Items tagged with phenom II
Ever since Bulldozer's less-than-spectacular debut, enthusiasts and investors have watched to see if the company would follow up with faster chips that improved overall performance. That's finally started to happen; AMD announced two new chips today -- the quad-core FX-4170 with a 4.2GHz base clock speed / 4.3GHz Turbo mode, and the six-core FX-6200 at 3.8GHz stock / 4.1GHz Turbo. Both of the new parts are clocked ~15% faster than the FX-4100 and FX-6100 and may offer a slightly faster integrated memory controller as well; rumors indicate that the IMC is clocked at 2.2GHz, up from 2GHz. The new chips are reportedly based on the B3 stepping that's been in the works for months; current Bulldozer...
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Although much of the scuttlebutt lately has revolved around AMD’s upcoming Llano and Bulldozer-based APUs, the company isn’t done pushing the envelope with their existing processor designs. In case you haven’t noticed, over the last few months AMD has continued to ramp up frequencies on their current bread-and-butter Phenom II processor line-up to the point where they’re now flirting with the 4GHz mark. We should also point out that AMD has done so with little disruption to their relatively low pricing structure; as a newer, faster processor is released in a given product family, it occupies the historic top spot while the existing products have simply been pushed down...
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Although much of the scuttlebutt lately has revolved around AMD’s upcoming Llano and Bulldozer-based APUs, the company isn’t done pushing the envelope with their existing processor designs. In case you haven’t noticed, over the last few months AMD has continued to ramp up frequencies on their current bread-and-butter Phenom II processor line-up to the point where they’re now flirting with the 4GHz mark. We should also point out that AMD has done so with little disruption to their relatively low pricing structure; as a newer, faster processor is released in a given product family, it occupies the historic top spot while the existing products have simply been pushed down...
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AMD has released its Q1 financials, giving us a look into the company's execution through what is normally considered a down quarter, as well as an opportunity to judge the impact of Brazos on the company's bottom line. The results are quite good relative to AMD's financial performance these past few years. The company reports revenue of $1.61B (up two percent from Q1 2010), a net income of $510 million, and an operating income of $54 million. AMD, therefore, is in the black—even if just barely. According to acting CEO Thomas Seifert, Llano is "the most impressive processor in history." Overall sales in Q1 were driven by demand for Llano products. "First quarter operating results were highlighted...
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Enthusiasts and professionals alike have long been curious about Bulldozer's performance. It's been hard to predict how the CPU will perform compared to Intel's Nehalem and Sandy Bridge; Bulldozer's unique shared execution units are a considerable departure from anything else on the market. Leaked benchmarks courtesy of openbenchmarking.org have shed some light on what we might see when the processor launches. David Kanter of Real World Technologies has compared the Bulldozer results against Magny-Cours performance, but warns that it's unwise to draw conclusions based on engineering samples. There's a dearth of information regarding which compiler options were selected or if AVX was enabled....
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Two weeks ago, we discussed Asus' claim that certain AM3 motherboards would function properly when paired with AM3+ processors. We've since spoken with both companies and have a (slightly) clearer idea of what to expect. Asus' announcement is not, in any way, a refutation of AMD's previous comments on Bulldozer support. According to Sunnyvale, Bulldozer will only be supported on AM3+ motherboards. AMD directed all other questions to Asus while Asus, once we spoke with them, informed us that they were under NDA not to discuss any details of their previous announcement. We were, however, able to learn a few additional tidbits of information. Previously, we noted that AMD could theoretically transfer...
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One downside of the upcoming Phenom II - Bulldozer transition is that the new processors won't be compatible with current AM3 motherboards. This news disappointed certain AMD enthusiasts, given that Sunnyvale typically focuses on chipset longevity, but the company justified the mood by stating that the only way to fully exploit the power of Bulldozer's core was to switch to a new socket--AM3+. A recent announcement from Asus has thrown a wrench into this scenario. We've reached out to both Asus and AMD for additional information; neither has gotten back to us as of this writing. Asus' website states:Current owners of an AM3-based board* will make their AMD 8-Series motherboards compatible with...
