It's being published that Barcelona may see 3.0 GHz early next year, if not by the end of this year.  The reason?  AMD is moving to its B2 stepping which, according to a few websites, may resolve many of the speed-hampering issues which prevented AMD from launching Barcelona above 2.0 GHz.  If true, then the 3.0 GHz Barcelona may soon be in our hands making better than good on AMD's original timeline.

According to the link below, Opterons may see 2.6 GHz this year, with Phenoms at 2.8 GHz. It's possible a 3.0 GHz Phenom could also arrive this year, though it's likely to be early next year.

Note:  Processors go through various steppings or revisions throughout their life.  Brand new silicon is called A0.  When a company reaches the ponit where it has A0 silicon the design is said to be "taped out."  From there, it goes on to A1, A2, A3, etc, as future changes to the base design are made.  The A designation indicates a significant design stage while the number component indicates the revision or minor change within that design.  When moving from something like A3 to B0, a more significant revision to the core architecture is made.  This could introduce new instructions, new compute abilities, a new memory controller, allow for a faster front-side bus, add more cache, or really anything which is a signfiicant redesign.  From there it's on to B1, B2, B3, etc.  Then C0..n, D0..n, E0..n, and so on.  AMD's 65nm Opterons are currently on a new method of step identification, called CG.

Since AMD64 was originally introduced it has seen several fairly major architectural changes, including virtualization, new SIMD abilities and even minor revamps in the CPU's core compute model.  These account for the significant stepping letter changes and the many revisions.

Read more at The Inquirer.

What is B2 stepping?

Oct 03, 2007 12:38     

The multiplier? Sorry I just don't know. [I've updated the article to convey that information. -Rick]
enewmen report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

C'mon Rick

Oct 03, 2007 13:05     

The Inquirer? For their 3-lines of input? Why not take that link straight to Fudzilla where it came from, and skip the middleman. It almost made me doubt the story.. [It does seem a rather substantial change. AMD had previously only stated a 2.5 GHz clock speed by the end of the year. I would suggest each of us consider the source of these reports. -Rick]
Jay report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Thanks for explaining the stepping.

Oct 03, 2007 13:30     

Really!
enewmen report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

WOW!

Oct 03, 2007 14:30     

Hey thanks rick for clearing that up, I too always wondered what this stepping nonsense meant =) If this is true (might be hogwash), it will certainly be wonderful for AMD. Now hopefully Phenom will overclock well in addition to this, and it just may beat out the conroes eh =D Will this be enough to beat out the mighty penryn though?........ The anticipation is killing me!
gamebro report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

ahhh, i c, thanks for the explaination. It sounds l...

Oct 03, 2007 15:08     

ahhh, i c, thanks for the explaination. It sounds like patches and fix packs to software. [Sometimes there are real fixes. Most times it's a revamping of something internal to allow for faster clock speeds, better internal communication, remove bottlenecks, address items which could not be completed before the processor had to be released previously, and in Intel's case at least, it's the physical turning on of technology that was there inside the die previously, just not enabled (HyperThreading, for example, which was present on Willamette and Northwood Pentium 4s before being later enabled). -Rick]

Meng Yan report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

president

Oct 03, 2007 15:13     

B2 Stepping is when your processors get faster clock speeds - Duh! Everyone knows that! B3 stepping is outrageously fast, but I won't get into the technical details for all the newbe's out there. The real joke is that the author of this article seems to throw around B2 stepping like everyone knows what it is.
Jack report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Total BS

Oct 03, 2007 16:15     

If The Inquirer had anything to do with the story, it is total fabrication. Also in the news today, AMD plans to include a fairy in every boxed processor it sells... The fairy will grant the purchaser 3 wishes before doing a dance and transforming itself into Harry Potter. This move will make AMD the first processor company in the world to ship processors with fairies that have Harry Potter like magic.

BSMonitor report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Pentium 4 Y8 FTW Netburst lol We can finally sit...

