AMD Phenom FX CPU Expected in 2009

Looking to put pressure on Intel once again in the high-end market, sources say AMD plans on releasing the AMD Phenom FX in mid-2009 on its new AM3 socket platform. AMD previously acknowledged that AM3 processors will work in AM2 sockets but not the reverse.
AMD is attempting to bring back their FX-line of processors in mid-2009 according to documents Tom’s Hardware saw. Although little is known about the specifications of these processors, we do know they will be based on the Deneb FX core, feature four processing engines, have shared level-three cache and be based on a 45 nm manufacturing process.
The FX-branding used by AMD in the past had represented products of unmatched performance for enthusiasts who were willing to spend a hefty premium to have the extra performance. The Athlon FX line-up was the last to use processors with the FX-branding and were in production from 2003 to 2006. The Athlon FX processors featured unlocked multipliers and offered the highest clockings of the AMD processors available.
With the great success of Intel’s Core 2 Duo processors in 2006, AMD lost the performance crown it once had held and was forced to focus on mid and entry-level offerings instead, ending production of the Althon FX. AMD continued to offer processors that featured unlocked processors with its Black Edition line-up of Athlon and Phenom processors, which were offered at a fair price for those looking for an overclockable processor and still loyal to AMD. Much the same as AMD’s FX processors, Intel’s Extreme Edition processors offer high clock rates and unlocked multipliers, with similarly high prices.
If history serves us well, these upcoming FX processors will likely carry the name AMD Phenom FX, carry with them a steep price and offer clock-speeds higher than their future mainstream brethren. Future AMD processors produced using 45nm process technology are expected to reach 3.0GHz in speed, possibly putting the AMD Phenom FX processors at over 3GHz.

Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors leave Barcelona

AMD has released its long-awaited native quad-core processor, previously codenamed "Barcelona".
Describing the new Quad-Core AMD Opteron as the "world's most advanced x86 processor", AMD claims it as the first native x86 quad-core microprocessor, meaning the four processing cores share a single die of silicon.
The company also highlights other aspects of the 55- and 75-watt server chips. It claims gains for energy efficiency, a 50 percent increase in integer and floating-point performance, and improved virtualisation support. Note that the server chips also share the same power and thermal envelopes as their dual-core predecessors.
"Today marks one of the great milestones in microprocessor achievement as AMD again raises expectations for industry-standard computing," said AMD chairman and chief executive officer, Hector Ruiz. "We've worked closely with our customers and partners to design a new generation of processing solutions embodied by today's Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor - a four-way winner in performance, energy efficiency, virtualisation and investment protection. Early customer response has been extremely positive."
leshing out the details on the energy efficiency claims, AMD highlights the use of proprietary "CoolCore Technology" (turning off unused parts of the processor) an independent core-specific enhancement to its PowerNow! Technology (allowing cores to vary their clock frequency depending on application requirements) and Dual Dynamic Power Management (DDPM), which allows the cores and memory controllers to operate on different voltages, again determined by usage.
Sun, HP, IBM and Dell will be among those shipping systems based on the new server chip will be shipping. Details of AMD's pricing for the Quad-Core Opteron will be found at www.amd.com/pricing (based on 1,000 unit orders).
More information on AMD's quad-core processing can be found on the company's website.
For its part, Intel released updated quad-core server microprocessors last week - the Quad-Core Xeon 7300 series, its first multi-processor (MP) chips based on its now standard Core micro-architecture.
See also: Electronics Weekly's focus on microprocessors, a roundup of content related to microprocessor technologies and developments.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Review

The AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ processor is the top of the line for the AMD Athlon 64 X2 line of CPU's. At 125 watts of power this processor begs for some good cooling and a very steady hand when it comes to overclocking. But I won't be overclocking this beast, it would be a shame to mess with something
this good straight from the box.

The AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ processor is a 3 Ghz processor that rivals the Intel E6600 CPU and clearly is the best of the AMD AM2 sockets at this time. The 6000+ processor is built with the L2 cache at 1 MB per core that gives you plenty of internal memory for the processor.

I'd like to thank AMD for letting me review this great processor, now on to the review.

