amd .vs intel....

[Steve Brueckner]

>On Tue, 2005-12-13 at 11:00 -0500, Steve Brueckner wrote:
>>Gilboa Davara wrote:
>>> On Tue, 2005-12-13 at 09:39 -0500, Steve Brueckner wrote:
>>>> I'd love to buy an AMD for the performance, but they appear to be
>>>> lagging by at least half a year on virtualization support.  Intel's
>>>> VT-enabled chips are due out in the next couple of months, while
>>>> AMD's Pacifica-enabled chips aren't due out until late 2006.
>>>
>>> You sure?
>>> As far as I remember Intel's VT is scheduled to release in Q1/2006.
>>> AMD's Pacifica is scheduled to be release in H1/2006 (Q1?) on for
>>> both Opteron (Socket F) and the Athlon64 (Socket M2 / Windsor). =20
>>>
>>> Did AMD's schedule change?
>>> Gilboa
>>
>> Well, Anandtech has Pacifica and end of Q2 '06, which is "a little later
>> than expected" according to Digitimes.  Meanwhile, sample VT chips are
>> already available.  So there is at least a few months lag, but maybe it
>> won't be as long as six months.
>>
>> The other half of the equation is the Xen team.  They have been working
with
>> the VT spec and apparently already have VT support working in Xen 3.0.  I
>> haven't heard anything similarly promising about Pacifica support at this
>> point, but I'd love to be proved wrong.
>
> http://www2.getxen.com/news/pr120505b.html
>
> Xen 3.0 supports Intel Virtualization Technology, which allows
> virtualized servers to run natively on the processor, exploiting
> hardware acceleration for CPU and memory virtualization. This support is
> key to Xen's ability to virtualize all operating systems. Xen will also
> support AMD's Pacifica hardware virtualization early in 2006.

That's good news, but still indicates a lag of at least a few months on both

the hardware and softare ends when it comes to Pacifica.  This is too late
for 
me personally, but shouldn't be a problem for most folks.  Of course, you
can't 
blame the Xen team for supporting VT now, and waiting on Pacifica support
until 
Pacifica chips are actually available.

I'm really impressed with AMD and there's no doubt they're ahead in almost
every 
respect.  I'm just pointing out one small area in which they're lagging and
how 
it affects me personally.

 - Steve