3.0Ghz Opteron in Q2 .... What can it mean?

From here: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=29671

It had been speculated, but now it appears that it may occur. A 3.0Ghz Opteron in "Early Q2" would most certianly have to be a 90nm part.

The first question that entered my mind was "how can they do it"?

Possibly, AMD's higher power envelope with Socket AM2 gives part of the answer. Perhaps the DSL technology provides a bit more. Perhaps a new mask completes the equation?

The second question that entered my mind was "Why do it"?

Nothing Intel has to offer in Q2 can even touch Opteron. If AMD is truly preparing to release a 3.0Ghz Opteron, then I would suspect that Intel has SOME threat that is pushing AMD into this move.

What do you guys make of this?

The way i see it is AMD knows it has the lead, and now wants to pull ahead. If they can go from 1 generation gap between thier best and Intel, and improve it to a 2 or more gen gap, then they have affectivly taken over the market for high end hardware since Intel will be putting out its best, which is only as good as what AMD did 2 releases ago.

I no longer see processors as significant in the hardware sector. Peripherals and MoBos are the choke chain these days............hey this is an old 2.26 P4 and I had it running at 3.066.............

They have not really moved that far............dual core and the rest of the build are now moved ahead of the rather silly "speed" value....................

And then you get to what you run on it?

;)

I agree with nihil, if you have a somewhat recent/decent processor then the FSB and the speed of the ram and video cards are the bottlenecks of today...