Question 1:
Which cores on the AMD FX-8xx0 are "real", is it 0, 2, 4, 6 or 0, 1, 2, 3
Question 2:
AMD have said their next generation CPU's will be 28nm (wikipedia) is this meant to mean their APUs will be 28nm graphics or the lithography on the processor will be 28nm
all cores on the 8xxx are "real cores" hence the "8"xxx
this also goes for 6xxx and 4xxx FX series, respectively, the 6xxx has 6 real cores and the 4xxx have 4 real cores
Well not Full fledged cores, its split into 4 modules which each contain 2 cores that share a cache, so it can be taken as either or really.
It's like hyperthreading . More of the resources are duplicated, resulting in better average performance, but it's still not really an 8 core chip. Combine this with the exceptional low IPC in Bulldozer based chips (it's easily the worst of any processor for the last several years), and hyperthreaded Intel chips at lower clock speeds consistently outperform them in most situations.
Unless you know for a fact you're going to be using predominantly integer based workloads (if you don't know, then you aren't), the Bulldozer chips are not good buys. Get a Phenom II if you want a cheap chip, and an Ivy Bridge if you want to pay more and get more speed for it.
I really don't see a logical place for Bulldozer in the market.
Piledriver is the same, but Piledriver is now relevant to the market and is worthy of your cash.
Bulldozer/Piledriver has what AMD calls "Modules". Each module features two integer cores and a shared floating point core. So the FX-8150/FX8350 has 4 modules which consist of 8 integer cores, each pair of integer cores shares 1 floating point core.
Bulldozer was a flop and probavly a bit rushed, Piledriver is an huge update with some small arhitecture changes that fixed probavly all the problems that Bulldozer series had and Bulldozer is history. So don't worry about Piledriver or future Steamroller (Q4 2013)...
Kaveri APU will be made on a 28nm process, also it will be fully based on HSA arhitecture that will be superior to CPU+GPU for the price to performance ratio. HSA technology is revolutionary and Sony is one of its supporters, find HSA foundation website and see for yourself.
Amd is finally getting to 28nms. (not counting GPUs)
WHAT THE F*&# AMD!
Intel is pushing their 2nd round of 22's (haswell), and then jumping to 14s with broadwell
Shrink the damn die already and maybe you'll get the regocnition you really deserve.
meh, but it does indirectly increase performance, allowing more transistors 'n stuff.
die size == better power/watt
EDIT: oops- "power" meaning performance.