Next Gen CPUs: AMD's Socket AM2 Lineup and Intel's Core2 CPUs

If I were building a regular powerful PC, i'd get a Core 2 Duo as it's simply the better processor in all aspects. I love AMD and their initiative over the last few years but at present, none of their CPUs can compete with what Intel has to offer. The 4x4 plan though has the potential to radicalise how people plan their machine builds. Imagine dropping in a dual-core Opteron in one socket, and in the adjacent socket plugging in a specific co-processor for whatever your needs were; rendering, physics, anything. For me, this would be a godsend. Anyone who knows much about 3D design knows that hardware-based rendering systems are tens or hundreds of times faster than workstations with CPUs alone. If I had a rendering coprocessor my productivity would fly through the roof, and for a lot less money than buying ten separate workstations and networking them together.

The possibilities are endless. I recall that in the dim and distant past, Macs used to have a socket somewhere in the machine where dedicated graphics coprocessors could be plugged in. I don't know if they still have that feature, but it was a good idea then and I think it is high time for a return of that idea.

Jam it back in, in the dark.