Phenom II

AMD Phenom II

Produced	From 2008 to Present
Marketed by	AMD
Designed by	AMD
Common manufacturer(s)	GlobalFoundries
Max. CPU clock	2.5 GHz to 3.4 GHz
HyperTransport speeds	1.8 GHz to 2 GHz
Min. feature size	45 nm
Instruction set	x86-64
Microarchitecture	AMD K10
Cores	2 or 3 or 4
Socket(s)	Socket AM2+ Socket AM3
Core name(s)	Deneb Heka Callisto

Phenom II is a family of AMD multi-core 45 nm central processing units, succeeding the original Phenom. The Socket AM2+ version of Phenom II was released in December 2008, while Socket AM3 versions with DDR3 support, along with an initial batch of triple- and quad-core processors were released on February 9, 2009.^[1] Dual-processor systems will require Socket F+ for the Quad FX platform.^[2] The Phenom II is the processor component of AMD's Dragon Platform, which also includes the 700 series chipset and Radeon HD 4800 series graphics.

Features

The Phenom II triples the shared L3 cache size from 2MB (in the original Phenom line) to 6MB,^[3] leading to benchmark performance gains as high as 30%.^[4] Another change from the original Phenom is that Cool 'n Quiet is now applied to the processor as a whole, rather than on a per-core basis. This was done in order to address the mishandling of threads by Windows Vista, which can cause single-threaded applications to run on a core that is idling at half its clock rate.^[5]

Socket AM3 versions of the Phenom II are backwards-compatible with Socket AM2+, though this is contingent on motherboard manufacturers supplying BIOS updates. In addition to the Phenom II's pin compatibility, the AM3 memory controller supports both DDR2 and DDR3 memory (up to DDR2-1066 and DDR3-1333), allowing existing AM2+ users to upgrade their CPU without changing the motherboard or memory. However, similar to the way the original Phenom handled DDR2-1066, current Phenom II platforms limit the usage of DDR3-1333 to one DIMM per channel; otherwise, the DIMMs are underclocked to DDR3-1066.^[6] AMD claims that this behavior is due to the BIOS, not the memory controller, and plans to address it with a BIOS update. The dual-spec memory controller also gives motherboard manufacturers and system builders the option of pairing AM3 with DDR2 to reduce overall system cost, as compared to competing chips from Intel, which require DDR3.

AMD Phenom-based processor family
AMD K10	Desktop
	Quad-core	Triple-core	Dual-core
Code-named	Deneb	Heka	Callisto
Core	45 nm	45 nm	45 nm
Date released	Feb 2009	Feb 2009	Jun 2009
List of AMD Phenom microprocessors

Beginning with the AM3 versions of the Phenom II, three series based on the same silicon are being marketed. The first series is the flagship representing the full performance potential of the chip. The other three series are formed by die harvesting, that is, chips that were produced with some amount of defects. The affected portions of these chips are disabled and the chips themselves marked as a lower-grade product.^[1]

• 900 series: Flagship series with full complement of cores and L3 cache enabled.
• 800 series: These are chips with some amount of defect in the L3 cache; 2 MB is disabled, leaving the chip with 4 MB L3 cache and fully operational cores.
• 700 series: These chips have one core disabled, leaving it with three operational cores (marketed as "X3") and a fully operational L3 cache.
• 500 series: These chips have two cores disabled, leaving it with two operational cores (marketed as "X2") and a fully operational L3 cache.

There are some versions of the Phenom II X2 and X3, however, which have no defects in the silicon but one or two cores "deactivated" to enable AMD to target the lower end of the market^[7]. As a result, with the correct motherboard and BIOS it is possible to unlock the deactivated core(s) of the processor. Although success is not guaranteed, because in some cases the core(s) may have been deactivated due to faulty silicon.

Overclocking

The Phenom II range of CPUs is the first series of AMD CPUs to eliminate the "cold bug" (which causes the processor to cease functioning below a certain temperature, and prevents the use of "extreme" cooling methods such as dry ice or liquid nitrogen). With the elimination of this cold bug, these CPUs are expected to overclock to much higher levels than any other AMD CPU range.^[8][9]

In a public demonstration of the Phenom II's overclocking potential (Las Vegas 10th of January 2009, CES 2009), Sami "Macci" Mäkinen (a record-breaking overclocker) used a Phenom II X4 940 and a DFI LANParty 790FXB-M2RS with a combination of liquid nitrogen and liquid helium cooling to take the processor to a clock rate of 6.5GHz and succeeded in beating the world record 3DMark 2005 score with a total of 45474.^[10][11]

A group named LimitTeam successfully overclocked AMD’s Deneb 45nm Phenom II X4 955 processor (Black Edition) on April 30, 2009, and submitted the results for validation to CPU-Z. During the process, the group used the Asus M4A79T Deluxe motherboard, dubbed as the Asus “multidimensional performance platform” featuring support for an AMD 140W CPU and the AMD 790FX/SB750 chipset. As a result, the group reached 7.127 GHz, beating the previous score of 6.7 GHz. However, LimitTeam didn’t reveal any specifics in regards to cooling during the overclocking process.^[12]

Cores

Deneb

• Four AMD K10 cores
• 45 nm SOI with Immersion Lithography
• L1 cache: 64 kB + 64 kB (data + instructions) per core
• L2 cache: 512 kB per core, full-speed
• L3 cache: 6 MB shared between all cores. The 800 series have 2 MB of its L3 Cache disabled due to defects.
• Memory controller: dual channel DDR2-1066 MHz (AM2+), dual channel DDR3-1333 (AM3) with unganging option
• MMX, Extended 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4a, AMD64, Cool'n'Quiet, NX bit, AMD-V
• Socket AM2+, Socket AM3, HyperTransport with 1800 to 2000 MHz
• Power consumption (TDP): 65, 95, 125 and 140 Watt
• First release
  • 8 January 2009 (C2 Stepping)
• Clock rate: 2500 to 3400 MHz
• Models: Phenom II X4 805 to 965

Heka

• Three AMD K10 cores using chip harvesting technique, with one core disabled
• 45 nm SOI with Immersion Lithography
• L1 cache: 64 kB + 64 kB (data + instructions) per core
• L2 cache: 512 kB per core, full-speed
• L3 cache: 6 MB shared between all cores
• Memory controller: dual channel DDR2-1066 MHz (AM2+), dual channel DDR3-1333 (AM3) with unganging option
• MMX, Extended 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4a, AMD64, Cool'n'Quiet, NX bit, AMD-V
• Socket AM3, HyperTransport with 2000 MHz
• Power consumption (TDP): 65 and 95 Watt
• First release
  • 9 February 2009 (C2 Stepping)
• Clock rate: 2500 to 2800 MHz
• Models: Phenom II X3 705e to 720

Callisto

• Two AMD K10 cores using chip harvesting technique, with two cores disabled
• 45 nm SOI with Immersion Lithography
• L1 cache: 64 kB + 64 kB (data + instructions) per core
• L2 cache: 512 kB per core, full-speed
• L3 cache: 6 MB shared between all cores
• Memory controller: dual channel DDR2-1066 MHz (AM2+), dual channel DDR3-1333 (AM3) with unganging option
• MMX, Extended 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4a, AMD64, Cool'n'Quiet, NX bit, AMD-V
• Socket AM3, HyperTransport with 2000 MHz
• Power consumption (TDP): 80 Watt
• First release
  • 1 June 2009 (C2 Stepping)
• Clock rate: 3000 to 3100 MHz
• Models: Phenom II X2 545 to 550

See also

• List of AMD Phenom microprocessors
• List of future AMD Phenom microprocessors

References