This year AMD will ship two new quad-core Phenom II X4 processors, the 940 Black Edition and the 920, clocked at 3.0GHz and 2.8GHz, respectively. Black Edition processors come with an unlocked multiplier setting to make overclocking easier for PC enthusiasts. The processors differ only in clock speed, and have identical specifications otherwise. The Phenom II X4 processors will come with 64K of L1 instruction and 64K of L1 data cache per core (512KB total L1 per processor), and 512KB of L2 data cache per core (2MB total L2 per processor). The processors will also have a shared 6MB L3 cache and will feature an onboard DDR2 memory controller with 17.1 GB/s of memory bandwidth.

Built on a 45nm manufacturing process, the processors will have a relatively cool maximum thermal-dissipation value of 125 watts. Cool ‘n’ Quiet 3.0, AMD’s power-management solution, keeps the Phenom II X4 chilly during periods of inactivity. AMD states that the CPU will now use 50 percent less energy while idle in comparison to Cool ‘n’ Quiet 2.0.

In a move sure to make existing Phenom owners happy, Phenom II X4 processors will be backward compatible with existing AM2+ motherboards. Motherboard manufacturers will release BIOS updates to ensure compatibility. As a follow-up in early 2009, AMD will release AM3 socket-based Phenom II X4 and X3 processors. Both will also be backward compatible with current AM2+ motherboards and will support both DDR2 and DDR3 memory.

AMD also bundles the Fusion and Overdrive utilities with the processors. Fusion helps to improve gaming performance by disabling scores of Windows services and slightly overclocking the entire system. AMD’s Overdrive utility helps to automatically overclock the system and lets users apply those settings on an application-specific level. Overdrive helped bumped our Black Edition up to a final speed of 3333MHz when we tried it out.

The new Phenom II X4 processors will be available immediately in quantity. Expect to find the Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition retailing for $275, and the Phenom II X4 920 at $235.

From the pricing angle, the best direct competitor to the Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition is Intel’s 2.66GHz Core 2 Quad Q9400, a quad-core processor with 6MB of L2 cache. Intel’s Core i7 920 sits at a similar price point, but the total cost of ownership is much higher for the i7 after you factor in the cost of the motherboard and memory. The i7 processor requires DDR3 memory and a motherboard with an LGA 1366 socket. DDR3 memory costs roughly twice as much as DDR2. AM2+-based motherboards start in the $50 range and cap off at $200, whereas LGA socket 1366 boards start at $200 and can run as high as $400.

We didn’t have Intel’s 2.66GHz Core 2 Quad Q9400 processor on hand for our comparison. Instead, we clocked our Core 2 Extreme QX6800 with 8MB of L2 cache down to 2.66GHz and put it up against the Phenom II X4 940 to see how the chips stack up.

AMD’s newest processor competes favorably against processors in its class. If we could fill in the spot where Intel’s Q9400 sits, we’re sure that the Phenom II X4 940 would outperform it. In 3DMark Vantage, the Phenom II X4 940 handily beat our down-clocked QX6800 with 8MB of cache by nearly 1,000 points. The Phenom II X4 940 tied the QX6800 in Crysis and Valve’s particle test. On our simultaneous encode and Crysis test, the Phenom II X4 940 outperformed the Intel chip in Crysis by a handful of frames, but it stumbled in the encode time.

Overall, the Phenom II X4 looks to be a great purchase if you’re upgrading. It keeps up gaming-wise with Intel’s Core lineup and holds its own in intense processing situations. Backward compatibility with AM2+ motherboards gives existing users an easy and affordable upgrade path. The promise of future backward compatibility only sweetens the deal.

System Setup: AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition, AMD Phenom X4 9600, Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6800 @ 2.66GHz. MSI DKA790GX, eVGA 780i, 750GB, Corsair 2GB DDR2 RAM, Seagate 7200.10 SATA Hard Disk Drive. Windows Vista 32-bit SP1. Radeon HD 4800. Video card driver: beta Catalyst 8.561.3.081217a.73702.

Source [ GameSpot]

Advanced Micro Devices

The company shed its company slogan of “Smarter Choice” and replaced it with “The future is fusion”, seeing it as a more fitting portrayal of what the company’s core processes are based on: to deliver solution oriented technologies, rather than product oriented, with a solution including several AMD products that work in collaboration to deliver the computing experience AMD intends to give its consumers. Dirk Meyer set in a simple new model on which the company should proceed with its plans: Profitability, Focus and Execution. This mandate for the company preaches that the company should be profitable in good times and bad, focus on areas where the company can succeed, and execute on every commitment timely. It served as a template for the big names in AMD management to share their plans on.

The Godfather film The event consisted of main sessions, where the cream of AMD management addressed the audience. These were followed by break-out sessions that went into the details of making large portions of data and information soluble for financial analysts and the press. During the course of the main sessions, AMD came up with some interesting announcements, named and detailed on several new product-plans and technologies the company plans to execute, with projections reaching all the way up to the year 2011. This article aims to cover some of those in detail. A break-up of the main session, consisting of addresses would be:

• Dirk Meyer, President and CEO
• Nigel Dessau, SVP and CMO (Computing)
• Randy Allen, SVP and CMO
• Rick Bergman, SVP and GM (Graphics Product Group)
• Doug Grose, incoming CEO of the Foundry Company
• Bob Rivet, EVP, COO and CAO, Acting CFO

Road Trip: Beer Pong rip

Let us decipher some of the eventful parts of their addresses: