bit-tech.net | AMD 4x4 is ASUS-only for now

Mankz 20th November 2006, 18:13

that seems a bit silly.

More partners surely means more products. If Asus put the price too high, no one will buy them and then there is no allternative.

M4RTIN 20th November 2006, 18:20

i thought it was supposed to be proper 4 core, looks like 2 boards cobbled together to make one to me..

plus this is the one cpu amd need to go against the high end home user who would otherwise buy a kentsfield, if this isnt shooting yourself in the foot i dont know what is

specofdust 20th November 2006, 18:23

That's an incredibly stupid thing to have done. They talk about AMD 4x4 being for the real hardcore consumers, the ones who want to have the best tech by far. Those are the exact people who want plenty of choice for things like mobo's to suit their individual needs and we can be quite sure Asus aren't going to produce 10 different Quadfather mobo's. Stupid AMD.

LoneArchon 20th November 2006, 18:27

It maybe that asus is the launch suppler and other companys will jump on after it hit retail. I will wait and see but the 4x4 will be nice when amd quad cores come out having 8 cores in one system

overdosedelusion 20th November 2006, 18:32

im sick of AMD at the moment. It's like theyre spoon feeding us what they think we should have in our diet. If we don't like it, we go up to our rooms, kick and scream, go hungry for a few hours, and then we come back down eat it.

First with the ATI merger, and now with extremely strict product restrictions. gay ass.

Buzzons 20th November 2006, 18:35

so, right, 4x4 = 2 cpus with 2 cores on each cpu (just to state what it is)

how is this NEW? you could have 2 intel p2's on one board (my old dell had dual 400mhz p2s) , ok so they put two cores on it.. big deal? its not like having two CPUs is anything new, its been going on in the server side / workstation side for like.. ever. Intel could just do the same thing with a quad core and have 2 of them... ooo 8 cores, 8x2!! yay :p

and how is it 4x4? surly its 2x2??? 2 cores, 2 cpus == 4 cores? or is it 4 cores on each cpu, but then thats still 4x2, unless its 4 CPUS!! then that is cool :p

BUFF 20th November 2006, 18:36

4x4 is a server platform afaik & how many server mobo mfrs were there for 940?
OK, more than 1 but certainly nowhere near as many as for 939 etc.

Tyinsar 20th November 2006, 19:33

Many AMD enthusiasts support AMD partly because they like to root for the "little guy" - they want an alternative to the giant with a near monopoly (Intel, MS, iPod,...). While Asus has made a great name for themselves this agreement is a slap in the face to many of AMD's fans. IMHO The only valid reason I can see for this is that AMD might have to share some secrets to make 4x4 work and ~~wanted~~ needed to limit who they share those secrets with.

I WAS looking forward to AMD's counter to Conroe & Kentsfield but this... BOO!

aggies11 20th November 2006, 20:04

4x4 smacks of existing mostly for marketing/advertising reasons anyhow. It doesn't seem to be a "realistic" plattform for end users. The name alone kills me, heh.

So even if they do gimp it, by going with only one board partner, I can't see it having that large of an impact.

Aggies

perplekks45 20th November 2006, 20:43

Whoa! 4x4 seems to be great! *click sarcasm_mode turned off

Hasn't there been the possibility of using more than 2 CPUs on one MB? Opterons, Xeons?

Buzzons 20th November 2006, 20:55

yes, very much so lol, and i still dont get where the 4x4 comes from?!? anyone?

4 cores : yes
2 cpus : yes
1 motherboard : yes

so wheres the other 4?

LoneArchon 20th November 2006, 20:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buzzons
yes, very much so lol, and i still dont get where the 4x4 comes from?!? anyone?

4 cores : yes
2 cpus : yes
1 motherboard : yes

so wheres the other 4?

quad sli with 4x 16x pci connectors 2 running at 8x with the other 2 running at 16x

SuiSid3l 20th November 2006, 21:17

wow bit-tech needs to catch up with some of the idiots on this site. tru that AMD is only going with ASUS for an undetermined amount of time in the early stages of 4x4. Mostly I assume b/c they were joint partners in producing the board.

