AMD will roll out 2.4- and 2.6-GHz versions of Phenom in the first quarter. The chip should yield 3-GHz products by June, according to the company. AMD will also refresh its Spider platform with new graphics chips next year.

The Phenom packs a 512-kbyte L2 cache for each of its cores, as well as a shared 2-Mbyte L3 cache. By contrast, the Penryn products use up to 12 Mbytes of shared L2 cache.

Spider is based on AMD 700 series chip sets that link to the processor via a HyperTransport 3.0 interface, delivering up to 16 Gbytes/second on the current Phenom chips. The chip sets also pack up to 42 PCI Express Gen2 links, enabling two to four graphics processors per system on configurable Express lines.

Spider is based on the AMD Radeon HD 3800 family of graphics processors, which pack 320 stream processors in devices made in a Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. 55-nm process. The chips come in versions with core data rates from 670 to 775 MHz and 256-bit memory interfaces running from 1.6 to 2.25 GHz serving frame buffers of up to 512 Mbytes.

The graphics cards using the HD 3800 will cost less than $300, Solotico said. A system could handle four of the cards using a power supply of 700 to 800 W.

The new chip set also supports over-clocking and includes user utilities to configure data rates. The offering consumes 12 W or less. Some high-end Intel desktop chip sets consume up to 26 W, in part because they include a memory controller that AMD integrates on its CPU.

The AMD 700 series chip sets will come in three varieties, each costing $25 to $50 less than corresponding Intel parts in some configurations. As many as 12 motherboard suppliers in Taiwan said they are building products using the new AMD chips.

The initial 2.3- and 2.2-GHz Phenom processors are now available for $283 and $251, respectively, in 1,000-unit quantities.

By: DocMemory
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