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Blog: Hardware Smack all Over with Intel's Smackover
Kristopher Kubicki (Blog) - December 4, 2007 12:35 AM

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39 comment(s) - last by Hawkido.. on Dec 7 at 11:16 AM

(Source: Intel)

It's not the next drug, but it is Intel's next-generation ultra-high-end motherboard

Although this might be a little inconsequential to post in a blog, I just wanted to point out that Intel's next-generation Skulltrail replacement is technically on the roadmap for Q4 2008.

It's name: Smackover. This server motherboard, rebranded as a halo desktop product, will only compete at the ultra-high-end enthusiast segment -- a market AMD recently exited.

Also like Skulltrail, Smackover is essentially a server motherboard with overclocking abilities for the upcoming Nehalem processor, also slated for release in Q4 2008. The board will use the Tylersburg server chipset with ICH10R.

Intel designates its product codenames off various points of interest on U.S. maps. Smackover, as it would happen, is actually a small town in Arkansas. It had to be somewhere I suppose.

Intel guidance is light on details, though representatives (off the record) would confirm that the board features 3-channel DDR3 and an LGA1366 socket.

Just remember friends, smack kills!

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when is the Nimrod platform coming out?

By johnsonx on 12/4/2007 3:08:38 AM , Rating: 5

quote:
Intel designates its product codenames off various points of interest on U.S. maps.

Then no doubt Nimrod, MN will get the next honors?

Speaking of that, not too far from Nimrod (well, ok, 30 miles or so), there's a road named 'Oink Joint Road'. Perhaps that's a better name for Nehalem's new interconnect?

RE: when is the Nimrod platform coming out?

By Spivonious on 12/4/2007 9:01:50 AM , Rating: 3

Why not Intercourse, PA? Or perhaps Blue Ball, PA? No, maybe Bird-in-Hand, PA instead.

Yes these are all real places, and yes they are all within 30 minutes of me.

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RE: when is the Nimrod platform coming out?

By Fenixgoon on 12/4/2007 10:03:51 AM , Rating: 2

don't forget, you need to go through Intercourse, PA to get to Paradise, PA! =)

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RE: when is the Nimrod platform coming out?

By Michael Hoffman on 12/4/2007 6:47:54 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
don't forget, you need to go through Intercourse, PA to get to Paradise, PA! =)

You guys are too much! :)

Speaking of all these weird sounding places, I used to live in Paradise... :P

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RE: when is the Nimrod platform coming out?

By BladeVenom on 12/5/2007 8:35:18 AM , Rating: 1

The best is F*cking Austria.

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RE: when is the Nimrod platform coming out?

By LeviBeckerson

(blog) on 12/6/2007 5:37:44 AM , Rating: 2

What is it with you following me around, Mike? I lived in Lancaster for about a year. That's pretty close to Intercourse and Paradise and Bird in Hand and Lititz... Etc etc.

Does this mean I have to move to SanFran soon? Eep.

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RE: when is the Nimrod platform coming out?

By Spivonious on 12/7/2007 8:35:04 AM , Rating: 2

Heh, who knew there were so many Lancastrians here? I never thought of Lititz as a naughty town name though...

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RE: when is the Nimrod platform coming out?

By Ratwar on 12/4/2007 11:40:57 AM , Rating: 2

Or Cummings, GA...

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RE: when is the Nimrod platform coming out?

By johnsonx on 12/4/2007 12:41:04 PM , Rating: 2

oh, yeah, lol, I've actually been to Cummings too!

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RE: when is the Nimrod platform coming out?

By Clauzii on 12/4/2007 7:27:50 PM , Rating: 2

What's in Cummings besides a lot of Cummings?

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RE: when is the Nimrod platform coming out?

By jtemplin on 12/6/2007 1:54:04 AM , Rating: 2

An absence of goings? ; )

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RE: when is the Nimrod platform coming out?

By Hawkido on 12/7/2007 11:16:55 AM , Rating: 2

Well, there are more interestingly named places in Arkansas.

How about Toad Suck or just plain Weiner?

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RE: when is the Nimrod platform coming out?

By NicePants42 on 12/4/2007 11:09:03 AM , Rating: 3

While I'd be first in line to purchase a brand new motherboard based on the new Beaverlick (KY), Ballville (OH), Dyckesville (WI) or Bloody Dick (MT) platform, what I'd really like is for someone in the UK to start making chips. Then we'd have beauties like:

Titty Ho
Nether Wallop
Cocktown
Shitlingthorpe

*All humor courtesy of http://www.dribbleglass.com/Jokes/town-names.htm

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RE: when is the Nimrod platform coming out?

By Clauzii on 12/4/2007 7:45:30 PM , Rating: 2

One more then:

Beaver Mills, Alabama. Happy place to be ;)

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RE: when is the Nimrod platform coming out?