And 4x4 has nothing to do with the cores by themselves. do some research b4 you start bashing a tech you have absolutely no knowledge of. fanboyism at its best.

4x4 is simply a term for having 4 cores coupled with 4 video cards with 4 gigs of ram with 4 hard drives. But saying 4x4x4x4 is a little too much so they cut it back to simply 4x4.

Its a little extreme and no one at AMD is claiming that this is new technology, just simply that its a new approach. last time i check those dual p2 400 boards didnt come with two northbridges or 4 pcix slots?

You bashing this tech is just like any other fanboy bashing the PS3 or 360 in about a million other threads. Its simple, if you dont want/need/like it...then..DONT BUY IT. nuff said.

Neogumbercules 20th November 2006, 21:23

I wonder if AMD will ship "4x4 Ready" CPU packages that include 2 CPUs with 2 HSFs in one box. For a discount, of course. Or perhaps the CPUs will be close enough to use one elaborate cooling solution to cool both, sort of like PS3s massive cooling unit.

I can see how this causes all kinds of problems, but it's not like Asus is a bad brand. However, competition drives advancement. If no one is around to take their crown they might be less likely to vastly improve their product or sell it at competitive rates.

Bindibadgi 20th November 2006, 21:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neogumbercules
I wonder if AMD will ship "4x4 Ready" CPU packages that include 2 CPUs with 2 HSFs in one box. For a discount, of course. Or perhaps the CPUs will be close enough to use one elaborate cooling solution to cool both, sort of like PS3s massive cooling unit.

I can see how this causes all kinds of problems, but it's not like Asus is a bad brand. However, competition drives advancement. If no one is around to take their crown they might be less likely to vastly improve their product or sell it at competitive rates.

There will be. L1FX socket will ONLY house FX processors and those will come in "sub 1k" packages.

speedfreek 20th November 2006, 22:00

I cant see how this can be good, I think AMD is pulling an intel.

Lazarus Dark 20th November 2006, 22:45

come on people! how many people are going to get this? this is UBER high end. only for the elite who can buy those ten grand alienware jobies. the typical gamer or even enthusiast will not be able to afford this, period. this is like amd's flagship model; like ford has the gt40 and dodge has the viper (im american). So in my mind it makes sense to keep it to one manufacturer since this is a low volume product. And in that case, asus is the perfect choice; they are well known for making the most high end, fully loaded, fully featured mobos.

Lazarus Dark 20th November 2006, 22:48

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=4963

Just in: pictures of asus 4x4!

B3CK 20th November 2006, 22:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by SuiSid3l
wow bit-tech needs to catch up with some of the idiots on this site. tru that AMD is only going with ASUS for an undetermined amount of time in the early stages of 4x4. Mostly I assume b/c they were joint partners in producing the board.

And 4x4 has nothing to do with the cores by themselves. do some research b4 you start bashing a tech you have absolutely no knowledge of. fanboyism at its best.

4x4 is simply a term for having 4 cores coupled with 4 video cards with 4 gigs of ram with 4 hard drives. But saying 4x4x4x4 is a little too much so they cut it back to simply 4x4.

Its a little extreme and no one at AMD is claiming that this is new technology, just simply that its a new approach. last time i check those dual p2 400 boards didnt come with two northbridges or 4 pcix slots?

You bashing this tech is just like any other fanboy bashing the PS3 or 360 in about a million other threads. Its simple, if you dont want/need/like it...then..DONT BUY IT. nuff said.

