Phenom 9700, AMD's 1st Quad-Core CPU
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Page 1:Top Model With Four Cores - AMD Phenom 9700
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Page 2:The Phenom In Detail - A Revamped Athlon 64
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Page 3:Technology I - Advanced Memory Prefetcher, SSE4a
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Page 4:Technology II - Branch Prediction, Stack Counter
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Page 5:Technology III - Virtualisation, L3-Cache, HTT 3.0
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Page 6:Direct AMD Comparison - Phenom And Athlon X2
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Page 7:Phenom - Models
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Page 8:Phenom Caught A Processor Bug - Remembering The Pentium 60
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Page 9:Overclocking - Still An Engineering Sample?
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Page 10:Phenom Fits In Every Socket
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Page 11:Cool'n'Quiet 2.0
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Page 12:Cool'n'Quiet 2.0 In Detail
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Page 13:Cool'n'Quiet 2.0 In Detail II
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Page 14:Power Dissipation - No Reliable Data
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Page 15:Core Voltage - Lowered To 1.2 Volts
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Page 16:Chipsets - The Spider Platform
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Page 17:AMD's Chipsets - 790FX, 790X And 770
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Page 18:AMD Boards By MSI, Gigabyte And Asus
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Page 19:Reaching 3.00 GHZ With AMD's OverDrive Utility
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Page 20:Pricing - Phenom 9600 For $279
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Page 21:Athlon 64 X2 6400+ Beats Phenom 9600
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Page 22:Phenom 13.5% Slower Than Intel's Q6600
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Page 23:Test Setup
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Page 24:Software Configuration
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Page 25:3D Games - UT2004, Prey
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Page 26:3D Games - Quake 4, Warhammer
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Page 27:3D Games - Supreme Commander, Serious Sam 2
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Page 28:3D-Rendering - Cinema 4D, 3D-Studio Max
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Page 29:Applications - AVG, WinRAR
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Page 30:Applications - Photoshop, PDF
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Page 31:Applications - Deep Fritz
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Page 32:Audio Encoding - ITunes, Lame
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Page 33:Synthetic - Sandra CPU
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Page 34:Synthetic - Sandra Memory
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Page 35:Synthetic - Sandra Multimedia
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Page 36:Synthetic - PC-Mark
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Page 37:Synthetic - 3D-Mark
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Page 38:Video Encoding - Xvid, Pinnacle Studio
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Page 39:Video Encoding - Premiere, Mainconcept
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Page 40:Video Encoding - HDTV, DivX
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Page 41:Video Encoding - CloneDVD
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Page 42:Slower, But Cheaper Than Intel's Smallest Quad-Core
Phenom Caught A Processor Bug - Remembering The Pentium 60
A statement about the Phenom 9700
Somehow, we couldn't help but think back to the P60 as Dave Everitt informed the audience that a processor bug had found its way into the early Phenom processor samples. The bug causes the system to freeze when a certain combination of instructions coincides with extraordinarily high traffic.
This bug can only be reproduced in the lab but does not occur under normal, real-world conditions. It is still present in the 2.20 GHz and 2.30 GHz versions of the Phenom (9500 and 9600).
As a result of this bug, the 2.4 GHz version of the Phenom with the model number 9700 has been pushed back to January of 2008. When it comes out, that version will not contain the bug.
This turn of events caught both the press and AMD's employees completely by surprise as this fact was completely unknown before the launch event. Currently, many online stores still list the Phenom 9700, but any attempt to order it should end in a cancellation by the retailer.
Still listed - Phenom 9700
We did not encounter any crashes or instabilities with the CPU we received for testing.
We should mention that bugs like these are nothing extraordinary and are a comparatively commonplace occurrence. The processor makers list these bugs in so called Errata that detail the specifics of each bug. In most cases, the error is fixed in the next stepping of the CPU without the user ever knowing it existed in the first place. Intel, for example, details how the errata on each of its processors can be provoked to cause an exception or error. In other words, the fact that the first batch of Phenom processors has a bug shouldn't be dwelled on all that much.
- Top Model With Four Cores - AMD Phenom 9700
- The Phenom In Detail - A Revamped Athlon 64
- Technology I - Advanced Memory Prefetcher, SSE4a
- Technology II - Branch Prediction, Stack Counter
- Technology III - Virtualisation, L3-Cache, HTT 3.0
- Direct AMD Comparison - Phenom And Athlon X2
- Phenom - Models
- Phenom Caught A Processor Bug - Remembering The Pentium 60
- Overclocking - Still An Engineering Sample?
- Phenom Fits In Every Socket
- Cool'n'Quiet 2.0
- Cool'n'Quiet 2.0 In Detail
- Cool'n'Quiet 2.0 In Detail II
- Power Dissipation - No Reliable Data
- Core Voltage - Lowered To 1.2 Volts
- Chipsets - The Spider Platform
- AMD's Chipsets - 790FX, 790X And 770
- AMD Boards By MSI, Gigabyte And Asus
- Reaching 3.00 GHZ With AMD's OverDrive Utility
- Pricing - Phenom 9600 For $279
- Athlon 64 X2 6400+ Beats Phenom 9600
- Phenom 13.5% Slower Than Intel's Q6600
- Test Setup
- Software Configuration
- 3D Games - UT2004, Prey
- 3D Games - Quake 4, Warhammer
- 3D Games - Supreme Commander, Serious Sam 2
- 3D-Rendering - Cinema 4D, 3D-Studio Max
- Applications - AVG, WinRAR
- Applications - Photoshop, PDF
- Applications - Deep Fritz
- Audio Encoding - ITunes, Lame
- Synthetic - Sandra CPU
- Synthetic - Sandra Memory
- Synthetic - Sandra Multimedia
- Synthetic - PC-Mark
- Synthetic - 3D-Mark
- Video Encoding - Xvid, Pinnacle Studio
- Video Encoding - Premiere, Mainconcept
- Video Encoding - HDTV, DivX
- Video Encoding - CloneDVD
- Slower, But Cheaper Than Intel's Smallest Quad-Core