Learn more about AMD 12core internals

The two dies of AMD’s ‘Magny-Cours’ processor will be connected by means of a Hypertransport link. That reports Fudzilla. This configuration is more efficient than Intel’s mcm solution.

Due to the direct Hypertransport link between the two ‘Sao Paulo’ dies on the Magny-Cours, according to Fudzilla accessing and synchronizing each other’s L2 cache is a less time-consuming procedure than Intel’s solution where the two Core 2 Duo dies on the processor communicate with each other via the northbridge chip. Also, the AMD approach, called Direct Connect Module, consumes less bandwidth from the connection. Furthermore, the dies of AMD’s double slice see the two 6MB L2 caches as one large 12MB.

Time is against AMD. The Magny-Cours will only be available in the first half of 2010, while Intel’s Nehalem architecture with Quickpath as a replacement for the FSB should appear at the end of this year. Intel’s development and production train seems unstoppable.