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The Color Of Silicon: Page 4 of 6

Intel has already adopted AMD's AMD64 64-bit extensions to x86; with trivial variations, Intel calls its version Extended Memory 64 Technology, or EM64T. Nothing prevents Intel from adopting the royalty-free HyperTransport technology. That leaves only the front-side bus problem, which Intel will presumably fix before its next major match with AMD in the dual-core processor tournament.

Single-core processors have hit an insurmountable wall. As clock frequencies rise, so do power consumption and heat. More power means much more current leakage (wasted watts) when one shrinks chip features below 100nm, as Intel learned with its first 90nm offerings. Even more power is required to dissipate all that heat. Power and heat inefficiencies are rising much faster than clock speed gains in single-core processors. It's time for a dramatically new approach to performance enhancement: multi-core processors.

Two 1 Ghz processors consume less power and generate less heat than a single 2 Ghz processor, thanks to the exponential relationship between clock frequency and power/heat inefficiencies. Put two processor cores on a single die and electricity bills plummet. Dual-core processors can also take full advantage of parallel processing techniques like Intel's HyperThreading.

Intel and AMD are both committed to producing dual-core server products by mid-2005. How well each firm will execute its dual-core strategy remains to be seen, but it appears that AMD will have an easier time of it than Intel.

Opteron was designed from the start with dual-core in mind. Direct Connect Architecture and the HyperTransport bus technology make adding another core to a die relatively easy. Intel, however, will have to part with its past before it can embrace the future.