Pursuing legal action against Intel for bringing its Intel-compatible platform development to a grinding halt due to legal complications, NVIDIA has kept its platform development for AMD on track. The company has made the nForce 980a SLI platform official, that supports the latest Phenom II series processors from AMD. The company published the product page on its website, and has pictured its reference design motherboard based on the chipset. The motherboard carries the "designed by NVIDIA" marking, which makes it a design that several of its AIC partners such as EVGA, XFX, Zotac, etc., can use simultaneously.

The motherboard sports the nForce 980a SLI chipset, paired with the nForce 200 PCI-Express bridge chip. The motherboard features a GeForce 8300-class IGP, with DVI-D and D-Sub outputs. It supports NVIDIA 3-way SLI and Quad-SLI. As an AMD platform, the chipset supports AM2, AM2+ and AM3 socket processors, with DDR3 and DDR2 memory support (depending on the processor). A 5-phase digital PWM circuit powers the processor. The nForce 980a SLI and nForce 200 chips are located adjacent to each other, and are cooled actively by a fan-heatsink. The product design looks production-grade and may attract partners to sell it.

New information from German tech site Hardware-Infos, has lead to the news that AMD's fastest CPU, the Phenom II X4 955, could be available from April 20th this year. Using the AM3 socket, the CPU is made using AMD's latest 45 nm fabrication process, and is clocked in at 3.2 GHz (16*200 MHz). Sporting 512 KB of L2 cache per core, and a 6 MB L3 cache, AMD have managed to match the 125 W TDP of the recently released Phenom II X4 940.

The ability of AMD's Phenom II X3 processors dole out an additional core thanks to flaws in BIOS programming, has been one of the most interesting events in the computer enthusiast industry this month. A simple toggle of an option would unlock the disabled core, appreciating the value of the processor. It was earlier known that only chips belonging to 0904 (fourth week of 2009) batch of the processors would be able to respond to the mod successfully, but now, a fresh finding by German website Hartware.net suggests that even chips made in the 51st week of 2008 batch responded to the mod, and the fourth core could be enabled. Hartware.net used Biostar's TA790GX A2+ motherboard for the feat.

Meanwhile, the only entity that stands to lose due to this rather bizarre "phenomenon" has stepped in. AMD has reportedly requested motherboard manufacturers to not to release motherboards with the "buggy" BIOS, and to devise a fix for the issue immediately. Manufacturers are requested to release fixed BIOS updates. Evidently Phenom II X3 could cannibalize higher quad-core chips by the firm. The company is yet to release an DDR3-supportive quad-core chip based on the Deneb core with the entire 6 MB cache enabled.

Shuttle Inc., the market leader in the Mini-PC segment and manufacturer of Multi-Form-Factor solutions expands the CPU compatibility for the XPC Barebone SN78SH7. A newly published BIOS version now enables the use of AMD Phenom II processors. Besides current AM2 and AM2+ processors, the state-of-the-art 45nm models Phenom II X4 940 and Phenom II 920 with four cores are now also officially supported.

The compact XPC Barebone SN78SH7 with case dimensions of only 32.5 x 20.8 x 18.9 cm (DWH) uses brushed aluminium with a high-grade finish. The core of the robust Mini hides a NVIDIA GeForce 8200 chipset and the graphics processor of the same name. Picture and sound are transferred in excellent HD quality via the integrated HDCP-compliant HDMI interface. The package is rounded off by a PCI-Express 2.0 (x16) and one PCI slot, a Gigabit LAN interface and eSATA connectors. The Shuttle XPC Barebone SN78SH7 is now available at an RRP of EUR 281 (ex VAT). The Phenom II-supportive BIOS can be obtained from here.

Barely a week into the introduction of the DDR3-supportive AM3 socket CPUs, the processors seem to be having design flaws. This, as circulated by AMD in its revision guide document for the 10h family of processors (found here, page 80). The issue, as described by AMD, centers around the DDR3 memory sub-system. On machines with more than one PC3-10600 (1333 MHz) memory module populating a memory channel, the users may experience unreliable operation. The company does not get into the specifics of the symptoms. This issue however, does not affect systems with a module per channel (one or two modules installed in the motherboard), and only those with three to four modules installed.

