Phenom II X3 & X4 Socket AM3

AMD extended the value and lifespan of its Dragon platform technology today with five new additions to its AMD Phenom™ II processor family, including the industry’s only 45nm triple-core processors and three new AMD Phenom II quad-core processors. These AMD Phenom II processors deliver choice and lay the foundation for memory transition; they fit in either AM2+ or AM3 sockets and support DDR2 or next generation DDR3 memory technology.

The new triple-core (Heka) and quad-core (Deneb) AMD Phenom II processors are available immediately at the following frequencies:
AMD Phenom™ II X4 910 - (2.6GHz)
AMD Phenom™ II X4 810 - (2.6GHz)
AMD Phenom™ II X4 805 - (2.5GHz)
AMD Phenom™ II X3 720 Black Edition - (2.8GHz)
AMD Phenom™ II X3 710 - (2.6GHz)

The triple-core AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition processor is competitively priced at $145 while the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 processor is priced at $165; the AMD processor allows users to get more cores for less money. The quad-core AMD Phenom II X4 810 processor (2.6GHz) is priced at $175 compared to the Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 processor (2.33GHz) at $170. Phenom II X3 710 at $125, all in one thousand units and the X4 910 and 805 available for tray only.

When AMD started moving over to a new processor socket form-factor, they also decided to give their solutions more competitive TDP. All new processors launching today have 95W TDP instead of 125W TDP as the top Phenom II models.

Today’s addition to the Phenom II model lineup finally explains the whole idea behind AMD’s processor ratings. The rating series stand for the major CPU specifications. And if we add here everything we know about the upcoming 45nm processors, we will get a very logical succession:
900 series: quad-core processors with 6MB L3 cache
800 series: quad-core processors with 4MB L3 cache
700 series: triple-core processors with 6MB L3 cache
600 series: quad-core processors without L3 cache
400 series: triple-core processors without L3 cache
200 series: dual-core processors

DDR3/AM3 boards are almost done, the hard part of the transition is the memory controller, and that is already done in the CPU. We are being told that the BIOSes, however, still need quite a bit of testing before they are ready for public consumption. The DDR3 boards are a few weeks out, and shouldn't be all that expensive when they hit the market.

Web reviews:
AMDZone
Guru3D
The Inquirer
AnandTech
Tom's Hardware
Legit Reviews
Firing Squad
X-Bit Labs
Tech Report

Phenom II X4 940 BE @ 6.5GHz on Liquid Helium

From Las Vegas XS OC Event, below is a link to the video of the world record setting overclock of 6.5GHz for Phenom II 940 BE using liquid helium. They also set the world record for 3DMark performance at the same event.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wB0JodKgZ0A

This 7-minutes Dragon Platform/AMD Phenom™ II video on YouTube, has received over 250,000 hits since it was posted a week ago, on January 22, 2009.

More pictures here at XtremeSystems Forum.

AMD Releases DRAGON platform and Phenom II

Empowering consumers to get elite-level computing performance for under $900 U.S. dollars, AMD today launched “Dragon” platform technology for desktop PCs featuring the new AMD Phenom™ II X4 processor. Even the most demanding users such as enthusiasts and high-end gamers desire affordable systems capable of delivering HD entertainment, graphic-intensive game play at the highest settings their monitors can handle, as well as quick and easy transfer of video entertainment to and from mobile devices.

The processors launching today from AMD are the Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition and Phenom II X4 920. The major change in Phenom II is that it is built using a 45nm immersion lithography manufacturing process which, "enables higher frequencies, tighter tolerances and lower current leakage." The other major change is the L3 cache which is now three times as large at 6MB over 2MB of Phenom and the L3 cache is also 2-cycles faster. There are a number of other improvements as well, ACC (Advanced Clock Calibration) is now apparently baked into the silicon so a SB750 chipset is not required to get more overclocking headroom out of the Phenom II. Another thing to note is the HT bus on these new processors runs at 1.8GHz instead of 2GHz of the 9950 due to a trade off in priorities to get the chip ready to market. The bus isn't even close to being saturated with anything but servers so this isn't a major loss.

