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AMD Unveils Triple-Core Desktop Chip TMCnet Contributing Editor Trying to find the “sweet spot” in consumer demand for chips with high performance but at a lower price tag, AMD (News - Alert) is adding a triple-core chip to its Phenom line of desktop processors. AMD says the triple core Phenom processors will be lower priced compared to the quad-core processors.
On the performance front, the triple core stands between dual-core and quad-core. As per the initial plan, the Phenom would have been quad-core. But the company was apprehensive of the demand for quad-core and wanted to test the waters with triple-core. As it stands now, the quad-core chip for desktops is set to debut in December 2007 and the triple-core version will ship in the first quarter of 2008. At the production level the company will benefit from this latest move, as the triple-core will in fact be a quad-core with one of the cores disabled. To help meet the demand, AMD will also use some quad-cores where one core is below the acceptable level of quality. Windows Vista will find that switching from dual-core to triple-core will give a boost to performance. Windows Vista is a very demanding operating system as it offers multi-tasking. The cores used in the Phenom line are similar to those in AMD's 'Barcelona' Quad-Core Opteron, although there are differences in the chip design. --------- P R Sai is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page. |