The AMD K10 memory controllers on AM3-socket processor provide a 128-bit wide memory interface (with DRAM Ganged mode enabled), which amount to two 64-bit wide memory channels. On most motherboards, four DIMM slots with two slots sharing a memory channel are present. With this issue, one is not recommended to use more than one DDR3-1333 memory module per channel. AMD recommends a quick fix for the issue for systems using more than one DDR3-1333 module per memory channel: to manually specify the memory to run at 533 MHz (1066 MHz DDR), and accordingly set DRAM timings. As a little compensation, one can tighten DRAM timings with the drop in frequency. AMD will fix this issue in the next stepping (sub-version) of the CPUs. The "x-factor" with this erratum revolves around DRAM voltage, a significant factor. One might note AMD saying "the processor memory subsystem may exhibit unreliable operation over the allowable VDDIO voltage range", which leads us to think if there is a potential workaround with adjusting the DRAM voltage beyond the allowable range (read: over-volting the memory). We hope to hear more from AMD on this.

UPDATE (02/13): AMD replied to the report, saying that work is in progress toward fixing the issue. While not getting into the specifics, AMD indicated to us that apart from addressing the issue, the company is also working toward something "which will make you 'feel cozy' about the DDR3 support". The statement is ambiguous, and is best left uninterpreted at this point in time.

AMD today extended its Phenom II line-up with five new processors, including the industry's only 45nm triple-core CPUs and three new AMD Phenom II quad-core processors. Part of the fire breathing AMD Dragon platform, these new Phenom II chips fit in either AM2+ or AM3 sockets and support DDR2 or next generation DDR3 memory. The new triple-core and quad-core AMD Phenom II processors are available immediately with the following model numbers:

• AMD Phenom II X4 910 2.6GHz, 6MB of L3 cache
• AMD Phenom II X4 810 2.6GHz, 4MB of L3 cache - $175
• AMD Phenom II X4 805 2.5GHz, 4MB of L3 cache
• AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition 2.8GHz, 6MB of L3 cache - $145
• AMD Phenom II X3 710 2.6GHz, 6MB of L3 cache - $125

All five Phenom II chips have the same 95W TDP.

With the AMD K8 architecture, AMD had made it very simple for CPUs and motherboards to get along. Memory support being purely subjective to the memory controller on the CPU, the only thing the motherboard chipset was left to do was to connect the rest of the system to the CPU using the HyperTransport interface. With the introduction of the DDR2 supportive AM2 socket that was mostly pin-compatible with socket 939, motherboard vendors took to cost-cutting using older s939 and s754-"supportive" chipsets such as the NVIDIA nForce 3. ASRock is one of them. The company used the nForce 3 in the AM2NF3-VSTA motherboard.

Having bought that motherboard in its time, might just pay off now, with the company including it in its latest socket AM3 CPU compatibility list. The motherboard might go on to support the latest Phenom II X4, X3 series; Athlon X4, X3 series, and other processors in AMD's 45nm desktop CPU lineup. That will also add to the reputation of the NVIDIA nForce 3 chipset being the only platform core-logic to span across three generations of CPU sockets: socket 754, socket 939, and socket AM2. And supporting AMD processors from three generations of sockets: AM2, AM2+ and AM3. This is what AMD originally conceived when designing its socket model. Unfortunately, vested commercial interests and "sandbagging" have plagued many a motherboard manufacturer who continue to discriminate CPU support within the AM2/3 socket series, to create new product lines, and to keep their sales up.

Gigabyte has a complete range of AM2+/AM2 socket-based motherboard range lined up for launch, based on the company's Ultra-Durable 3 construction. Among its range, Gigabyte has resurrected the AMD 790X chipset and given it a go with in its upcoming GA-MA790X-UD4 motherboard. The AMD 790X is a scaled-down version of the AMD 790FX, based on the RD780 core. While lacking integrated graphics, it provides ATI CrossFireX support, with a maximum of 16 PCI-Express 2.0 lanes to spare for graphics, which usually split into electrically dual PCI-Express 2.0 x8 when used with CrossFire setups. The 790X chipset was largely unpopular when it launched along with the 790FX and 770. It couldn't stand firm as the middle-ground between performance and value. This, along with competition from NVIDIA's nForce 750a SLI forced AMD to work on the 790GX chipset that offers all the features of the 790X, plus the integrated graphics.

In Gigabyte's latest work, the 790X is accompanied by the overclocker-friendly SB750 southbridge chip. The motherboard supports all AM2/AM2+ processors including the latest AM2+ Phenom II series. It advertises DDR2-1200 as its memory standard. In the mix, are two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots that operate electrically (x8, x8) in CrossFire, a high-grade onboard audio CODEC, Firewire, and a single gigabit Ethernet connection. It is expected to release in February, with a price-tag of 135€.

AMD's introduction of the Phenom II series processors served several purposes and goals for the company, mainly porting the processor technology to the newer 45nm SOI manufacturing node, to attempt to bring down manufacturing cost. This also meant that AMD could trade-off bringing down manufacturing cost with stepping up transistor counts on a die that is nearly the size of that of the 65nm Barcelona/Agena. The 45nm Shanghai/Deneb has a distinct feature over its predecessor: three times the amount of L3 cache. The larger cache significantly adds to the transistor count of the die: 758 million as against the 468 million on Barcelona/Agena. Replying to an inquiry of Hardware-Infos, AMD attempts to explain its motive behind incorporating the large L3 cache, while trading-off with savings of die-size and alleged latencies the L3 cache brings in.

AMD points out that expanding the L3 cache was important to the architecture in more ways than one. On the desktop/client PC front, the additional L3 cache was expected to provide a 5% performance increment over its predecessor. The reviews later backed AMD's assertion. Secondly, AMD likes to maintain an essentially common die design for both its client (Phenom II/Deneb) and enterprise or server (Opteron/Shanghai), to make sure manufacturing costs aren't wasted in setting up a separate manufacturing node. With the enterprise-grade Opteron processors, the 6 MB L3 cache has proven to benefit the processor in dealing with large server workloads. Finally, AMD claims that despite the larger cache, the overall die-area of the 45nm die remains lesser than that of the 65nm Stars die, so cost-cutting remains to an extant.

ASUS is reportedly preparing eight new motherboards based on the AM3/AM2+ sockets, ready for AMD's 45nm desktop CPUs. While two of these have already caught the media's attention, there are more. Tabled below are the eight motherboards based on the AMD 7-series chipsets, the ASUS M4A series, and NVIDIA nForce 700 series (and 900 series chipsets, if the "980a SLI" reference in the table isn't a typo), the ASUS M4N series.

Getting into some details, the M4A79-T is the high-end AMD CrossFireX supportive platform based on the AMD 790FX + SB750 chipset, that supports dual-channel DDR3-1600 (OC) memory. It will feature four PCI-Express x16 slots. The M4A79 Deluxe supports DDR2 memory. It is known that the upcoming AM3 socket Phenom II processors will be backwards compatible with AM2+ (DDR2) platforms. The M4A78T-E is the based on the AMD 790GX + SB750 chipset, it supports DDR3. The M4A78-E supports DDR2, while being based on the same chipset. The M4N series motherboards, start from the 3-way SLI supportive M4N82 Deluxe based on the 780a/980a SLI chipset, again it isn't known if the chart sourced has a typo. There is the M4N72-E based on the nForce 750a SLI, and finally the M4N78 Pro. All the M4N motherboards support DDR2 memory.

Empowering consumers to get elite-level computing performance for under $900 U.S. dollars, AMD today launched "Dragon" platform technology for desktop PCs featuring the new AMD Phenom II X4 processor. Even the most demanding users such as enthusiasts and high-end gamers desire affordable systems capable of delivering HD entertainment, graphic-intensive game play at the highest settings their monitors can handle, as well as quick and easy transfer of video entertainment to and from mobile devices. Dragon platform technology provides the power to do it all by combining AMD's highest-performing CPU, the AMD Phenom II X4 processor, with award winning ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series graphics and AMD 7-Series chipsets. And it's offered at an incredible value with Dragon-based systems available for up to $1,200 U.S. dollars less than competing systems that deliver comparable performance.