Major feature enhancements for 45nm AMD Phenom II:

Enhanced Total Cache: 8MB (L2 + L3)
Cool'n'Quiet 3.0 Technology: Additional power states, significantly (~40%) lower idle power and lower power consumption under moderate loads
Increased frequency: AMD Phenom II 940 3.0GHz @ 125W TDP
Massive headroom using extreme and experimental cooling techniques

Initial pricing Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition will be at $275 and the Phenom II X4 920 at $235.


"Dragon" is a synthesis of power, strength, and wisdom. Specifically, it is the fusion of the AMD Phenom™ II processor, ATI Radeon™ HD 4800 series graphics, AMD 7-series chipsets and AMD software that puts you in control. It's the PC platform designed for high-definition gaming, video processing and entertainment at an affordable price. The AMD Phenom II processor at the heart of Dragon platform technology is AMD's highest performing processor ever with superior efficiency.

The media reports:
AMDZone
Tech Report
AnandTech
CRN
Neo Seeker
GameWare
Guru3D
X-Bit Labs

Phenom II Overclocks Well

As we all know, the Phenom II (codename Deneb) will be AMD's second 45 nm part (the first is officially the Shanghai server part) that is scheduled to hit Q1 09. This heavily redesigned processor based on the Phenom architecture has already showed some significant per clock performance gains over the older product, and AMD considers this to be their best design ever in terms of performance, functionality, and eventual clockspeed. The first desktop products are expected to hit 3 GHz at the top end, but AMD has been hinting that the Phenom IIs can do a lot more in the hands of an enthusiast.

The first leaks were that the Phenom II could hit 4 GHz on air cooling. Yesterday AMD had some actual demonstrations at their AMD Austin Tech Day gathering, and the Phenom II was able to hit 5 GHz at 1.6v by using dry ice cooling. Dry ice is CO2, and it goes directly from solid to gas (sublimation) at a temperature of -109.3 F (-78.5C for the rest of the world) at 1 atmosphere.

The original Barcelona is a 65 nm part and really the first of its architecture. Since its release and the subsequent shuffling around of design teams, AMD has refocused their energy on delivering a design that would not only have a better per clock performance than the older part, but allow the design to scale in clockspeed on AMD's new 45 nm process. So far what we have seen shows that AMD has done very well.

With AMD's constant process improvement program, and tweaks to the Phenom II design that we typically see in the manufacturing stage, AMD could theoretically have a 3.4 to 3.6 GHz processor at moderate TDP levels (125 watts) that would more adequately perform against the Core i7 within the next 8 months.

For now, we have to sit and wait for the Phenom II to hit the market. Intel certainly needs the competition, and this product might just deliver enough of it to keep things interesting.



The die shot of the 45 nm Phenom II. 2 MB of L2 (512 KB per core) and 6 MB of L3 shared makes this an interesting part. Throw in some serious refinements to the underlying Phenom architecture, and suddenly AMD has a chip that can much more adequately compete with what Intel has out there currently (and upcoming).





Read here :
AMDZone
TechReport
Legit Reviews
AMD Austin Tech Day - Phenom II Dry Ice / LN2 leaked info

Introducing AMD "Dragon" and Phenom II

AMD plans to bring higher-performance and more energy efficient 45nm processor technology to the desktop PC market in Q1 2009 with the AMD platform codenamed “Dragon”. This platform will be the second generation AMD performance desktop platform, featuring all next-generation components in comparison to the first generation AMD “Spider” platform released in 2008. The AMD “Dragon” platform is designed to harness the power of fusion by optimizing the performance of new 45nm AMD Phenom™ II X4 quad-core processors with award-winning AMD 700 Series chipsets and award-winning ATI Radeon™ HD 4000 series graphics.




For introduction slides explaining AMD Dragon, please download here:
Geocities (Limited Quota)
MegaUpload

Branding logo of AMD Dragon, the replacement platform for Spider: