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AMD's Thoroughbred is out of the stalls
Monday, June 10 2002
by The Register


AMD launched the long-awaited AMD Athlon XP 2200+, the first CPU with the cooler
Thoroughbred core. 

And the company has named two big OEMs - HP in the US, and Fujitsu Siemens in
Europe - as customers, writes Drew Cullen. 



The Athlon XP 2200+ is based on 0.13 micron manufacturing technology -- which
means smaller die size, lower power consumption and better performance. It costs
USD241 in batches of 1,000. This is the same as the Intel P 4/2266 which cost
also costs USD241. But it is important to note that AMD's list prices are
typically discounted more heavily on the street than Intel's. 





As for processor speed (as opposed to performance rating), the 2200+ clocks in at
1800MHz, compared with the 1733 MHz for 2100+ with the Palomino core. 





So Intel is racing away with the lead on the clock speed front, with its fastest
desktop CPU clocking 2.53GHz. However this costs a hefty USD637 in OEM
quantities, so it is not exactly mass market pricing yet.  As AMD points out,
correctly, megahertz no longer gives a linear indication of performance. AMD
argues that Intel's P4 design is inherently less efficient in than the Pentium
III - to the tune of 25 percent, or so. 





OK, we'll take this argument on board and move onto the next question: how good
is the new AMD Thoroughbred? 





Tom's Hardware Guide (THG) has put the chip through its paces, with an exhaustive
review, comparing Thoroughbred with Palomino and containing some info about the
upcoming Barton core, which will have 512K cache. In 32 tests, AMD outstripped
the Intel Pentium 4/2533 in only two. 



Of course, it is much cheaper. As THG points out, AMD "still has a better
price/performance ratio if you're less concerned with getting the absolute top
performance. In this case, the true benchmark freaks will want to stick with a P4
system based on PC1066. The T-bred will not give you the a big performance boost,
and we did not expect it to, because ultimately, the CPU core has not been
changed." 



"Still, it's going to be exciting, because the arrival of the Barton, with its
larger L2 cache, is imminent. And VIA is working on the KT400 chipset, which is
supposed to bring DDR 400 with 200 MHz to the Socket 462 platform. Thus, the race
has not yet come to an end -- the means are ultimately the goal!"  



The Register and its contents are
copyright 2002 Situation Publishing. Reprinted with permission.