AMD Bulldozer Architecture - Chess Performance Predictions

[Werewolf]

Bob,
If a Bulldozer processor had 4 modules and therefore 8 'cores' (I have read your argument above, hence the quotes) - how many chess engines could such a processor run: 4 or 8?

I use IDeA a lot so this is relevant to me. I don't understand whether such a processor is basically a fast quad or a crippled 8 core.

What do you think?

[bob]

Bob,
If a Bulldozer processor had 4 modules and therefore 8 'cores' (I have read your argument above, hence the quotes) - how many chess engines could such a processor run: 4 or 8?

I use IDeA a lot so this is relevant to me. I don't understand whether such a processor is basically a fast quad or a crippled 8 core.

What do you think?

You will have to test. As the number of cores ramps up, so does memory traffic. It is not easy to predict how this will affect results... It certainly should do OK with 4, but the "8* option is, at the moment, unclear. Once I run on one I will know...