AMD has unleashed the new Phenom X4 9950 Black Edition, one of its three new quad-core Phenom X4 processors, which is codenamed Agena and is currently the fastest processor AMD has to offer.
With its Black Edition branding, it should be obvious that the Phenom X4 9950 BE is targeted squarely at enthusiasts and overclockers.
The processor’s specs are:
CPU Socket Type: Socket AM2+ (940-pin) organic micro PGA
Multi-Core: Quad-Core
Operating Frequency: 2.6GHz
Hyper Transports: 4000MHz
Hyper-Transport Support: Yes
Virtualization Technology Support: Yes
Multimedia Instruction: MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4a,3DNOW! Professional
AMD64 Technology: Yes
Simultaneous 32- & 64-bit computing: Yes
L1 Cache (Instruction + Data) per core: 128KB (64KB + 64KB)
L2 Cache (512KB per core): 2MB
L3 Cache: 2MB
HyperTransport™ Technology: HyperTransport™ technology up to 4000MT/s full duplex, or up to 16.0GB/s I/O Bandwidth
Integrated DDR2 Memory Controller: Yes
Memory Controller Width: 128-bit
Type of Memory Supported: PC2-8500(DDR2-1066) PC2 6400(DDR2-800), PC2 5300(DDR2-667), PC2 4200(DDR2-533), and PC2 3200(DDR2-400) unbuffered memory
Memory Bandwidth: up to 17.1 GB/s dual channel memory bandwidth
Total Processor-to-system Bandwidth (HyperTransport plus memory bandwidth) : up to 33.1 GB/s
Process Technology: 65 nanometer, SOI (silicon-on-insulator) Technology
Voltage: 1.05-1.30V
Thermal Design Power: 140W, 125W, 95W, 65W
Die Size: 65nm: 285mm2
Number of Transistors: 65nm: ~450 million
This processor is the first true quad core that boasts better performance for it allows cores to communicate on die. With AMD64 Direct Connect Architecture, it increases application performance by reducing memory latency; scales memory bandwidth and performance to match compute needs; and with HyperTransport™ Technology, it provides up o 16.0GB/s peak bandwidth per processor-reducing I/O bottlenecks up to 33.1GB/s total delivered processor-to-system bandwidth (HyperTransport bus + memory bus). With an AMD Balanced Smart Cache, it shortens access times to highly accessed data. Other features are the AMD Wide Floating Point Accelerator, HyperTransport™ technology, Integrated DDR2 DRAM Controller with AMD Memory Optimizer Technology, AMD Virtualization™ (AMD-V™) With Rapid Virtualization Indexing, AMD Cool’n’Quiet™ 2.0 technology, AMD CoolCore™ Technology and Dual Dynamic Power Management™ .
The AMD Phenom X4 9950 costs around $550, which will be around Php25,000 when it becomes available in the Philippines.