AMD and Intel Compare Future Server Processors in SPEC
 

Performance of current central processing units may impress, but nothing impresses more than the speed of the forthcoming products. Both Advanced Micro Devices and Intel Corp. have released SPECfp_rate2006 and SPECint_rate2006 test results of their unreleased processors recently on their web-sites to impress the public.

If SPEC benchmark results published by AMD and Intel are to be believed, then a system with two Intel Xeon quad-core microprocessors based on the new micro-architecture at 3.20GHz clock-speed will offer much higher floating point performance than currently available dual-processor server machines. While the results of a 2P machine featuring a pair of quad-core AMD Opteron at 2.50GHz reveal potential, its performance is much slower compared to a 2P Intel Xeon 5400-series-based machine (with 3.20GHz CPU clock speed and 1.60GHz processor system bus speed) in the crucial SPECfp_2006, according to Intel (see slide 18 of this presentation).

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/dis...927182046.html