Oct 03, 2007 16:54     

Pentium 4 Y8 FTW Netburst lol We can finally sit down and laugh at that.
Mayor Adam West report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Jack? Or...

Oct 03, 2007 17:16     

Ha ha ha...that is a pretty funny joke. No, wait, you're just a jerk.
Gryphyn report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Steppings Updated

Oct 03, 2007 17:18     

A0 is first stepping. If you change only top layers of process i.e. metal to use bonus gates you get an A1, A2 etc. These edits are usually to control logic bugs. These go through fab in 1/2 the time. When you do an all layer tapeout that fixes base layers like diffusion, you get a B-Step. Base layer changes are generally required for circuit marginallities or large datapath edits. These take much longer to go through the fabs.

Jill report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

I want one

Oct 03, 2007 17:33     

Gimme gimme!
Barry L report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

B2? Where are the original launched Barcelonas?

Oct 03, 2007 18:10     

Outside of the demo systems sent to a few review sites around the launch date, I can't seem to find any new reviews of actual shipping products.
stngo1 report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

What the heck are you talking about

Oct 03, 2007 18:37     

Jack?? The B2 stepping is definately not when the processor gets faster clock speeds, and B3 even faster. It can be, but it can also be another change to the processor as Rick states, and having nothing to do with the speed. Although I'm sure pretty much any change would help with the speed at least some.
Jay report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

cant find any shipping?

Oct 03, 2007 19:25     

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...2010340343 1050706979 1050930800&name=Barcelona took me less than 10 seconds, if fact it took longer to write this post than to find them.
mike report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

@Jack

Oct 03, 2007 19:33     

Nice one Jack. The best part is that some people took it seriously. Anyways, it seems that everyone is hoping for a whole lot out of the next stepping. I hope so, but I wouldn't count on it. It is kinda sad that a companies current product is so disappointing that almost as soon as it lands people are hoping for a new revision.
Scarchunk report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

How about, release the first ones

Oct 03, 2007 19:37     

The originals are not even out yet, but their boasting that we will get higher clocks? How about some normal clocks first AMD, get it together.
Soso report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

@jack

Oct 03, 2007 21:42     

your comment sounded like it came from one of the newbes u referred to, or maybe one of their children... B2 stepping is hardly thrown around, infact its mentioned once before a brief idea of what it does in the sentence straight after it "which, according to a few websites, may resolve many of the speed-hampering issues" and then the author was nice enough to put a propper explanation upon request lata. good job ed, be quiet jack

halfbakednz report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Go AMD!

Oct 03, 2007 22:20     

Hooray for their new innovation! I hope AMD does well in its competition against intel!
bob report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Tape Out...

Oct 04, 2007 00:06     

Rick, Your statement of: (When a company reaches the point (spelling corrected) where it has A0 silicon the design is said to be "taped out".) is incorrect. It's actually when you're finished with the design of the IC, and are ready to begin the fabrication process. Typically, Engineering samples are ready 12 to 16 weeks after "tape-out", though that time can vary depending on a number of factors. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapeout

kirbalo report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Empty-Handed AMD fan

Oct 04, 2007 01:15     

I see a whole lotta improvements for a chip I still can't buy. [ If true, then the 3.0 GHz Barcelona may soon be in our hands making better than good on AMD's original timeline. ] I wonder what timeline AMD is referring to... [Barcelona was originally supposed to launch six months ago at speeds around 2.5 GHz. The path to 3 GHz by the end of this year would've put them ahead of those original timelines before the problems and delays cost them so much. -Rick]

TomWaddle report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

@mike

Oct 04, 2007 05:06     

"I can't find any new reviews of actual shipping products." Got links to any reviews?
stngo1 report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

I know where the initial Barcelonas are

Oct 04, 2007 16:05     

AMD has to ship 15,000 of them to the new supercomputer TACC in Texas. And they have to be shipped quickly to make the November Top500 list. So everyone else is left waiting.
Joe report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0