AMD talks 45nm Shanghai w/12-cores, HyperTransport 3

AMD engineers this week said that the company plans on introducing new 12-core processors later this year. The first processors based on 45nm Shanghai platform are due later this year and will be nearly identical to the B3 variant of the Socket 1207 Opteron (Barcelona) shipping today, according to DailyTech. The processors will reportedly use the faster HyperTransport 3.0 for inter-CPU communication and will debut later this year as a "native six-core" Shanghai derivative, currently code-named Istanbul. That processor, the report claims, is "clearly targeted at Intel's recently announced six-core, 45nm Dunnington processor." A few months later, Shanghai and its derivatives will also get twin-die per package treatment, allowing for up to 12-cores per package, the report says.

Each of these processors will contain a dual-channel memory controller, allowing a single-core to emulate quad-channel memory functions by accessing the other dual-channel memory controller on the same socket and offering an alternative to Intel's Nehalem tri-channel memory controller, DailyTech notes.

Citing motherboard manufacturers, the report says that Shanghai and its multiple-core derivatives will be backwards compatible with existing Socket 1207 motherboards, but that processor-to-processor communication will downgrade to lower HyperTransport frequencies on older motherboards. The publication also notes that the newer 1207+ motherboards will officially support the HyperTransport 3.0 frequencies.

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Other story tags: AMD, 45nm, CPU, Shanghai, multi-core, processors