Leading global PC manufacturers HP, Dell and Alienware plan to offer Dragon platform technology-based desktop systems in the first quarter of 2009, with Dell offering immediate availability in its Dell XPS desktop line. "The XPS 625 desktop powered by AMD's Dragon platform technology features new AMD Phenom II processors to enable a significant boost in speed for enhanced gaming, as well as the flexibility to enable multi-tasking and HD video capabilities free from delays, stalls and lags," said Arthur Lewis, general manager of Dell Gaming Group. "The XPS 625 gives gamers the unbelievable experience they expect at a price point that won't break the bank."

AMD is heading towards kicking off its desktop CPU lineup built on the 45nm manufacturing process this 8th of January. The company also started off with selling certain "business-class" CPUs last year, CPUs that are rated for long MTBF, giving it a little incentive for business/office PC manufacturers for using the processors in their models. The company is looking to do the same with its 45nm desktop CPU lineup, with six business-class CPUs on the cards, sources tell DigiTimes.

The models planned are dual-core Athlon X2 B23 (2.9GHz, 2MB cache) and B21 (2.7GHz, 2MB cache), triple-core Phenom II X3 B73 (2.8GHz, 7.5MB cache) and B71 (2.6GHz, 7.5MB cache), and quad-core Phenom II X4 B93 (2.8GHz 8MB cache) and B91 (2.6GHz 8MB cache). These processors are slated for Q3 2009. Following the introduction of these, the company plans to phase-out its current business class CPUs by issuing last-order notices for them in Q4. These will be issued for Phenom II X4 9850B, 9750B, 9600B and Phenom II X3 8850B, 8750B, 8600B as well as Athlon X2 5600B, 5400B, 5200B, 5000B, 4850B, 4450B and Athlon 1640B.

AMD will be launching its 45nm desktop CPU lineup with two of its flagship CPUs, the Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition and Phenom II X4 920, clocked at 3.00 GHz and 2.80 GHz respectively. Retailers can start selling these two processors in the processor in a box (PIB) form starting from January 8.

The suggested retail prices for the EMEA region according to NordicHardware are around 250€ for the Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition and 220€ for the Phenom II X4 920. The same source points at the US markets' suggested pricing, which states US $280 for the Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition, and $230 for the Phenom II X4 920. This puts AMD's flagship processor in the price range of Intel's Core i7 920 and Core 2 Quad Q9450 processors, while AMD's platform costs will be much lower than those of the Intel Core i7.

AMD, on the brink of making a start with its first desktop CPUs made on the 45nm manufacturing process, seems to have updated time-frames in which it will introduce new CPUs and manage inventories of currently available CPUs. Data compiled by DigiTimes from sources in the motherboard manufacturing industry points towards the following in 2009:

• The introduction of four new SKUs in the months of April, that include Athlon X4 (Propus core) 615 and 605, Athlon X3 (Rana core) 420 and 410, followed by Athlon X2 (Regor core) 240 and 235 in June
• Last orders for Phenom X4 9850 and 9950 (140W) to be taken in March, Phenom X4 9750, 9850 (95W) and 9950 (125W) will be in June, before which Phenom II X4 920 and 940 in May (in most likelihood replaced by models 925 and 945)
• Phase-out of Phenom X3 8450 and 8550 started, that of Phenom X3 8650 in March followed by Phenom X3 8850 and 8750 in June
• Last order notice for Athlon X2 4450e to be issued in March

BreakTheLimt.net, a Malaysian hardware portal tested the Phenom II X4 940 at its stock speed of 3.00 GHz, and posted a sting of benchmark results of the said chip. It was tested on a platform consisting of a MSI DKA790GX Platinum motherboard, with 2 GB of DDR2 1066 MHz memory and a ASUS Radeon HD 4870 TOP graphics card. All components were set to run at stock speeds. The chip was put through Super Pi 1M and 32M, Cinebench R10, PiFast Multithreaded, WPrime 1.5, Aquamark and 3DMark06.

Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS), today releases the A790GXM-AD3 Black Series motherboard disclosing the extraordinary gaming performance of AMD's latest Dragon platform. Supporting the latest AMD Phenom II processors, ATI CrossFireX technology, and the dual channel DDR3 memory architecture, ECS A790GXM-AD3 unleashes the full potential of hardware components that gamers are always eager for. With its upscale capability, the A790GXM-AD3 motherboard brings a spectacular gaming platform delivering the irrefutable performance to satisfy the gaming desire of extreme gamers.

AMD processors finally get to address DDR3 memory on the new AM3 socket. Compatible processors under the Phenom II and Athlon X3, X4 banners that come in AM3 socket packages, will run initially on updated AMD 7-series chipset variants, and later be succeeded by the the company's RD890 and RS880 chipset cores. HKEPC compiled some information on the RS880 core logic. The "RS" prefix for AMD GPG chipsets mark the presence of integrated graphics. Based on the performance efficiency of the RSx80 dice, they're branded into the mainstream RSx80 product (eg: RS780 for AMD 780G), RSx80C for a value product (eg: RS780C for AMD 740G) and a high-end RSx80D (eg: in AMD 790GX).

The RS880 will use feature-set refresh, though will embed a rather dated RV620-class graphics processor. The IGP will have DirectX 10.1 API compliance. Specifications-wise it is identical to the RS780, both sport 40 stream processors, 8 texture address and 4 texture filtering units, though the core speed on the RS880 is expected to be significantly higher. The feature-set refresh, as stated earlier, includes support for Universal Video Decoder 2 (UVD-2), in addition to 100% hardware acceleration for VC-1, H.264 and MPEG-2 bitstream decoding. Also provided is video dynamic-contrast. The IGP supports HDMI with audio routing, and DisplayPort. The chipset will be released in Q3 2009. Like the current RS780, the RS880 will be manufactured on the 55nm node of TSMC. It will be used on motherboards with companion SB710 or SB800 southbridge chips.

AMD declared new CPU information in mid November 2008; in consumer market, the AM2 based 45nm CPU which named "PhenomTM II" will be ready in January 2009; then, the new CPU which supports DDR3 will be released in February. In order to catch up the upcoming CPU, DFI LANParty already finished the compatibility test of the existed motherboards. Customers who bought DFI LANParty AMD 790FX/ 790GX motherboards can update the latest BIOS from website for supporting AMD 45nm Phenom II.

The DFI LANParty Phenom II ready motherboards are listed below:

• UT 790FX-M2R
• DK 790FX-M2RS
• DK 790FXB-M2RS
• DK 790FXB-M2RSH
• DK 790GX-M2RS
• JR 790GX-M2RS

A lot has been said about the launch schedules of AMD's upcoming 45nm desktop processors over the last fortnight. While the company itself slated its 45nm desktop CPU range to kick-off on January 8 2009, skeptics think otherwise saying it could take longer for AMD to have sufficiently stocked up inventories in retail channels.

HKEPC compiled a list of tentative order availability. time-frames for the 45nm CPUs sourced from PC manufacturers, which shows that the company launches Phenom II X4 940 on Jan. 8, while most of the product launches are concentrated in the months of February and April, 2009. Starting those months, channel vendors will be able to place bulk orders for those processors, to stock up inventories. Also pictured is the die-shot of AMD Deneb, and a picture showing the differences between the AM3 and AM2+ pin-grids (AM3 on the leftHS, AM2+ on rightHS).

AMD would be releasing its desktop 45nm CPUs, starting with two models under the Phenom II X4 banner. At this point in time, there is a great deal of uncertainty about when AMD plans to stock retailers with the new CPUs. The company's own roadmaps pointed out to a Q1 2009 launch, with several sources reporting then, that an early January launch was likely, but now it seems unlikely according to sources, who suggest these processors to stock up in March or later.

