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December 13th, 2007

All SPEC CPU results for AMD Barcelona invalidated

Posted by George Ou @ 6:26 am

Categories: AMD, Desktop, Hardware, News, Processors, Servers

Tags: Advanced Micro Devices Inc., CPU, Processors, BIOS, Performance Management, Semiconductors, Hardware, Components, Human Resources, Workforce Management

As of today, all of AMD’s Barcelona SPEC CPU results so far have just been invalidated and labeled “Not-Available” by SPEC due to violation of the 3-month availability clause.  AMD is struggling with availability of its new quad-core “Barcelona” chips because of yield problems in manufacturing and the newly disclosed TLB (Translation Lookaside Buffer) bug.  The TLB bug which causes a performance penalty when patched has forced AMD to stop shipping the Opteron chips to all but a few customers and it is impacting AMD financials.

The TLB bug also affects all AMD “Phenom” branded desktop-variant Barcelona processors though AMD is continuing to launch that part because of the rare nature of the problem.  Customers will have the option to download the BIOS patch at a later time from their motherboard manufacturer.  AMD has confirmed that the fix will come with the next revision called stepping B3 due out in Q1-2008.

George Ou is Technical Director of ZDNet. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.

  • Talkback
  • Most Recent of 40 Talkback(s)
RE: All SPEC CPU results for AMD Barcelona invalidated
Intel must be rubbing its hands together with great glee & anticipation at this news. (Read the rest)
Posted by: pauldoyle98@... Posted on: 12/17/07 You are currently: a Guest | | Terms of Use
Invalidated on a technicality  Robert Crocker | 12/13/07
Not just a technicality  georgeou | 12/13/07
Did the spec program finish?  Robert Crocker | 12/13/07
Guess again.  Absolutely | 12/13/07
Read the SPEC Docuementation  JumpingJack | 12/13/07
Fair?  Narg | 12/14/07
Again... read Spec's policies and guidelines...  JumpingJack | 12/14/07
Invalidated based on unavailability  DevGuy_z | 12/13/07
I have ONE word for SPEC's approach to handling this  TechExec2 | 12/13/07
That was 48 words  georgeou | 12/13/07
I didn't blame this on SPEC  TechExec2 | 12/13/07
Spec's Procedure  JumpingJack | 12/14/07
It's not obnoxious  t_mohajir | 12/13/07
Look up "obnoxious"  TechExec2 | 12/13/07
How material do you want to get?  georgeou | 12/13/07
Not vaporware  Robert Crocker | 12/13/07
re: Not vaporware  Badgered | 12/13/07
The AMD SPEC test results are not invalid  TechExec2 | 12/13/07
Intel knows the SPEC-approved way to "ship" a vaporware processor  TechExec2 | 12/13/07
You are seriously not in "Tech"nology..  thetruthhurts | 12/13/07
You really have a "THING" for me, don't you...  TechExec2 | 12/13/07
Whose head needs to roll over this?  bjbrock | 12/13/07
AMD to OEMs: "My Bad"  nucrash | 12/13/07
"My Bad"  jvenezia | 12/13/07
Does SPEC invalidate results for all out-of-production CPUs? (NT)  WiredGuy | 12/13/07
Out-of-production is not the same as never-released  georgeou | 12/13/07
oh good god  bcroner | 12/13/07
Pentium III 1.13 GHz  Mitch 74 | 12/13/07
Re P3 1.13 GHz  JumpingJack | 12/13/07
Once again AMD overpromises and underdelivers  thetruthhurts | 12/13/07
Hang in there!  djchandler | 12/13/07
Oh, quit your apologistic whining already  thetruthhurts | 12/13/07
And, yes, this was meant for TechExec2  thetruthhurts | 12/13/07
TechExec2, eh?  thetruthhurts | 12/13/07
It exists but not avaialble.  JumpingJack | 12/13/07
AMD success needed ...  johnfenjackson@... | 12/14/07
agreed  Badgered | 12/14/07
short and sweet  JumpingJack | 12/14/07
Please AMD  ralphdb@... | 12/16/07
RE: All SPEC CPU results for AMD Barcelona invalidated  pauldoyle98@... | 12/17/07

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