Features & specifications

So today AMD is releasing two new processors today. Six-cores and quite nicely clocked versions as well.

• AMD Phenom II X6 1090T at (3.2 GHz / 3.6 GHz Turbo) at 289 USD
• AMD Phenom II X6 1055T at ( 2.8 GHz / 3.3 GHz  Turbo) 199 USD

AMD is now really pushing the 45nm node to manufacture the newer model Phenom II X6 processors. When the original Phenom processors launched first up was the transition from 65nm towards 45nm, if you look at this from a distance it pretty much means that they were able to make this processor smaller compared to the first generation Phenom (I) products. And that has advantages, often to be found in lower voltages and higher clock frequencies.

The Phenom II X4 965BE is now decrowned, the flagship AMD processor product right now is the Phenom II X6 1090T this processor will run at 3.2 GHz at a full bi-directional 2.0 GHz HT 3.0 speed. Its voltage range is1.125-1.40V.

The Thermal Design Power (TDP) is the average maximum power a processor can dissipate while running commercially available software. TDP is primarily used as a guideline for manufacturers of thermal solutions (heatsinks/fans, etc) which tells them how much heat their solution should dissipate. TDP is not the maximum power the CPU may generate - there may be periods of time when the CPU dissipates more power than designed, in which case either the CPU temperature will rise closer to the maximum, or special CPU circuitry will activate and add idle cycles or reduce CPU frequency with the intent of reducing the amount of generated power.

The new six-core processors not only have a fair TDP (peak Wattage at 125W) but overall much better power management thanks to the fact that hardware C1E is implemented in the CPU, allowing the processor to throttle up and down real fast core independently. And that makes it an interesting change as it does allow for faster switching of power states, making it more efficient whilst consuming less power and heat.

So as a side effect these processors run cool, very cool. This is something we'll again show you later on but IDLE operating temperatures of the new six-core processors are to be found ar room-temperature, 15~25 Degrees C with a regular heatpipe based cooler can be considered normal.

let's go inside the processor then. This Phenom II X6 part is based on AMD's 45nm Silicon On Insulator process technology and has a total of 3MB L2 cache; that's 512KB per core. The Phenom II X6 can address 6MB L3 cache shared among the cores as a buffer, so it can exchange data in-between the six logical cores. So That's 9 MB of cache and then we have not even accounted for another 768KB total L1 per processor. So all the variables are exactly the same as the latest generation Phenom II processors have, just multiplied per core. Here's the bullet on that:

• 768KB L1 Cache (Instruction + Data): 128KB x6 (64KB + 64KB for each core)
• 3MB L2 Cache: 512KB x6 (quad-core)
• 6MB L3 Cache: 6MB Shared L3

Phenom II X6 processor (Thuban) die (346mm2). You can see the six cores clearly with in-between them the L2 cache. To the right you can spot the shared L3 cache. And all the way to the left you can spot the 128-bit memory controller.

L3 is where a lot of magic happens and is probably the reason for Phenom II's success. Well, that and the flexible and high clock frequencies of course.

The memory controllers has stepped up a notch as well and will support up to 16GB 4x4GB DDR3 DIMMs at 1333MHz which apparently was an issue on the early revisions Phenom II X4 processors. Actually, overclocked you can take the memory even up-to, and likely even over, 2000 MHz now.

• True Six Core Processing
• AMD Turbo CORE Technology
• 6 x 512 KB L2 cache
• 6 MB L3 cache
• Direct Connect Architecture
• HyperTransport 3.0 Technology
• Integrated Dual-Channel Memory Controller supports DDR2 and DDR3 memory
• AMD Balanced Smart Cache
• AMD Dedicated Multi-cache
• AMD Virtualization (AMD-V)Technology
• AMD PowerNow 3.0 Technology
• AMD Dynamic Power Management
• Multi-Point Thermal Control
• AMD CoolCore Technology

Now if you really want to go budget, you can pop these processors into, for example, an 80 USD AMD 785 chipset based motherboard (latest BIOS required), pop in some DDR3 memory for a few tenners and get pretty staggering performance, while your entire PC build remains really affordable.

AMD Phenom II X6 Processors have been designed for heavy megatasking, multi-threaded applications, and entertainment. Here at Guru3D we like to call it processors for create, edit, render, encode/decode and transfer dense HD content while doing other things like watching HD content, burning CDs or DVDs while downloading music and video.