By DM0407 on 12/5/2007 1:31:20 PM , Rating: 2

How about:
Mianus CT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mianus,_Connecticut

Maybe that should have been the K10 designation...

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RE: when is the Nimrod platform coming out?

By Misty Dingos on 12/4/2007 11:57:22 AM , Rating: 2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lizard_Lick,_North_Ca...

I live down the road from Lizard Lick. Now that is the name for a chipset/motherboard.

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RE: when is the Nimrod platform coming out?

By PontifexMaximus on 12/4/2007 1:07:45 PM , Rating: 3

If you're speaking of MN, then one needs to include towns like Fertile, Climax, or Moorhead. There once was a tragic newspaper headline that read: "Fertile woman dies in Climax on her way to Moorhead."

Yep, geographically, at least, it's possible.

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RE: when is the Nimrod platform coming out?

By Clauzii on 12/4/2007 7:29:29 PM , Rating: 2

ROFL :)

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RE: when is the Nimrod platform coming out?

By johnsonx on 12/4/2007 10:40:37 PM , Rating: 2

LOL, that's funny. I've heard of Moorhead (though I never read it *that* way), but Fertile and Climax are new ones to me. I'm not from Minnesota, just visit there yearly; my in-laws have a house on a lake in nw MN. I always get a laugh when we drive past the turnoffs to Nimrod and Oink Joint Road (off the 74 just north of Wadena).

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RE: when is the Nimrod platform coming out?

By johnsonx on 12/4/2007 10:49:45 PM , Rating: 2

the magic of Google:

http://www.celestialmonochord.org/2007/07/oink-joi...

That's probably a photo of the sign for the other end of the road, as he describes it as being off the 10 past Wadena; I've never been past Wadena on the 10, I always see the sign off the 74 north.

I don't know any more about the road than that guy does, but a hog farm was also my guess. Now if it were somewhere in the South, perhaps the road would lead to an awesome BBQ rib place called the Oink Joint.

What was the topic of the article I'm supposed to be commenting on again? Clearly I've forgotten.

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RE: when is the Nimrod platform coming out?

By therealnickdanger on 12/4/2007 11:18:27 PM , Rating: 2

You guys gotta stop making fun of my state!

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Future Intel Platform Names....

By GaryJohnson on 12/4/2007 1:46:30 AM , Rating: 2

Smashamd, Crushamd, and Amdentrailstastelikechicken

RE: Future Intel Platform Names....

By mars777 on 12/4/2007 9:25:32 AM , Rating: 2

But are more affordable :)

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RE: Future Intel Platform Names....

By cochy on 12/4/2007 9:33:29 AM , Rating: 5

Winchestertonvilletown

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Nice

By Runiteshark on 12/4/2007 2:44:18 PM , Rating: 2

I actually like the name of this.

AMD has traditionally always had the coolest names. Think about it;

Off of the top of my head:

Intel:
Cloverton
Kentsfield
Wolfdale
Klamath
Smithfield
Northwood
Tylersberg
Allendale

AMD:
Bulldozer
Clawhammer / Sledgehammer (desktop / server)
Chomper (K6-2 anyone?)
Spitfire
T-birds
SPARTA!!!!! (Single core crappy sempron in K10 guise I believe)

Of course AMD had some stupid ones too, like San Diego, Toledo, Orleans, etc...

But still, to me, seeing all of Intel's core names, which to me have a ritzy overdone (Clovertown) sound to them, and then seeing AMD's crass naming scheme (Bulldozer) always makes me chuckle.

RE: Nice

By Master Kenobi

(blog) on 12/4/07, Rating: 0

RE: Nice

By Clauzii on 12/4/2007 7:26:20 PM , Rating: 2

But then again: What might the Spiders web catch when it's completed?

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RE: Nice

By AmberClad on 12/4/2007 4:58:35 PM , Rating: 2

Speaking of Smithfield - Intel probably didn't do much research before deciding on that one. Virginians like me see that name, and we immediately think of ham. Although...given Pentium D's piggish power requirements, it's somewhat fitting.

Bad Axe was fairly decent - I thought it was amusing how they skated around an obscenity with that one (perhaps intentionally?). Skulltrail - little on the cheesy side, but considering AMD no longer has anything to match it, with the death of QuadFX, it's justifiable.

Wolfdale and Bearlake aren't bad either.

Smackover is pretty undeniable in-your-face. There's little doubt in my mind who the Intel guys think they laid the Smack-down all Over ;).

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smackdown + game over = smackover

By GeorgeOrwell on 12/5/2007 6:02:55 AM , Rating: 2

Three Rivers, OR -- Intel releases the triple fork monster that will deliver the full body smackdown that AMD has so long been asking for.

Seriously... if Intel does a good job on this memory controller, it will be an actual significant step forward for PC performance, giving Intel's advanced cache designs some serious backend memory bandwidth and reasonable latency at long last.