AMD as well as plenty of other reviews give all this kind of information that I guess I will include for the real tech guys who are reading:

Frequency: 3.0GHz

Manufactured: Fab 30 and 36 / Dresden, Germany
Process Technology: 90-nanometer DSL SOI (silicon-on-insulator) technology
Packaging: Socket AM2 (940-pin organic micro PGA)
HyperTransport technology: Supports single HT link - up to 8.0 GB/sec per link bandwidth
Memory Controller: Shared integrated 128-bit wide memory controller
CPU to Memory Controller: 3.0GHz
Supported Memory Speeds: DDR 2 memory up to and including PC2 6400 (DDR2-800) unbuffered
HyperTransport Links: 1
HyperTransport Spec: 2.0GHz (2x 1000MHz / DDR)
Total Processor bandwidth: Up to 20.8 GB/sec [8.0GB/sec HyperTransport + 12.8GB/sec dual-channel memory]
L1 Cache Sizes: 64K - L1 instruction + 64K - L1 data cache per-core (256KB total L1)
L2 Cache Sizes: 1MB L2 data cache per-core (2MB total dedicated L2 cache)
Approximate Transistor count: 227.4 million
Approximate Die Size: 218mm2
Nominal Voltage: 1.35-1.40V
Max Thermal Power: 125 W
Max Ambient Case Temp: 55o Celsius to 63o Celsius
Max Icc (processor current): 90.4 A
Min P-State (with C'n'Q): 1.0 GHz
o Nominal Voltage @ min P-state: 1.1V
o Max Thermal Power @ min P-state: 36.4 W
o Max Icc @ min P-state: 30.4 A

AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Review

Now that the required specifications are done with I will get to the meat of the matter, installing and use. The processor is easy to install and setup for the heat sink. You will have to take into consideration the heat requirements of this processor if you're thinking of using one in your system.
The processor uses up to 125 watts of power so you need a decent cooling solution but it does not need to be the best out there for normal operation.

I do not and will not be overclocking the AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ in this review. The frame rates I received for testing and playing since I have had this processor are more than adequate and I just do not want to take the time for a few frame rates increase. I do not like to overclock components as the benefits do not equal the time spent when I have so much better things to do with my time.

I tried the stock fan and heat sink that came with my system for the AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ and found that running any games or CPU intensive programs would cause errors due to heat. The core would get up towards 70 degrees Celsius and would shut down. I also tried a lower model of CPU cooler from EverCool, the Shark, and it did much better than the stock heat sink. At some very intensive testing and benchmarking it does not keep the 6000+ as cool as I would like so I tried out the Buffalo from EverCool and it does very well. I have run the processor through its paces with both games and benchmark programs and the chip never gets over 60 degrees Celsius.

I would recommend a very good CPU cooler for this much power but you really don't have to buy the best on the market, just a good one. Installing the processor is easy and the coolers I used were also very easy to install. Just like any computer installation you need to learn what you're doing if you have never done this before but it is not that difficult to replace a CPU. If you don't know how to do this kind of upgrade it is not even as difficult as changing a video card as you do not have to install any drivers. You just swap out the processor and install the CPU cooler.

As long as you have the correct processor and know that your motherboard and system will handle the new processor you simply remove the CPU cooler, wipe off the old thermal compound and install the new one. You will need to put some thermal paste on that should come with your new CPU cooler. If not you can buy a tube for about ten dollars at a computer store or order some from the internet. The best brand out is Artic Silver 3 but you can use the more common thermal compound and just smear a small amount on the CPU.

AMD: Shanghai CPU Presentation in Berlin

Even though the launching of “Barcelona” (previous server processor from AMD) was in city Barcelona, Spain, “Shanghai” was launched in Berlin, Germany, and not on Far East (as we expected). Presentation opened Ian McNaughton and opening word continued Emilio Ghilardi, Senior Vice President and General Manager, AMD EMEA, who will succeed next year Mr. Henry Richard on same position but worldwide. Considering that he’s relatively newcomer in AMD, with only few spent months in company, Ghilardi first spoke about reasons why he accepted new position regardless on situation in AMD.
Ghilardi said that he was impressed by Dirk Meyer, new CEO and president of company, with his exceptional vision for further AMD development. The second reason was AMD’s success that regardless on pressure created from competitors, big financial crisis and other circumstances, reflected in income increase from 1.77 billion USD in Q3, which is for 32% more than in Q2. He said that they are especially proud on successes of graphics department that took 40% of the discrete graphics market in Q3. He was extremely satisfied with launching of Shanghai one quarter earlier than it was at first planned and with successful continuing of philosophy: performance per watt per dollar.

According to Ghilardi, Shanghai CPU brings certain technology novelties like additional 300 million transistors and 45nm manufacturing process that enabled for them frequency increase for 400MHz. Despite the frequency increase and large number of transistors, 45nm manufacturing process made possible for them to achieve average thermal dissipation (TPB - Thermal Power Band) at 75W. It is very interesting information that in Q1 next year will be launched, now already traditional variation – HE (High efficiency) with 55W thermal power band. We should also mention that terms TPB and TDP (Thermal Design Power) are not the same. Simply put, TPB is average thermal dissipation and TDP is max. thermal dissipation. Performance increase from 35%, comparing to solutions present at the moment, is huge success which was also recognized from most AMD partners. Since new CPU is compatible with SocketF, in start were available 25 platforms that could improve performances by simply adding this new processor into existing motherboards (SocketF). With this move, power consumption in idle mode will be reduced for about 35% while under full load for about 21%. According to Guiseppe Amato, beside more sophisticated manufacturing process, reasons for this drastic consumption increase should be looked in architecture improvements. Enlarged amount of L3 cache (8MB) and option of copying L1 and L2 cache contents into it is one of the architecture improvements. Changes in architecture enabled faster passing into “sleep” mode of CPU cores and “deeper sleep” (lower power consumption of cores in sleep mode). Even though processors still relay on OS in determining how “deep” sleep will be, it’s important to mention new driver for Shanghai processors that better cooperates with OS in this matter. It takes 1ms for waking up the core, which isn’t that fast but this “sluggishness” is compensated with significantly higher power savings.
Leslie Sobon, Vice President Worldwide Product Marketing, briefly spoke about transition from Growth to Savings economy. Regarding on global trends in sense of recession and worldwide financial crisis, reducing the pollution and increased efficiency, because of raising energy price, AMD considered that in following period market will be more oriented on savings than on race for achieving high speeds. During last year current consumption used for working and cooling servers had already attained half of system price, making this a very important item in all business calculations. Since AMD offered possibility of using new processors even on older platforms with updated BIOS, business partners can improve ratio performance per watt per dollar with minimal investments in new hardware.
After presentations have finished, Damian Schmidt, CEO of STRATO Company, briefly spoke to us. He invited us to visit their (secret) location where we participated in demonstration and plugging in of new server rack. There we had a chance, at first hand, to compare performances of new server against old one. At first glance it seems that claims reveled from AMD are truthful, but for more information you’ll have to wait until we get whole system on test. Regarding on huge number internet locations that Strato hosts, it is obvious that they needed extremely demanding hardware for this task and AMD was very pleased because they had opportunity to demonstrate performances of new processors on real example.

AMD Phenom II X4 940: Compared to Phenom X4 9950 BE and Intel Core 2 Q9550

In last few years it looked like AMD lost its bearings in CPU market. No one expected that company, that is in constant transition, financial problems and without complete product portfolio, can produce interesting, equivalent and concurrent product. Phenom CPUs with K10 micro architecture didn’t claim speed crown from Intel, but they were significant step forward compared to “worn out” K8 cores.
We must be aware of the fact that every processor is result of compromise between investments and goals. Probably K10 would be better product if it had larger L2 and L3 cache memory, with better and larger Branch Target Buffers, with different cache policies that are favoring intensive operations with cache memory, but in that case Phenom, that was manufactured in 65nm process, wouldn’t give adequate results. We must remind you that Intel only recently, with 45nm manufacturing process that is fully operational, introduced monolith quad-core design. Unfortunately for Intel, and on the other side, fortunately for AMD, Nehalem is totally different price group (at this moment) and thanks to this fact AMD has maneuvering space in mainstream CPU market. Thanks to new 45nm manufacturing process, developed in collaboration with “big blue” (IBM), new cores with code name “Deneb” are much cooler than older 65nm cores, can achieve much higher working frequencies and can be overclocked much better and easier. Last year AMD introduced very solid Spider platform based on AMD 790FX chipset, ATI Radeon HD 3870 graphics cards and 65nm Phenom X4 CPUs. New platform, called “Dragon”, very similar to Spider platform, is based on 790GX chipset and Radeon HD 4870 graphics cards along with new 45nm Phenom II X4 CPUs. Deneb core is compatible with older 790FX chipset, so with update of BIOS new CPUs can be used on older motherboards. This allowed us to test new Phenom II CPU on DFI LanParty 790FX motherboard with 4GB OCZ DDR2 1066 memory. All tests were done on 790FX motherboard because there were very small differences in performances compared to test results on 790GX motherboard. When Phenom II was operating at default clock we used Thermalright True cooler without fan and it worked stable. When we overclocked it, two fans (mounted in push-pull configuration) were needed.Biggest innovation of new AMD CPUs is new and very advanced 45nm lithographic manufacturing process that introduces significant advances in pFET transistor performances compared to 65nm manufacturing process. New pFET transistors have higher drive current (specific current intensity) per micrometer: 660µA/µm compared to 510µA/µm for 65nm transistors. This allows higher performances: faster “switching speed” (speed of change from logical zero to one). Higher specific current intensity is one of the Intel’s “secrets” in achieving higher CPU frequencies because their HKMG (High-K Metal Gates) are one of the fastest dielectrics on the market when it comes to “switching speeds”. On the other side, on the same frequency AMD’s 45nm CPU has lower heat dissipation compared to Intel’s 45nm CPU. AMD claims that Shanghai (45nm Opteron) has for 15% lower power consumption under full load and 30% in idle compared to Intel 45nm Xeon CPU. This can make huge difference for servers but what it brings to usual desktop user?
One of goals that AMD was hoping to achieve was smaller dimensions of chip with increase in performances, because smaller dimensions of chip allow more L3 cache to be implemented in CPU. Thanks to 45nm manufacturing process, minimal size of gate on Shanghai and Deneb cores is 38nm: 7% smaller then on 65nm CPUs. Performances are for 19% higher for nFET and 23% higher for pFET compared to 65nm process. These results are achieved not solely thanks to better manufacturing process but also thanks to advanced optimizations. One of those optimizations is SOI (Silicon On Insulator – used also on some earlier models) that resulted in lower amount of electron “leakage” and “parasite” current. Another optimization of nFET is “stress memorization” that resulted in wider n channel. Thanks to this optimization scaling to 45nm allows better mobility of electrons in “narrow” cavities that resulted in higher specific current intensity per micrometer. This increased “drive current” for 19% on nFET and for 23% on pFET transistors compared to 65nm CPUs. This is great achievement because Ion/Ioff ratio on AMD pFET transistors is about ten times lower compared to Intel’s pFET transistors. Interesting fact is that electron “leakage” is 3 times lower compared to CPUs made in older 65nm manufacturing process. Since power consumption depends on amount of “leakage”, lower electron “leakage” results in lower power consumption of entire CPU.
Next important novelty is manufacturing process itself. AMD uses so called “Immersion Lithography”. This technique improves resolution of lithographic process: it uses liquid medium instead of air that is between lithographic lens and wafer which resulted in better refractive index. Achieved resolution is proportional to refractive index of fluid. Since fluid refracts beams on wafer, resulted resolution is higher and it can achieve sizes lower then 37nm. This resulted in better CPUs, higher frequencies and great overclock possibilities.

