Posted on Thursday, August 23 2012 @ 21:32 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
X-bit Labs
delivers word that AMD's 16-core Piledriver-based "Abu Dhabi" server procesors may hit the market in September. The first chips will be aimed at high-performance servers and will have a low clockspeed.
Piledriver micro-architecture that many pinned a lot of hopes on as on a breakthrough for Advanced Micro Devices when it comes to x86 performance has so far failed to impress with the low-power mobile accelerated processing units (APUs) code-named Trinity. Moreover, it will take some time before code-named Vishera chips with Piledriver cores reach desktops as the first high-performance multi-core processors with Piledriver cores to be released will be aimed at servers, which do not exactly require extreme performance demanded by the high-end desktops, reports VR-Zone web-site.
Although Advanced Micro Devices clearly knows how to build energy-efficient microprocessors for mobile computers, in the recent years the company has failed to release high-performance chips for desktops. Apparently, Piledriver micro-architecture will hardly become AMD's "saviour" when it comes to per-core x86 performance. Trinity may offer decent speed for mainstream PCs, but the eight-core and six-core FX-series processors will barely offer much better performance than existing models, which is why AMD is concentrating on multi-core offerings for servers.
