AMD: New Chips Consume Half the Power of Core 2 Duo

AMD announced its entry into the 65nm manufacturing generation Tuesday with a new line of 65-watt "energy-efficient" processors that the company claimed already consumes just under 50 percent less power than the Intel Core 2 Duo .

AMD's novel argument provided a backdrop for four new chips—the AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+, 4400+, 4800+, and 5000+—will be sold for the same price as their older counterparts, which were fabricated on the 90nm process. The Athlon 64 X2 line will receive the 65nm conversion treatment first, which will be completed by the first quarter of 2007 in its Fab 36 in Dresden.

AMD's notebook and server processor lines will receive the same 65nm treatment, which will be completed some time in 2007, according to Jack Huynh, responsible for marketing and business development at AMD's desktop division. AMD's standard Athlon 64 and Sempron lines will lag behind the X2's conversion, as they are not "mainstream" parts, Huynh said.

Read about AMD's new Quad FX Architecture.

Shifting to a finer manufacturing process means less power and waste heat is needed to run at a given speed. In desktops, that means that the chip can be clocked faster while still maintaining the given power; in notebooks, the overall power consumption can be reduced while still maintaining a given speed. AMD's energy-efficient chips split that difference, offering power savings and a quieter desktop PC environment.

"With the Vista rollout, it's more and more important to multitask and multicore without a super loud box—that's the end goal," Huynh said.

In May, AMD announced an energy-efficient processor roadmap, up to the 4800+ chip, that established a 65-watt power threshold. Certain other Athlon 64 X2 processors, including the 3500+ and 3800+, were also classified as "small form factor" energy-efficient processors and designed to run at a maximum of 35 watts. All of the new 65nm energy-efficient chips are classified to run at 65 watts maximum power.

But AMD's sales team is also attempting to convince customers that even its older "Rev. F" 65-watt, 90nm chips actually consume less power than Intel's Core 2 Duo components, with the delta even more magnified when its new 35-watt, 65nm chips are compared.

AMD's argument goes like this: Modern desktop and notebook processors constantly scale up and down between full speed and an idle state, which AMD has branded "Cool 'n' Quiet". At a given time, pushed to full load by an application, AMD's chips run hotter and consume more power. But across a typical computing day—where a user might check his email or surf the Web—the processor idles more often then not. At idle, AMD's 90nm Athlon 64 X2 consumes 7.5 watts. A 35-watt, 65-nm chip will idle at 3.8 watts, AMD said. By comparison, the 65nm Core 2 Duo idles at 14.3 watts.

AMD's 90nm/65 watt Athlon 64 X2 chips consumed 47.6 percent the power of a 65nm Core 2 Duo chip, the company said. A 35-watt X2 consumes 73.3 percent of the power of the same Core 2 Duo. However, directly comparing the two chips' power load in a real-world computing environment, over the course of a day, would be a daunting task, Huynh acknowledged.

Comparing processors by the power consumed has either been done using real-world measurements or via a number called "Thermal Design Power," a guideline given to engineers that estimates the maximum amount of power that a chip would consume. Huynh called TDP and process technology comparisons "purely a numbers game".

"We don't want to get caught in the processor technology game," Huynh said. "We have superior power management features than our competition."

The new processors meet or exceed the new Energy Star requirements for idle power consumption, which go into effect in July 2007, Huynh added.

Huynh also discouraged those who might hope that AMD might create a low-power version of the Quad FX or "4x4" platform, which was criticized for its high power consumption. "We always have to look at all the options, but that [the Quad FX] roadmap is 125-watts, extended through next year," he said.

The 65nm development work was researched in conjunction with IBM. Normally, a processor conversion would take nearly a full year; AMD's goal is to complete it within about half that time, Huynh said. The next step? To catch up with Intel on 45nm, which last week announced test samples of its 45nm "Penryn" processors. AMD's goal is to catch up with Intel in 18 months, he said.

Clarification: Although AMD's latest 65-nm energy-efficient chips announced in this article all run at 65 watts TDP, the company included power numbers based on a 35-watt chip as well.