Advanced Micro Devices could bring DDR3 memory support to Phenom II desktops earlier than it had projected, the company said on Monday.
The company aims to add DDR3 support to Phenom II by the middle of 2009, but could push that up depending on factors including pricing of the memory, said John Taylor, an AMD spokesman.
To support DDR3 memory, the company will introduce the AM3 socket, Taylor said. Motherboards with the AM3 socket will support AMD's upcoming Phenom II CPU.
AM3's launch could be as early as "a few" months after the release of the Phenom II processor, which is scheduled for launch in January.
"We want to look at hitting the market at the right time with the right product," Taylor said. The company will take into account the cost of DDR3 memory and the benefits it delivers to customers before deciding on a release date, he said.
AMD plans to transition to DDR3 memory support for servers with the Maranello platform in 2010. The Maranello platform includes the six-core Sao Paulo and 12-core Magny-Cours chips.
DDR3 is a new form of memory that offers larger bandwidth for quicker data transfers in PCs than DDR2 memory. As processors get faster, DDR3 provides faster communication between the CPU and the memory that could boost system performance, said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at Insight 64.
DDR3 memory will boost performance of the already-speedy Phenom II-based machines, he said. However, DDR3 memory is expensive as it's relatively new, he noted.
AMD has overclocked the Phenom II processor to run at up to 4GHz on air-cooled systems, and up to 5GHz on liquid-nitrogen cooling, Taylor said. The first Phenom II chips will be quad-core processors and will include 8M bytes of cache, according to the company's chip road map. AMD declined to provide pricing information for Phenom II.
Intel's Core i7 processor for gaming systems, launched last week, already supports DDR3 memory.
Online retailers are taking orders for Advanced Micro Devices' upcoming Phenom II processors, leaking chip details ahead of the company's processor announcement plans for early January.
Two new quad-core Phenom II processors, aimed at high-end desktops, will start shipping on Dec. 27, according to retail Web sites. AMD plans to announce the chips next month at the International Consumer Electronics Show to be held in Las Vegas between January 8 and 11.
The quad-core Phenom II chips run at speeds from 2.8GHz to 3GHz and include 8MB of cache. The chips are capable of achieving higher speeds under certain circumstances though. AMD overclocked Phenom II processors to run at up to 4GHz on air-cooled systems, and up to 5GHz on liquid-nitrogen cooling earlier this year.
AMD's Phenom II X4 940 quad-core processor, which runs at 3GHz, is being sold for US$304 by online computer parts retailer Computers4Sure. The chip is being priced as high as $373 by a Canada-based online retailer, A-Power Computer Online.
Another quad-core processor, the Phenom II X4 920, which runs at 2.8GHz, is being sold for $271 by Computers4sure. The same chip is being sold for $317 by A-Power.
For now the chips will support DDR2 memory, but faster DDR3 memory support could be added in a few months. DDR3 provides a larger bandwidth for quicker data transfers between the CPU and memory in PCs compared to DDR2 memory. To support DDR3 memory, AMD will introduce the new AM3 socket for motherboards in the next few months.
AMD plans big with its Stream project. Under the Stream project, the graphics cores will be able to perform tasks usually performed by CPU and called this process as General Purpose computing on Graphics Processing Unit. Thousands of graphics processing cores packed on graphics card's processor can be leveraged to perform generic calculations such as scientific imaging when used on more affordable computing systems.
AMD's Stream project directly competes with Nvidia's CUDA platform.
Patricia Harrell, AMD Stream computing director, said that AMD hopes to offer a complete open platform for software developers to optimize codes for CPU and GPU. AMD has announced open ATI Stream Software Development Kit v1.3 to leverage developers, tech professionals and research professionals for high-performance computing on affordable computing systems.
Using ATI Stream SDK, developers are expected to easily develop ATI Stream-enabled applications that would be used over AMD graphics hardware like AMD graphics hardware, including AMD FireStream 9250 and AMD FireStream 9270 compute accelerators, ATI FirePro V5700 and ATI FirePro V8700 workstation graphics accelerators, and ATI Radeon HD 4000 series graphics cards.
AMD has also announced to release ATI Catalyst driver v8.12 for ATI Radeon graphics cards on December 10. As per AMD, this new ATI Catalyst driver will instantly unlock ATI Stream Acceleration capabilities on ATI graphics cards. AMD has also partnered with Aprius for building 8-GPU based stream computing servers as a straight blow to Nvidia's Tesla range.
With these Stream applications, general computing tasks such as video rendering can be given slight boost of performance and even everyday tasks like opening large image files in couple of seconds.
With range of free and open software for Stream project, AMD aims to open up more possibilities for their vision of GPGPU and Fusion in long run.
Source: PC Authority
AMD laid out its product roadmap plans at the Financial Analyst Day. As part of it, AMD has announced seven new processors and five new platforms right from high-end PC segment to ultra portable netbooks.
AMD's new manufacturing spin-off temporarily known as 'The Foundary Company' is expected to start manufacturing operations in early 2010. AMD expects to finish testing 32nm process chips by the end of the year 2009. While on the other hand Intel has already promised introducing 32nm process made Westmere, Nehalem s successor.
Be ready for some platform and processor 'code-name' confusions.
Notebook/Mobile platform
AMD has announced Yukon platform answer to Intel Atom low-processor alternative for netbooks. Yukon will be out next year in first quarter along with "slim" processor code-named Bobcat with a chipset having power consumption of less than 25 watts meant for low-powered mobile devices.
Brazos platform, low-cost and low-power platform for mobile computers, will used DDR3 memory and have dual core chip Ontario, a refreshed Bobcat version, with 1MB cache, on-die GPU and DDR3 memory controller by 2011. Also in 2011, a desktop and notebook platform code-named Sabine which will be built on an APU code-named Llano with four cores, 4MB cache, DDR3 memory controllers and GPU packed on-die. AMD terms Accelerated Processing Unit as combination of CPU with GPU on same silicon wafer, basically a System-on-Chip. AMD bets Sabine bring 'significant' battery-life improvements to notebooks.
In 2011, AMD will bring products based on new architecture currently named as Bulldozer and will have 32nm process built chip codenamed Ontario, Llano and Orochi. Out of the three, Orochi will be high-end enthusiast desktop chip featuring quad cores with 8MB cache and integrated DDR3 memory controller.
The mainstream notebook market will get a new platform code named Tigris, successor to Puma and will accommodate 45nm process mobile CPU with 780M chipset, in second half of 2009. Tigris will have 45nm process built single and dual core processors code-named Caspian with 2MB cache. Also RS880M and SB710 chipsets will be released. The Tigris processors with new chipsets are expected to enhance high-def video playback, better performance and longer battery life for the notebooks.
In 2010, AMD will release Tigris successor platform code-named Danube which will feature Champlain, code-name for AMD s first quad-core mobile processor.
Desktops
In first half of 2009, AMD will bring a new platform code-named Dragon for high-end desktop market and will feature 42nm process Phenom II X4 quad-core processor code-named as Deneb with 8MB of L3 cache and the Propos version will have 2MB of L3 cache. Dragon will also include ATI Radeon HD 4800 series GPU and 790 series chipset.
In the second half of 2009, 45nm process built Kodiak processors will be included for the business class desktops. Also for the mainstream desktops, a new platform code-named Pisces will be introduced. Pisces will feature 45nm process Phenom II triple and quad-core processors that will used DDR3 memory and upcoming RS880 chipset.
In the later half of 2009, a home-theater platform code-named Maui which will make AMD's hardware work with AMD's Live Media Center software used over Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate based computers. This entertainment platform will also include options for AVR class 7.1, 5.1 and 3.1 audio as well as HDTV tuning.
In mid 2009, AMD will introduce new server platform named Fiorano which will feature support for 45nm process built Shanghai and its successor code-named Istanbul, a six-core processor scheduled to ship in second half of 2009. Also SR5690 chipset is expected along with Fiorano.
A next-generation platform code-named Maranello will be introduced with a new socket and will support DDR3 instead of DDR2. Maranello will bring AMD's first ever 12-core processor code-named Magny-Cours and six core processor code-named Sao Paolo in 2010.
