor and it will called the Opteron FX. At that time, we could not substantiate those rumours so we let that news slide.

However, recently we have been hearing a bit more about this new AMD Opteron processor. Our original source might be telling us the truth after all. AMD may release a "value" Opteron processor called Opteron FX.

What are its specifications? No word on that, unfortunately. But I suspect the Opteron FX will be nothing more than an Opteron processor with half the L2 cache.

No-no... I'm not basing my suspicions on the Athlon FX. Here's why I think AMD will do just that :-

1. Opteron yields are not very good. This is most likely due to the large 1MB L2 cache which takes up a substantial part of the die. Large dies make great targets for contaminants to hit and most of the defects will be in the L2 cache. This results in a large number of defective Opterons, some of which can actually be salvaged by disabling part of the L2 cache. So, it makes sense for AMD to convert some of those dead Opterons into Opteron FX processors.

As you can see, the L2 cache takes up a substantial part of the die.

2. There are rumours that AMD is facing problems trying to deliver the real Athlon 64 in time for launch in September. According to The Inquirer, AMD will launch a 940-pin Athlon 64 in September. The specifications of this Athlon 64 look suspiciously like a crippled Opteron. In fact, it will only support registered DIMMs that are only used in servers or workstations. If that does not finger the 940-pin Athlon 64 out as a crippled Opteron, I don't know what will.

So, when will the Opteron FX be launched? From what we gather, all will be revealed come September 22nd during Computex Taipei 2003.

The Motherboards

Computex 2003 will also be the launching pad for NVIDIA's new chipsets for the Opteron and Athlon 64. Several motherboard manufacturers are expected to show off motherboards based on the NVIDA nForce 3 and nForce 3 Pro chipsets during Computex.

But from what we have heard, ABIT will be a notable exception. They won't have any Opteron or Athlon 64 motherboard ready for Computex 2003. In fact, they are apparently still mulling about the choice of chipset! They have yet to decide whether to go NVIDIA or VIA for their Opteron and Athlon 64 motherboards. So, don't expect to see Opteron or Athlon 64 motherboards from ABIT anytime soon.

Conclusion

It looks like AMD is set to use FX as its new nomenclature for value-line processors. Bye bye, Duron! Hello, FX! :)

Some may not like the fact that the new value-line processors are essentially crippled versions of their bigger brothers but it's really a good deal both ways. AMD gets to turn some of their duds into working processors and we get to buy them at a lower price. Whether the lower price is worth the loss in performance from the reduction in cache size is another matter. What matters is we have more choices and opportunities.

Yes, opportunities! According to AMDZone, the extra pin in the 940-pin Athlon 64 (which we think will be called the Opteron FX) is required for SMP support due to the necessary HyperTransport links. If that's the case, then it might be possible to use these crippled Opteron processors in a multi-processor Opteron motherboard! Imagine - 64-bit SMP on the cheap!

Questions & Comments

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