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Microsoft's Surface has been an interesting technology platform ever since the company launched it back in 2007. The original Surface was built around a 30" LCD, ran at a resolution of 1024x768, could respond to up to 52 touches simultaneously, and was based on a 2.13GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 2GB of DDR2-1066. Despite these impressive statistics, the unit's high price ($12,500 and niche market status limited its practical deployment. Now, that may be about to change. At CES last weekend, Microsoft unveiled an impressively updated Surface Surface 2.0 is built around Samsung's SUR 40" LCD panel (a 77 percent increase), a Phenom II dual-core at 2.9GHz, and a Radeon 6700M. The display's...
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Yesterday, we chided AMD for its decision not to reveal more details about Bulldozer and Bobcat, but it turns out we didn't have all the facts. AMD was planning on disclosing more information later in the day at Hot Chips—but the company failed to disclose that tid-bit before we went live with our previous coverage. We're going to take a look at the new information about Bobcat and Bulldozer that's subsequently been revealed; if you want more general backround data you can get it here... Next-Gen AMD Bobcat and Bulldozer CPU Deep Dive...
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Yesterday, we chided AMD for its decision not to reveal more details about Bulldozer and Bobcat, but it turns out we didn't have all the facts. AMD was planning on disclosing more information later in the day at Hot Chips—but the company failed to disclose that before we went live with our previous coverage. We're going to take a look at the new information about Bobcat and Bulldozer that's subsequently been revealed; if you want more general background data, check the links above. Bully For Bobcat We'll start with the high-level block diagram of Bobcat's architecture, then step through some of the pertinent details. Bobcat shares certain characteristics with Atom but AMD's new...
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One of the major points of AMD's conference call (we apologize for missing it) was news that the company's Llano processor—a hybrid GPU/CPU product meant to clock in over 3GHz in dual-core and quad-core configurations—has been pushed back into the first half of 2011. Company CEO Dirk Meyer delivered the news on Thursday, even as he highlighted the company's positive quarter and improving revenue streams. The news isn't all bad. Even as he informed the press that Llano could ship as much as six months behind schedule, Meyer made a point of noting that the company's next-generation Ontario processor will ship for revenue beginning in Q4 of 2010. Up until now, Ontario wasn't expected...
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Q1 was the first quarter AMD reported its results entirely separate from those of GlobalFoundries, and the company's numbers were quite good. Revenue for the quarter was a record-setting $1.57B, the company reported an operating income of $247 million, and an operating profit of $182 million. That's an excellent shift from a year ago, when the company lost $298 million on revenue of just $1.18 billion. The company's gross margin of 47 percent (up two percent from Q4), thanks to a richer product mix. Revenue in both AMD's CPU and GPU businesses fell sequentially, in line with standard seasonal trends. AMD didn't break out its estimated market gains by segment, but believes it gained ground in...
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Let the battle for six-core supremacy begin. Up until now, Intel's ultra expensive Core i7 980X has been the only consumer-level six-core chip on the planet, but that all changes today now that a handful of online vendors have begun listing AMD's Phenom II X6 processor line. Provantage, for example, has started taking orders for AMD's Phenom II X6 1090T processor. This six-core chip races along at 3.2GHz and comes equipped with 9MB of L3 cache. You penny pinchers will be happy to know that it doesn't demand anywhere near the same pricing premium as Intel's 980X, and is instead listed at a much more pedestrian $318.50. Just because you can order these parts doesn't mean you'll receive them right...
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AMD revealed more information on its first Fusion-class product at ISSCC this week. The new chip will combine both a CPU and GPU on a single package, but don't use either nickname—AMD is calling the new chip an "APU" or Application Processor Unit as part of its bid to shift product focus from the core components in a system to the tasks and workloads a system is capable of handling. Done properly, this could solve certain nomenclature confusions that have plagued the computer market from the very beginning, but we aren't holding our breath. Both AMD and Intel have tackled this type of rebranding before (think AMD Live! and Intel ViiV), with minimal success. For now, however, we'll roll...
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The last few months have been a whirlwind of activity for AMD. Since the beginning of the fourth quarter, the manufacturer has launched new ATI HD 5000 series parts in the high-end, enthusiast, and mainstream market segments, settled its antitrust lawsuit with Intel, renegotiated its x86 licensing agreement and charted a new course that will establish GlobalFoundries as a completely independent entity. Last week, the company announced its Q4 financial results and gave additional details on what it expects for 2010. This is the last time AMD will consolidate GlobalFoundries results into its own numbers; the company's renegotiated licensing agreement with Intel has allowed it to significantly accelerate...
