General said:
We'll all know in a few weeks. There have been a few benchmarks on beta
versions of Conroe that look good. In 6 weeks we'll all know just how good
Woodcrest and Conroe really are. At the very least they will neutralize
AMDs advantage in desktop and small server systems. AMD will retain a big
advantage in large servers for at least another year or two but in single
chip boxes (which will be at 4 cores by the end of the year) Intel will be
at least as good. Intel has fixed their serious problems, the long
pipeline and the uncoolable levels of power consumption.
Intel also doesn't have a substantial number of 65-nm parts available
yet. All of its 65-nm production is happening at its D1C fab in Oregon,
which is its test fab. So far, the only 65-nm production chips coming
out of it are the Yonah (aka Core 1 Solo & Core 1 Duo) mobile chips. I
can't think of anything else that's at 65-nm yet. All Netburst chips are
still on 90-nm. They'll have a second 65-nm fab in Arizona ramping up by
the end of the year. Then maybe a few more over the next couple of years.
Despite all of the hype and hoopla surrounding their "substantial lead
in 65-nm technology" vs. the competition, very few of their chips are
actually coming out of there. They did a "production run" of 65-nm chips
using a relatively low-volume chip category, the mobile chips. Even the
mobile category is not entirely respresented by Core 1, there's a
substantial number that are mobile Celeron which are also 90-nm.
Yousuf Khan