I do think this thread has started with a little too much fanboy'ism. We have seen this before. I can understand that they are wanting to both "test the market", and "iron out the bugs" by limiting production to a select manufacturer. The only thing I see wrong with this attitude, is that they are actually going to sell the "token" setup; (I guess, "It's the business of business to make money, or else it is a charity." rings true.). I would rather "hear", about this, and wait another 6-9 months and get the whole spectrum. But hey, I guess they need some self promotion every now and again. Something along the lines of "Any publicity is good publicity".

ỒĊBłůē 20th November 2006, 23:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lazarus Dark
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=4963

Just in: pictures of asus 4x4!

I hope that's work in progress because that's not a pretty board.

Rich_13 20th November 2006, 23:17

when the tech is getting as complicated as this and you want good launches your going to limit certain aspects of the launch. Maybe the other partners need time for the r'n'd etc. At least.

Then again if they don't have a good launch with this method it can be a major mistake i guess.

DXR_13KE 21st November 2006, 00:02

to much uber high end of me......

cavornex 21st November 2006, 00:16

Sounds like lack of foresight by Asustek clowns...

Buzzons 21st November 2006, 01:08

I wasnt trying to be a fanboy, i just really didnt understand what all the fuss was about, but now looking at that board, i still dont get it!

surly a dual opteron system, with 8 DIMMs would be better than that? and probably cheaper as well?

Cthippo 21st November 2006, 01:12

Keep in mind this is only a stopgap until K8L comes out, so they may just not want to make a huge fuss anf get fully invested in this.

Bindibadgi 21st November 2006, 03:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by cavornex
Sounds like lack of foresight by Asustek clowns...

What? Why Asustek? They are just a massive mobo manufacturer who have secured an exclusive workstation board contract.

Nature 21st November 2006, 04:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rich_13
when the tech is getting as complicated as this and you want good launches your going to limit certain aspects of the launch. Maybe the other partners need time for the r'n'd etc. At least.

Then again if they don't have a good launch with this method it can be a major mistake i guess.

Tacos, and sometimes geese.

Tyinsar 21st November 2006, 05:26

Ah, after looking @ the specs - I'll wait for K8L

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nature
Tacos, and sometimes geese.

in a light whine sauce :D

Quote:

Originally Posted by SuiSid3l
wow bit-tech needs to catch up with some of the idiots on this site...

I appreciate the input but the approach was a little over the top - it's not worth committing SuiSid3 over :D

JADS 21st November 2006, 05:34

I wonder if the Intel 975, Nvidia 680i or the RD600 support two processors? It would surely be some coup for Intel if they could launch a dual processor board with their existing Core Duo processors :) Or in fact the new Quadro leading to a consumer system with eight cores!

Cthippo 21st November 2006, 06:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by JADS
I wonder if the Intel 975, Nvidia 680i or the RD600 support two processors? It would surely be some coup for Intel if they could launch a dual processor board with their existing Core Duo processors :) Or in fact the new Quadro leading to a consumer system with eight cores!

I can't speak for all dual processor mobos, but my K8WE has two independent chipsets, each of which have thier own chunk of the memory and various slots.

On mine there is a nForce 2200 connected to CPU 1 which also is connected to half the memory slots, one of the PCIx16 slots and the IDE port. The other chipset is a nForce 2050 which is connected to the rest of the memory, the other PCIx16 the SATA ports and the SCSI controller.

I think basically multiple CPU boards are two parallel computers on one board with some shared assets. How the two systems communicate with eachother is somthing I can't answer.

JADS 21st November 2006, 06:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cthippo
I think basically multiple CPU boards are two parallel computers on one board with some shared assets. How the two systems communicate with eachother is somthing I can't answer.

I think that rather depends on the processor/motherboard. With AMDs hypertransport linking individual processors, northbridges and supporting chipsets I think that argument holds, but Intel generally uses a shared FSB. This would lead to two processors sharing a single system rather than two individual systems intercommunicating.

Old timers will remember the Abit BP6 that allowed you to run two Intel PIII processors :) Bring back the good times I say!

