Over the last few days the guys over at VR-Zone have published a whole bunch of news on the upcoming processors from AMD, the processors we’ve come to know as Phenom. First of all it seems that the Phenom name will be exclusive to the quad-core models, coming dual-core models will be renamed Athlon 6 series. These models have also been postponed to the second quarter of 2008, and AMD will prolong the life span of the current (dual-core) Brisbane core instead. This means that the quad-cores will be called Phenom 9XXX, triple-cores Phenom 7XXX, and dual-cores Athlon 6XXX. The FX models will be called Phenom FX and the single core models will still be called Athlon and Sempron with the LE suffix.
This winter we will see the first quad-cores from AMD for the desktop market, based on Agena. The first FX models, based on Agena FX, and the high-end model of the Phenom series will arrive a few months behind. Phenom FX-82 will be AMD’s weapon against Intel’s Core 2 Extreme QX9650, but with its 2.6 GHz clock frequency we doubt that it can really measure up. Quarter one we will know for sure.
In November we will see the first quad-core Phenom 9600 and 9500 models. They will run at 2.4 and 2.2 GHz with 4×512 KB L2 cache, 2 MB L3 cache and a HT bus of 3.6 GHz. The TDP of these models will be 89 W, while the faster model that will arrive the month after that, Phenom 9700, will have a 125 W TDP. It will not only have a higher clock frequency, 2.6 GHz, but also a faster HT bus; 4 GHz. The next model is not expected until quarter two, 2008, and will most likely be called 9800, and running at 2.8 GHz.
But again, what kind of potential do they carry? Is there any overclocking head room with these babies, or are they going take us by storm and sweep Intel from its feet?
We’ve been hearing of severe yield problems and the postponing of the dual-core Kuma to Q2 2008 certainly strengthens that belief. The triple-core models are certainly another hint for that the quad-core yields are poor.
