Talk:AMD/Archive 2

This is Archive 2, which covers articles started in 2005.

Re-structuring AMD stuff
Inter and I have begun to discuss improving the swarm of AMD-related pages. He suggested that we stage the conversation here. Perhaps others will join and help?

I was going to build myself an new server and I wanted to use an AMD chip. So, of course, I turned first to the Wikipedia for background.

There is a lot of information, but I found it quite chaotic and inconsistent. And, frankly, much of it wasn't up to the Wiki standards we might aspire to.
 * That's typical. ;-) When many different editors make edits to the same articles in the same category, there's bound to be a heap of inconsistencies. Inter 10:17, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Currently, I know of these AMD-related links:


 * AMD Opteron
 * Athlon 64
 * List of AMD microprocessors
 * List of AMD Athlon microprocessors
 * List of AMD Athlon 64 microprocessors
 * List of AMD Athlon XP microprocessors
 * List of AMD Duron microprocessors
 * List of AMD Sempron microprocessors
 * List of AMD Opteron microprocessors
 * List of AMD Opteron models
 * List of AMD CPU slots and sockets
 * AMD64
 * Duron


 * I'd suggest to move some of these pages, especially the Duron, Athlon 64, AMD64 and AMD Opteron. Some of this can almost certainly be merged with something else. Inter 10:17, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Some of these &mdash; for example List of AMD Opteron microprocessors and List of AMD Opteron models &mdash; point to the same place through redirects. But it would be nice to get a consistent structure.

And speaking of consistency, some pages that I think ought be look pretty much alike &mdash; for example List of AMD Athlon microprocessors and List of AMD Opteron microprocessors &mdash; look really different. I'm not a Double-E, so I can't say for certain that this is wrong, but it certainly looks wrong.
 * In the spirit of consistency they should look more alike. If all of them have the same structure it looks better. Inter 10:17, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)

And lots of techno-babble words aren't defined, directly or by link. Look, for example, at the table headings in List of AMD Athlon microprocessors. I happen to know what an FSB, but the table needs a link to explain it.
 * Easily fixable. There are probably other words in the tables which should link to other articles aswell. Inter 10:17, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I've done some clean up (you can find my fingerprints here and there), but I'd guess I've done 5% of the work that might be done. So as a straw-man proposal, I'm suggesting this structure to all of the articles:


 * 1) AMD (this article). About the company and it's history.
 * 2) List of AMD microprocessors.  Just an outline of the history of AMD's technical CPU offerings
 * 3) AMD Athlon. About the chip family: what makes it cool, different. Why is an Athlon XP like an Athlon 64 (there must be some reason they have the same name).
 * 4) List of AMD Athlon microprocessors.  Every Athlon model every made, with interesting information about it.
 * 5) AMD Opteron.     <-- vi joke  :-)
 * 6) List of AMD Opteron microprocessors. Same vi joke.
 * 7) AMD Duron.  Ditto.
 * 8) Et cetera.
 * 9) List of AMD slots and sockets
 * 10) Slot A.  What makes it cool, different, etc.
 * 11) Socket 940.  And again
 * OK. The AMD article should list every other AMD article. That is, to have one point of departure in the AMD article hierarchy I propose the main AMD page to be the staging point. I realize that the See Also section can get fairly crowded, hence my merge suggestion above. Inter 10:17, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)

The AMD Athlon article might link upward to List of AMD microprocessors and link downward to List of AMD Athlon microprocessors, but not all over the place to Opteron and Duron and so on articles (I was getting really lost the first time I went through, so I'm proposing a strict hierarchy to make it easier to remember where you are).
 * No, the articles shouldn't link all over the place but in the spirit of WP they can link anywhere they like. If we do it in the text, it's fine, but having a large See Also section on every single article might not be so desireable. Inter 10:17, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Oh, and all of the List of AMD microprocessors article would look alike, to the extent that it is possible to do that.

It's easy to see how we ended up where we are: smart people just adding stuff as it came to them. It's the Wiki-way, and thank all the Wiki-gods for it. But maybe it's time to step back and organize it.

As a place to start:
 * What should a List of AMD microprocessors page look like? Are all the table headings in List of AMD Athlon XP microprocessors to many? Are the table headings in List of AMD Opteron microprocessors too few? I'd be inclined (another straw-man) toward:


 * Model number
 * Frequency
 * Multiplier (whatever that is)
 * A CPU multiplier is simply the number of times the FSB speed should be multiplied. Say if you have an FSB speed of 133 and a multiplier of 10. That gives you a CPU core speed of 1.33Ghz. Inter 10:17, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Core name
 * Memory interface
 * Form factor (i.e. what socket)
 * Release date

Thoughts?
 * I like the above table outline. I'm not totally sure if Memory interface needs to be on it. Inter 10:17, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)

DanielVonEhren 00:29, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * I have looked at the article (AMD) some more and taken a copy of the AMD64 content in it. I feel it's gotta go. I either wanna merge it to the AMD64 article but I'm not sure if I want that article around either. Let me think about it. Inter 20:48, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * I have thought about it and I think there's enough content and articles here to make a category and possibly a template for navigation. Inter 21:39, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * I will look at this eventually. I just have alot to do at the moment with other projects on both here and Commons. Inter 10:45, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Flash History Missing
Alright, I've now fixed the whole article. It talks about the technology from the point of view of how and why it was important in the corporate history of AMD, rather than providing spec sheets. I've also added a section of AMD's flash business, which was a massive omission. It would still benefit from some tidy up, but I think you now get a much better feel for what AMD is about, and how they company developed. But we could do with more pre-1990 stuff now. 1970 odd to 1990 is thread bare. Timharwoodx 18:20, 12 Mar 2005 (UTC)