DougEdey 21st November 2006, 07:31

As has been pointed out 4X4 is just something to say "We can do this", as far as I can tell its effectively two PCs joined together. I can imagine it being a huge Rendering powerhouse but the cost will make it into a Trophy system.

I am waiting to see AMDs native quad core to see how the numbers perform before upgrading.

Mother-Goose 21st November 2006, 09:04

Something nobody has mentioned is: "What is the point?" why didn't AMD just concentrate on gettin the K8L out? Maybe it is just me but this doesn't seem to make an awful lot of sense.

Cthippo 21st November 2006, 09:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mother-Gooser
Something nobody has mentioned is: "What is the point?" why didn't AMD just concentrate on gettin the K8L out? Maybe it is just me but this doesn't seem to make an awful lot of sense.

Hype in place of substance. THey can take some old (and I might add, proven) technology off the shelf, add a few twists, and throw some marketing hype on it and it looks like they're doing somthing to compete with Core2 / kentsfield. Meanwhile, it buys them some breathing room until they can get K8L realdy for a hard launchI'm guessing that's why they're not pushing 4x4 as aggressively as they could because they know it's only a stopgap.

overdosedelusion 21st November 2006, 09:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by JADS
Or in fact the new Quadro leading to a consumer system with eight cores!

this will happen, mark my words ;)

intel xeon boards will have 2 qaud chips, but 8 cores is rumoured to be coming out 2007 (i say rumoured because it could get people into trouble)

Bladestorm 21st November 2006, 10:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mother-Gooser
Something nobody has mentioned is: "What is the point?" why didn't AMD just concentrate on gettin the K8L out? Maybe it is just me but this doesn't seem to make an awful lot of sense.

Depends whats limiting K8L development really, it might well be the case that they have as many CPU specialist engineers working on it as are usefull (ie to the point where adding more actually slows things down) or they have some other problem to solve which they can't get past by simply throwing more money/resources at, so they put other engineers on developing this (which is probably an easier job to be honest)

Mother-Goose 21st November 2006, 10:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cthippo
Hype in place of substance. THey can take some old (and I might add, proven) technology off the shelf, add a few twists, and throw some marketing hype on it and it looks like they're doing somthing to compete with Core2 / kentsfield. Meanwhile, it buys them some breathing room until they can get K8L realdy for a hard launchI'm guessing that's why they're not pushing 4x4 as aggressively as they could because they know it's only a stopgap.

I had not looked at it like that, it seems to make more sense now with that in mind.

Quote:

Depends whats limiting K8L development really, it might well be the case that they have as many CPU specialist engineers working on it as are usefull (ie to the point where adding more actually slows things down) or they have some other problem to solve which they can't get past by simply throwing more money/resources at, so they put other engineers on developing this (which is probably an easier job to be honest)

Yeh I thought of that, but hadn't looked at the 4x4 as an ass covering manouver, makes alot more sense.

Did I hear correctly that the K8L is going to be on 90nm?

Skill3d 21st November 2006, 12:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lazarus Dark
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=4963

Just in: pictures of asus 4x4!

it's a nice board, I like the integrated optical sound output...

although i would h2o-cool everything for better stability?... (hell if u can buy all the stuff along with this board, sure u can h2o cool everything..)

and is there enough room for GFX-card coolers? :|

specofdust 21st November 2006, 12:37

Anyone else starting to think that 4x4 looks, well, s**t?

overdosedelusion 21st November 2006, 13:13

*raises hand*

Mankz 21st November 2006, 16:50

http://xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1835805#post1835805

ỒĊBłůē 21st November 2006, 17:23

^ Nice link ;)

Two words - cable management?

It's safe to assume that that board has just about everything on it, but you're pretty b*ggered if you want to add much more in. I don't see those bottom two cards getting much cooling either.

DXR_13KE 21st November 2006, 18:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by specofdust
Anyone else starting to think that 4x4 looks, well, s**t?

same here.

Log in

AMD 4x4 is ASUS-only for now

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