We here at HotHardware certainly
don't get a chance to go to enough of the industry's major
trade shows. That's why when one is actually held in
our back yard, like this year's
PC Expo, we show up there with bells on. Well, OK
maybe sans the bells but you get the idea, we're all over
it.
Our first stop was a meeting
with AMD in
there top secret conference room in the lower level of the
Javits Center. We spent about an hour or so with
two Marketing Managers from their Commercial Systems Group.
The
AMD 760 Multi-Processing chipset and the Athlon MP
processor, were center stage for AMD at this show.
Both of our AMD hosts were wearing AMD logo golf shirts with
the words "AMD Means Business" embroidered on them.
Athlon MP Dual Processor Web
Server
Using Tyan's 760 Based Motherboard
This is a very true statement.
AMD's Multi-Processing platform looks to be a solid
contender in the Enterprise space. We were shown
benchmark after benchmark score in their presentation, of
Athlon MP systems exceeding Pentium III SMP solutions by a
significant margin, in most all tests.
For sure the numbers were
compelling but perhaps even more impressive was the fact
that the Athlon family of processors would scale in
performance all the way up to AMD's 64 bit Hammer Processor
line, while staying in the same Socket A footprint.
Sledge Hammer and Claw Hammer will have different sockets
obviously due to an entirely new design. However, it
looks like good ol' socket A has a few more years of legs
behind it. This was something we all wish Intel would
take notes on for sure.
Next we were shown a couple of
performance demos on an Athlon DDR based system versus a
Pentium 4/ RAMBUS combo.
This setup pitted a 1.4GHz.
Athlon DDR based system against a 1.7GHz. P4 RAMBUS system.
They were running a 3DStudioMax benchmark rendering a
cartoon soldier character in 3D modeling. The 1.4GHz.
T-Bird finished in 55 second and the P4 brought up the rear
at 76 seconds. It goes to show you that more MHz./GHz.
doesn't make a processor necessarily fasters across the
board. However, since we weren't in control of the
actual benchmark and test systems, we'll just take the
number for face value and see for ourselves in the
HotHardware Labs.
Our good friends at
Maxtor
were showing off their latest in BIG drive technology.
In the top left shot (below), is Maxtor's 100Gig 536DX
drive. This is a 5400 RPM model but we were told the
7200 RPM versions were an inevitability. Also, a big
play for Maxtor in this show was
their recent announcement of breaking the 137Gig barrier
that is a limitation of the ATA interface we are all using
in modern PCs today.
In the right hand shot, are
Maxtor's Atlas 10KII and 10K III drives.
What's this? Wasn't the
Atlas 10K line a Quantum product? You bet and since
Maxtor bought Quantum, they have integrated this
fabulous workstation product into their portfolio.
We'll have reviews posted of both the 536DX and Atlas 10K
III, in the months ahead. However, we'll get you
salivating a little now and mention the words "4.5ms
access", for the Atlas 10K III. ;-)
One very impressive notable, in
the left hand shot above, was the size of the higher
capacity, faster, smaller 10KIII versus its 10KII brethren.
Stacked on top of the 10KII in this shot, the 10KIII jams a
whopping 18.4Gigs on a platter, so it has a considerably
lower profile. Yes, yes... we know. You want
one... Finally, in the right hand shot above is
Maxtor's hot new Firewire infused 60Gig external drive.
This model was shown streaming an MPEG-2 video to its PC
host machine, with not even the slightest hint of a drop
frame or stuttering. Professional A/V types rejoice,
this drive has you written all over it.
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