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The Color Of Silicon: Page 3 of 6

Nocona, representing the new improved Fast Eddie Intel, is better positioned to compete in the mainstream server market. But is Nocona good enough to beat Opteron? Not yet, if one believes early benchmark tests conducted by hardware analysts at AnandTech.

The tests, published August 13, matched AMD's Opteron 150 against Intel's Nocona Xeon running SuSE 9.1 Professional 64-bit Linux in default and smp modes. The Linux configuration took full advantage of the Xeon's HyperThreading mode. Even so, Opteron blew the doors off Xeon in database, encryption, and rendering benchmarks. Opteron's lead shrank in chess and Gzip compression benchmarks. It should be noted that both processors are workstation products. The server match has yet to come.

Opteron crushed Nocona in an Apache Web server test conducted by GamePC, a builder of custom high-performance PCs. The test used Apache's internal benchmark to simulate a 100,000 client load. The 3.4 Ghz Nocona processor lagged far behind even a 2.0 Ghz Opteron 250 in requests processed per second and peak transfer rate, performing only 75 percent as well as its "slower" rival. Nocona hit only 64 percent of the 2.4 Ghz Opteron's numbers.

Intel miscued on Nocona, but it's too soon to tell how badly. Remember that Intel's eye is on the money ball - Windows. The 64-bit beta versions of Windows were tuned for Opteron, naturally, since that was the only x86 platform available until July. Microsoft will tweak Windows64 for both processors by the time you read this, but it will be a while before we see Fast Eddie and Vince shoot it out on a level table. Furthermore, 64-bit x86 benchmark tests are still works in progress. We can't yet be sure of either Opteron's or Nocona's performance in absolute terms. Still, there's something fundamentally different about the players' techniques that gives Opteron an edge in server applications.

AMD's Direct Connect architecture directly connects the memory controller, the I/O, and additional CPUs to the central processor. Even Intel's fastest 1033 Mhz front-side bus poses a crippling bottleneck to throughput. AMD's HyperTransport bus technology gives it another edge, enabling multi-port data transfers at up to 19.2 GBytes per second. (Yes, Bytes, not bits.) So what's Intel to do? When you can't win with your own cue stick, borrow your opponent's.