All this and a pin count very similar to AMD's Socket-F(+). That doesn't bode well for AMD.

Maybe if AMD can finish Barcelona+ and get it ported to 45nm with larger L2 and L3 caches, AMD will have a chance. It may take a redesign of the integer side of Barcelona too, to get an integer IPC that is better than Intel's.

This is a lot of work for a company that has not successfully delivered anything new to the market beyond Opteron. It all spells acquisition, probably by the end of 2008.

RE: smackdown + game over = smackover

By crystal clear on 12/5/2007 6:53:15 AM , Rating: 2

Time for some real jokes-really I am not joking.......

Ruiz commented "If you look at the last five years, if you look at what major innovations have occurred in computing technology, every single one of them came from AMD. Not a single innovation came from Intel".

WOW fantastic.....heres more.....

Ruiz further opined that "So I would say that Intel is trying to catch up with us in that respect" and loaded the verbal shotgun with this magnificent literary gem "Intel continues... to abuse their monopoly and that's why around the world governments and regulatory agencies continue to go after them."

http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/07/12/01/1017...

"So I would say that Intel is trying to catch up with us in that respect"

Looks like the desert heat & sandstorms of Dubai made him a bit.......(you finish the sentence)

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RE: smackdown + game over = smackover

By GeorgeOrwell on 12/6/2007 7:07:36 AM , Rating: 1

It is especially funny, in that sick pathetic way, because AMD has not invented anything in the past 5 years. All of Opteron is older than 5 years.

And then we might was well take a peek at "AMD's" technology:

HyperTransport was grifted from the Transputer. Which is circa 1987.

The on-chip memory controller was borrowed from the DEC Alpha. Circa 1990? (I didn't look this one up).

These are the two main AMD contributions to x86 design, not including AMD64 / x86_64. Which was nothing more than what Intel had done when they went from 16 bit (286) to 32 bit (386). AMD copied what Intel had done, but from 32 to 64.

Even their Athlon was based on the technology they bought when they acquired Nexgen.

Overall, AMD is not a company that can say they truly invented much of anything.

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Intel warranty

By crystal clear on 12/5/2007 4:33:05 AM , Rating: 2

Since we are discussing motherboards,then it worth while to get some Tntel views from about warranty.

Intel's view of the matter is that it considers its warranty voided if its products are operated outside of their specifications, regardless of whether the product in question is a CPU or a chipset. If a motherboard vendor advertises the overclocking potential of its product, then that company is liable for any damage to the CPU or the chipset that results from overclocking, and has to cover the cost.

In other words, if a motherboard maker claims that its board is designed for a 400 MHz FSB (1600QDR), then it has to ensure that the product is up to that task by using voltage regulators that can handle the higher strain without producing errors or becoming unstable. Based on Intel's statements about the new chipset for its 400 MHz FSB CPUs (1600QDR), we see that Intel is discouraging the use of the X38 chipset for this purpose, and will only guarantee compatibility with the X48 chipset.

Further-

If you buy a Core 2 Extreme QX9700, you should be able to run it in an X38-based board, which is, incidentally, exactly what Intel suggested we do to test this processor in the first place. However, if things do go wrong and the CPU or board are damaged, things may turn sour for you. Intel would most likely waive any warranty claims on the grounds that the chipset was being used outside of its specifications.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/11/27/intel_core_...

RE: Intel warranty

By crystal clear on 12/5/2007 4:37:54 AM , Rating: 2

sorry for the mix up-should read
"then its worth while to get some Tntel views about warranty".

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Smack kills!

By Clauzii on 12/4/2007 7:47:33 PM , Rating: 1

Yeah right it kills. The user!

RE: Smack kills!

By Clauzii on 12/4/2007 11:42:30 PM , Rating: 2

My point was that using the word 'smack' in Smackover might not sound good, because it's not the competitor (here ie. AMD) that get killed but Yourself (ie. Intel).

So it seemed strange to use it as a ending line in the article, since smack kills one self. Nothing more..

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And now - For the conspiracy people:

By Clauzii on 12/4/2007 8:09:02 PM , Rating: 2

From http://www.ghosttowns.com/ :

NAME: THREE SAINTS BAY
ROADS: None
REMAINS: Nothing.

"Three Saints Bay was settled in 1784 as a trading center for the Russian furring fleet. In 1792, the town was destroyed by an earthquake and resulting tsunami."

--

If the years are converted so 1784 are 1993, then 1792 would be 2001. This would mean nothing if it wasn't for the text description of "THREE SAINTS BAY"...

Almost like a code-name if 9/11 was an inside job...
Nah, couln't be..

--

Oh and regarding new names for PC stuff?

Intel: Hoovercraft
AMD: I-got-a-crush-on-You-Hammer