CPU's / Processors

Re: AMD Tri-Core Phenoms Inbound!!!!

slmclarengt — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 06:20:28 GMT

BIOS chips as they are often referred to have an allocated memory size (ie 4MB). With such, they store vital information such as CPU micro-codes, FSB speeds, multipliers, etc... Generally with a release of new processors, the motherboard manufacturers are notified beforehand and often times the micro-codes are inputted prior even to the release of the processor. I don't know for sure and am not at the urge to find out but it's possible/likely that any/all AM2+ motherboards may already even have the Tri-core micro-codes embedded into their BIOS chips however if they don't now, they probably will soon enough.

The main reason older boards are not quite as supportive as newer boards is because their micro-codes take up plenty of space to be backwards-compatible with older processors and their BIOS chips are generally not large enough to append more micro-codes to it. However, there are workarounds one can put into place including new BIOS chips or custom BIOS flashes to allow new processor implementation. Another problem though not as "serious" one could say as no compatibility is the technology is more outdated for older motherboards (ie: slower HT bus 1GHz vs. 2.6Ghz, lower memory standard speeds generally, PCI-E 1.1 x16 vs. PCI-E 2.0 x16, etc...).

Slmclarengt

Re: AMD Tri-Core Phenoms Inbound!!!!

DTNguyen107 — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 03:53:03 GMT

If the tri-cores are cheap and perform good for their price. I'm all for it.

Re: AMD Tri-Core Phenoms Inbound!!!!

kid4212003 — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 03:38:27 GMT

Phenom is a native quad-core, which make tri-core nothing different, the current bios already supported Phenom, so I think you may not even have to update bios.

Re: AMD Tri-Core Phenoms Inbound!!!!

RjBass — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 03:07:04 GMT

The only thing stopping it from being compatable on your MoBo is your Mobo manufacturer. Currently my two year old MoBo from Asus supports the currently available Phenoms with a bios update and most likely it will support the upcoming releases. But I would be willing to bet that cheaper lower end boards won't get bios updates for the Phenoms. The machine I'm on now has a PC Chips A33G Mobo in it and the latest bios update doesn't have any support for Phenoms.

Re: AMD Tri-Core Phenoms Inbound!!!!

cyberburn311 — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 02:42:02 GMT

If it is compatible with the AM2 socket I'll snatch one up

Re: AMD Tri-Core Phenoms Inbound!!!!

kid4212003 — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 02:37:34 GMT

I'll probably buy one.

I think they will replace the top Athlon X2, and will be price around $100-150? Just my guess.

Re: AMD Tri-Core Phenoms Inbound!!!!

Inplabth — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:21:26 GMT

I did some research, and the way that AMD manufactures their quad-core processors with 4 CPUs on one die has about a 10-15% defect rate. This is usually just one core that goes, so they factory "deactivate" the core, and it performs EXACTLY the same, but with a higher cache to core ratio. It's a pretty sound idea, and it gives consumers almost the same performance for a significantly (I think) price compared to a comparative quad-core.

Re: AMD Tri-Core Phenoms Inbound!!!!

cyberburn311 — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 18:34:37 GMT

RjBass:
The point is a good processor being sold to the market that otherwise would have been just tossed into the garbage can.

Yea, it's brilliant from a business perspective.

Re: AMD Tri-Core Phenoms Inbound!!!!

RjBass — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 14:46:37 GMT

The point is a good processor being sold to the market that otherwise would have been just tossed into the garbage can.

Re: AMD Tri-Core Phenoms Inbound!!!!

swivvle — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 07:35:22 GMT

Sounds kinda silly to be, tri-core? what is the point.

Re: AMD Tri-Core Phenoms Inbound!!!!

ish718 — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 06:47:11 GMT

Im still not impressed, I wanna see some higher clocked phenoms already. Tri core looks somewhat promising though.

IN OTHER NEWS, core2duo e8400 just hit 5.0ghz!

Like cmon, Intel is making so much more progress. Seems as if AMD is slacking so much.

Re: AMD Tri-Core Phenoms Inbound!!!!

cman — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 05:13:50 GMT

Don't forget about the dual-core processors to come from AMD. Phenom based "Kuma" will be sold as Athlon X2. They were originally stated to be part of the Phenom launch but AMD has decided to keep them under the Athlon name. They also pushed them back a couple of quarters. Launch for those should be Q2 2008

The 6250 and 6050 are "Kuma" dual core processors.

http://www.vr-zone.com/articles/AMD_Adds_Kuma_%26_Lima_To_Athlon_Brand/5336.html

The second I get word on pricing from a reliable source, I will post back.

Re: AMD Tri-Core Phenoms Inbound!!!!

RjBass — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 04:37:07 GMT

BTW, anybody have any projected priceing for the Phenom Tri Cores?

Seeing as how I am always broke, I wouldn't mind stepping up my current CPU to one of these new Tri Cores here soon.

Re: AMD Tri-Core Phenoms Inbound!!!!

RjBass — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 04:32:09 GMT

cman:

The reasoning behind disabling one of the cores is derived from profit. In each wafer full of future CPU's there are are going to be chips that do make the cut due to some type of defect. In some cases, they will be able route off and mask around a single defected core and still be able to deliver three working cores connected to the same L3 cache. Both AMD and Intel have done this in the past with Celeron and Sempron chips. Those were often taken from a wafer of Pentium or Athlon processors and like above, had some type of defect. In the case of those, they could route off and mask around defective cache and still have a working processor - with less cache.

This keeps so many chips from hitting the trash bin, creating zero profit, and also hopefully gives you a good performing product for the price.

What he said ^^^. I predict that the Phenom Tri Cores will be to the AMD lineup like what the Celeron Dual Cores will be to Intel. As Phenoms come further and further into play and as the Athlon X2 series is slowly killed off, the tri core Phenoms will wind up being the low end solution for AMD CPU's. That is unless AMD comes out with it's own dual core Sempron to compete more with Intel's low end.

Look at it this way, in two years the only processors we will be able to purchase anymore will be multi core CPU's. If Intel's low end is the dual core Celeron, and AMD's is the tri core Phenom, and they are both priced about the same, who will be winning the low end CPU market?

Granted this is all just speculation on my part, but I could very easily see it happening.

Re: AMD Tri-Core Phenoms Inbound!!!!

cyberburn311 — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 04:12:16 GMT

They should give dedicated customers some to try. I'd be down