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iBUYPOWER is launching five new gaming systems that feature an ASETEK liquid cooling solution and an Intel Core i7 or AMD Phenom II processor. Ranging in price from $989 to nearly $4,000, the new systems offer a variety of specs to suit the needs and budgets of different users. For gamers on a budget, the Gamer Extreme 922 SLC starts at $989 and offers a NVIDIA GeForce GT220 with Intel’s Core i7 860 2.8 GHz. The system has 4GB of DDR3 system memory and a 500GB hard drive. For a bit more cash, you can upgrade to the Gamer Supreme 919 SLC and Gamer Supreme 559 SLC. The Gamer Supreme 919 SLC offers a Core i7 870 2.93GHz processor and an ATI Radeon HD4890 graphics card. You'll find an AMD Phenom...
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In the past 12 months, AMD has revamped its entire product line around its 45nm Shanghai architecture; the company now has a range of Athlon II and Phenom II parts that stretches from an Athlon II X2 at 2.8GHz/1MB L2 at $60 to the unlocked Phenom II X4 965 "Black Edition" at $245 with 512K of L2 per core and a 6MB L3. Shanghai, as we've discussed on more than one occasion, was a big step in the right direction for AMD—it may not offer competitive performance vs. Core i7/Core i5, but it competes quite well with Intel's Core 2 Duo. Unfortunately, the company's stronger product line has yet to bolster its sagging market share. According to the research firm iSuppli, AMD's share of the global PC...
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AMD is using the prominence of the Computex show in Taipei to unveil a slew of new, affordable desktop processors. A few of them are based on the existing core employed within their Phenom II processor line-up, but one of them is comprised of a new piece of silicon that pays homage to the once mighty Athlon brand.We've got four new AMD processors on tap for this article, low power quad- and triple-cores, and a pair of new dual-cores. The 3.1GHz AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition is positioned as AMD's fastest dual-core processor ever, while the Phenom II X3 705e is a low-power triple-core CPU. The Phenom II X4 905e is a low-power 65w quad-core, and the brand new Athlon II X2 250 is AMD's latest...
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There are some rumors circulating this morning that it is possible to enable the fourth hidden / disabled core in a triple-core Phenom II X3, by simply enabling Advanced Clock Calibration (ACC) in the system BIOS on motherboards outfitted with SB750 southbridges and AMI BIOS derivatives.So far, a couple of stories have surfaced that claim to have unlocked the fourth core in a triple core processor using ASRock M3A790GXH/128M and Biostar TA790GX motherboards. And in their testing, the processors simply worked just like a quad-core.Although we do not have either of the ASRock or Biostar motherboards used in the reports in house at the moment, we tried to replicate their success with an Asus M4A79T...
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Obviously, MSI's latest AM3 Gaming Series Motherboards are completely ready to handle AMD's Phenom II processors, but what about those of you still limping by with one of the company's AM2+ mobos? In an announcement that will undoubtedly make your day, MSI has made absolutely clear that its AMD AM2+ series of motherboards will indeed support the all new Phenom II CPUs.In order to make your board compatible, you simply need to apply a BIOS update. That's it. No new hardware. No soldering. No switching of DIP switches. Just a BIOS update. As you well know, the AM3 processors check in with higher frequencies, fast L3 cache, support for both DDR3 and DDR2 memory, new C1E energy saving functionality...
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In response to Intel’s recent price cut on select quad-core and dual-core processors, AMD has slashed prices on its new AMD Phenom II processors, which have only been available for two weeks. Apparently the price drop isn’t solely as a result of Intel, however. It appears that the price reduction was also a reaction to the low demand of high tech products globally. After the price cut, the Phenom II X4 920 chip’s price is $195 and the Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition processor runs $225. These prices are 15-17% below the initial prices set by the company just two weeks ago when it formally launched its first 45nm desktop products. While many e-tailers were the first to display the new prices, AMD’s...
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**Update: We have just added new images that were taken live at the event. - We’ve been spending some quality time with the folks at AMD today in sunny Austin, TX. The team here has been giving us a run-down on their upcoming Phenom II processor along with the enthusiast platform they’re calling “Dragon”. In short, the Dragon platform is a combination of an AMD Phenom II X4 processor, Radeon 4800 Graphics cards and an AMD 7 series chipset based motherboard. However, today’s discussion was keenly focused on AMD's upcoming Phenom II X4 processor, two models of which will launch in early January that will be socket AM2+ compatible. In addition, some time in Q1, AMD will launch...
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