AMD going launch the first Phenom based CPUs on November 20, 2007
Despite all the talk of delays at Phenom HQ, AMD is still adamant that the CPUs are going to be with us by the end of the year. In fact, a source from AMD has just told Custom PC that ‘we are looking at back end of November for Phenom...
Meanwhile, the guys at VR-Zone claim to have dug up the details of the chips scheduled for November. According to the site, the first CPUs to be released will be the 2.2GHz Phenom 9500, and the 2.4GHz Phenom 9600. the site says that both chips will have a TDP rating of 89W, and will have 2MB of Level 3 cache, with a further 512MB of Level 2 cache for each of their four cores.
As well as this, VR-Zone also claims that a third 2.6GHz Phenom 9700 will be released before the end of the year with a TDP of 125W. Interestingly, though, the site claims that the FX enthusiast chips won’t be out until next year. The site has scant details of the first Phenom FX-81 CPU, except that it will be clocked above 2.6GHz and will have the same amount of cache as the standard Phenom chips.
However, our source at AMD dismissed the site’s claims saying: ‘this isn’t true – it is just speculation.’ Either way, it looks as though we only have to wait until next month for the first Phenom CPUs, whatever they may be.
Although AMD will launch the first Phenom-based CPUs on November 20 this year, only quad-core versions are planned in the initial stage. However, with the quad-core CPUs only accounting for less than 10% of the whole CPU market, these first CPUs will, consequently, not add much to motherboard demand, the sources explained. Appreciable demand will only start to be seen in first quarter 2008, when dual- and tri-core versions show up in the market, the sources said.
Story behind the Phenom CPUs:
After the more or less successful launch and acceptance of its native quad core equipped line of central processing units which are aimed at the server market segment, Advanced Micro Devices hopes to make a big comeback on the desktop market with its Phenom class of processors that are aimed at competing with the latest offering from Intel.
The top of the line Phenom class of processing units from Advanced Micro Devices will not come all at once but rather dispersed over the next three quarters, allowing the manufacturing company to come up with new iterations of the said processors every few months and eventually resolve any issues or provide occasional performance boosts.
The AMD Phenom line of products will be mainly divided into the 9 and FX series and they will have to compete against the Intel 45 nanometer offerings based on the Yorkfield core. The intermediate, three cored processing units will come under the general designation of Phenom 7 series and they will be placed as a middle level alternative between the quad and the dual offerings.
The first AMD Phenoms to hit the market will be the ones from the 9700, 9600 and 9500 series that will operate at clock speeds of 2.6, 2.4 and 2.3 GHz respectively. All these Phenom class processors will be built using the 65nm fabrication process and they will come equipped with 512KB of L2 cache memory per core as well as a big 2MB of L3 shared cache memory that will be used by all four processing cores. These processors will be based on the Agena core, just like the Phenom FX series that will arrive early next year.
The FX series will become the top of the line AMD processor offering and the very first processor from this line will be the FX-82 which will be clocked at 2.6GHz, just like the 9700 model. Several months later it is expected that AMD will launch two new processors, one from the 9000 series and one from the FX line, both clocked at 2.8GHz and with very alike features.
As AMD currently has no plans for a 3.0GHz or faster processing unit it looks like Intel keeps its performance crown for now, but most probably AMD will continue to offer the best price, performance ratio on the market, gaining more ground on the value market segment. According to the news site tcmagazine, the thermal envelope of the new AMD processors will start at 89 watts for the 9500 and 9600 series and will climb at 125 watts for the 9700 series, while the information concerning the TDP ratings of the FX family are not yet known.
AMD has decided to come up with a new name for the upcoming high-end Agena-based CPUs. Thus, the next-generation K10-derived "Stars" family will
include single, dual and quad-core processors, which will be commercialized under three different brand names: Phenom (high-end), Athlon 64 (mainstream) and Sempron (entry level).
An official chart presents the AMD Phenom FX CPU as AMD's quad core flagship for the soon-to be-released series. The Agena-based Phenom FX is scheduled to be clocked in the 2.4-2.6 GHz speed range. Immediately following are two 2.2-2.4 GHz versions. One of them is supposed to be designed for AMD's Socket 1207 (the Quad FX platform) just as the 2.4-2.6 GHz model and the other will work on the current AM2 sockets. All three Phenom FX CPUs have 4X512 KB for L2 cache and 2 MB for L3 cache.
Further going down the official chart and still sticking with the high-end CPUs, we discover the Phenom X4 processors. These are Agena-based as well and AMD offers 2.2 GHz and 2.4 GHz versions. L2 and L3 caches remain unchanged from the FX models, but the two X4 CPUs have different HyperTransport 3.0 speeds: the 2.4 GHz features a 3.6 GHz HT 3.0 speed while the 2.2 GHz model features a 3.2 GHz HT 3.0 speed.
The availability of Phenom FX and X4 CPUs is set to debut in Q3 2007.
Up next, we find the Phenom X2 CPUs based on the "Kuma" microarchitecture. AMD schedules three versions for Q4 2007, with 2.8 GHz, 2.6 GHz and 2.4 GHz clock speeds, respectively. At the top of this segment there is the AMD Phenom X2 2.8 GHz model, which comes at a staggering the HT 3.0 bus clock of 4.2 GHz. The other two models have 3.8 GHz and 3.6 GHz HT 3.0 clock speeds. Being dual core processors, all three models feature a 2x512KB L2 cache and 2MB L3 cache configuration.
The Athlon 64 X2 denomination will still appear among AMD's future value models based on the "Rana" architecture. AMD schedules a single "Rana" model clocked at 2.2 GHz for Q1 2008. Unfortunately, all future Athlons won't integrate any L3 cache.
Finally, the entry level Sempron CPUs live on through the single core "Spica"-based models, scheduled for Q1 2008. AMD will release two Sempron versions clocked 2.4 and 2.2 GHz, which will feature only 512 KB of L2 cache. These models will be available for the AM2 socket.
Source: Web
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AMD is throwing the processor world for an interesting curve. While both AMD and Intel are eager to hype their quad-core platforms – various reasons for each – AMD is pitching something that Intel has yet to offer. A tri-core processor.