Meanwhile, a slide showing what looks like the the company's performance projections for the Phenom II X4 940, made its way to Expreview. The Phenom II X4 940 quad-core processor (Black Edition variant) would serve as the company's flagship desktop processor in the months to come, until it gets a proper AM3 refresh, and taken over by Phenom II X4 945. In the slide, the Phenom II X4 940 is pitted against two seemingly mainstream quad-core processors by Intel: Core 2 Quad Q9300 and Core 2 Quad Q9400. A percentage comparison in the gaming performance across some games and 3DMark06 is shown.

Last week, AMD stunned the computer enthusiast community by displaying the overclocking headroom the upcoming Phenom II processors could offer. Sources among channel vendors then leaked it to the press, that at least two models under the Phenom II banner await a January 8~10 launch schedule across various markets. Sources tell OC Workbench that they are very skeptical about its availability as early as in January. The sources said that they expect mass-availability of the processors only by March, or even as late as June 2009, in time for next year's Computex event.

Following the startling revelation by AMD, on just how much overclocking headroom its upcoming Phenom II processors offer, the company is on course for the announcement of the AMD Dragon enthusiast desktop PC platform. The AMD Dragon platform consists of a Phenom II X4 processor and Radeon HD 4800 series based graphics setup running on a 7-series chipset based motherboard. Earlier, a slide confidential to its channel partners was leaked to the media, showing up to 280% increments in gaming performance over its predecessor, the AMD Spider platform. Legit Reviews took a quick snap of the platform logo for AMD Dragon, showing a dark dragon with red glowing eyes holding the AMD Fusion badge. It also reveals the company's slogan for the platform: "Fusing technology with strength." Throughout the product launch phase for its 45nm Opteron processor, AMD has been largely conservative about its performance expectations, though with its desktop variants, the Phenom II series, AMD has been a little enthusiastic off late, advertising it as something "Beyond Expectations". It remains to be seen as to how far the company lives up to delivering to all the hype that has been created so far.

During an event by AMD held at its facility in Austin, Texas, the engineers took an engineering sample of the unreleased Deneb core based Phenom II X4, installed a copper-pot for liquid nitrogen cooling, and dropped the operational temperature to -185 °C. They then jacked up the vCore to 1.90V, to facilitate a clock speed of over 6.00 GHz!

At this point the exact frequency isn't known. Cameras weren't allowed at the event, and so no clear pictures were taken. Earlier the company had released slides to its channel contacts, telling that Phenom II would overclock very well, and 24x7 overclocks beyond 3.60 GHz on air didn't sound unreal. At the same event, AMD showcased Deneb chips doing 4.00 GHz with air-cooling (with vCore set at 1.6V).

"Spider" is the codename for a high-end desktop platform by AMD, which came to light late last year. It consisted of an AMD Phenom series processor, an AMD 790FX-based motherboard, and Radeon HD 3800-series graphics card(s). AMD would be offering a new high-end gaming platform based on its products, called "Dragon". It consists of a Phenom II processor, running on an AMD 790-series motherboard, and Radeon HD 4800-series graphics card(s). Expreview sourced a company-confidential side which illustrates the company's expectations from the platform, in terms of performance increments over its predecessor.

With office and productivity applications, AMD slates a 20~40% performance increment. The trend stays with multimedia applications. The gaming performance is where the money lies, with increments up to 280%. Again, take into account that the Dragon testbed is using a Radeon HD 4800 accelerator. 20~40% seems a significant figure, nonetheless.

AMD would be releasing its 45nm silicon-based desktop CPUs, built on the Deneb, Propus, Heka, Rana and Regor cores, to bring out quad-core, triple-core and eventually dual-core processors. AMD has discarded the 5-digit number scheme that was earlier reported, and in its place, adopted a three-digit scheme. The quad-core Deneb chips get a 9xx model number and 8xx number depending on the clock-speeds and cache size, Propus-based chips get the Athlon X4 branding.

Heka-based chips get Phenom II X3 7xx branding, with Rana getting Athlon X3 4xx. Regor dual-core trails with Athlon X2 2xx. It is important to note that AMD seems to have made a critical change to the Deneb core, releasing 2 models based on cache-arrangements. The first kind features a total of 8 MB cache (4x 512K L2 + 6M L3) and one with 6 MB total cache. To learn more about the other cores, please refer to our older article getting into details (here).