AMD Offers Sempron 210U and 200U Processors for Embedded Applications

AMD today announced immediate availability of the AMD Sempron 210U and 200U processors for embedded systems. These new processors are available with five year longevity that is standard for AMD embedded components and feature lidless Ball Grid Array (BGA) packaging with the low power and high performance of AMD's Direct Connect Architecture. These new lidless BGA packaged processors can help customers significantly shrink their embedded design into new smaller, flatter form factors without having to sacrifice any computing performance,” said Buddy Broeker, director, Embedded Product Marketing, AMD. “Retail touch screens, self-service kiosks and digital signage are a growing part of the consumer experience and thin client computing continues to play a strong role in helping businesses become more efficient. These new processor features will help our customers stay on the cutting edge of embedded system design.”

These AMD Sempron processors are specifically designed with unique computing features and a thin, compact form factor to help enable new and uncompromising designs. The AMD Sempron 200U and 210U processors are packaged in a smallfootprint, lidless 812-ball BGA (Ball Grid Array) package. This enables small form factor and rugged designs to be created with optimal thermal dissipation utilizing a soldered down ASB1 device. The AMD Sempron 200U and 210U processors are well suited for designs including enterprise-class thin client systems, point of sale kiosks, digital signage, ruggedized systems for military aero or other field implementations, telecommunications and networking devices, gaming machines and industrial controls with these models supporting extended longevity.

Customers can further streamline development by pairing the new AMD Sempron processors with the AMD M690E chipset.

Additionally, for those solutions that need extreme performance graphics the ATI Radeon E2400 discrete GPU can be incorporated into the platform. This discrete GPU offers support for Microsoft DirectX 10.0 and OpenGL 2.0 and like the AMD Sempron 200U and 210U processors, delivers a compact physical size to accommodate shrinking embedded system form factors.

Product features and benefits:
- Featuring AMD’s innovative Direct Connect Architecture for leading-edge performance by providing separate, dedicated high-speed links between processor and memory, processor and I/O, and I/O to memory, to enable predictability in real-time applications
- HyperTransport technology helps boost overall system performance through a dedicated high-speed, low-latency I/O interface
- AMD Digital Media Xpress technology designed to be compatible with the largest installed base of multimedia enhanced software, taking 3D and graphics to new levels for medical imaging, gaming, kiosk, and point-of-sale applications
- Simultaneous 32- and 64-bit performance, designed to be compatible with Microsoft Windows Vista
- Enhanced Virus Protection to increase the reliability of your network-connected applications


Embedded systems based on the AMD Sempron 210U and 200U processors are also available from iBASE, aValue, EVOC, Gigabyte and Inventec while additional AMD embedded customers are expected to bring systems to market in 2009.