[XviD-devel] [RFC] AMD64 support

[Hans K. Rosbach]

> Well, looking at the active developers, none has an AMD64 computer.
> I don't pan on buying such a box until the architecture becomes
> more stable hardware wise, i mean there are already 2 sockets in
> a 1 year timelife of the CPU,

Actually there are 3 sockets: 754, 939, 940

754 is for mainstream desktop use. Single memory channel
939 is for heavy duty single-cpu workstations. Dual memory channels
940 is for servers. 1-8 cpus. Dual memory channels per cpu

A new socket roumoured to be 941/942 will be introduced for
the DDR2 capable chips around 2006 when DDR2 is fast and cheap.

> PCI-express is also something being
> in transition... all this is too risky to make a choice now
> I'm pretty sure if i buy an AMD64 now, i'll regret my choice.

PCI express is right around the corner, and makes the choice equally difficult
on the Intel platform aswell. There are big advantages with PCI express, but
it should pose no difference in software other than performance.

As a side note, Tyan is sampling a dual system that incorporates 3 north-bridge
chipsets..! Two nvidia ones, each one has a 16x pci-e and a gbit lan connection.
The third is an AMD chipset that provides two pci-x buses. In other words, the
ultimate enthusiast or server board.. I want one..

> Moreover, amd64 ships with sse2, which is emulated with mmx opcodes...
> so it's slow. amd64 supports mmxext, so why bothering with mmx (if there
> is a xmm version) ? Do you get the dilemna now ? It's not like on ia32 CPUs
> where, to get maxpeed you had to support tons of sub-intruction sets, amd64
> is sort of "standardized" arch at the moment, we can rely on stable
instruction
> set at least for this hardware generation.

The next generation AMD64 cpus are roumoured to be SSE3 capable, so
there are interesting things coming in the future aswell.

Also the dual-core cpus will make the speed balance shift somewhat.

-=Dead2=-