'Locked' AMD Zambezi Silicon Being Branded As New Phenom II Line

[btarunr]

Besides the fact that they are carved out of the same piece of silicon by disabling components, all AMD FX series processors, from the quad-core FX-4000 series, to the eight-core FX-8000 series have one thing in common: they're all "unlocked", meaning they have an upwards-unlocked base-clock multiplier, which makes overclocking them a whole lot easier. Take that away and what do you get? A new Phenom II processor line. That's right, it is learned that AMD has a new line of Phenom II processors, eight-core for now, that are being carved out of the 32 nm Zambezi silicon.

Intuitively branded within the new Phenom II X8 and existing Phenom II X6 markers, these chips feature relatively lower clock speeds, meaning they will be priced low, competitive with Intel's sub-$200 Core i3 and Core i5 processors. AMD will also tinker with Zambezi's caches. The new chips came to light when some motherboard manufacturers leaked them on CPU support lists of certain motherboards, on their websites. For now we're getting to hear about two eight-core models, the 2.40 GHz Phenom II X8 2420, and 3.00 GHz Phenom II X8 3020; and two six-core models, the 2.50 GHz Phenom II X6 2520, and 2.80 GHz Phenom II X6 2820. Relevant details are tabled below. It beats us why AMD didn't take the opportunity (new silicon) to label these "Phenom III".



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[stinger608]

Very odd that AMD would start branding the "Bulldozer" chip under the Phenom II name

Kind of confirms the thread that Entropy13 posted HERE.

 

[cadaveca]

It's not that odd...what makes it seem odd is that the first set of chips were all "unlocked". These are not.

I was expecting more chips with locked cache though. It will be intereting to see if these chips will "unlock".

 

[meirb111]

add this to the wall of weird among phenom ii 840 (athlon) and other markting tricks
good products dont need markting tricks so amd better spend time on that and not more
tricks

 

[Hustler]

Doesn't matter what they call them, a turd is still a turd.

 

[HossHuge]

It beats us why AMD didn't take the opportunity (new silicon) to label these "Phenom III".

Good point. Cause everyone's going to think they will be able to use them in their AM2+ or AM3 motherboards.

Doesn't matter what they call them, a turd is still a turd.

Your insight is quite unknowlegable.

 

[BeepBeep2]

So many websites now have pulled info from their (butts)...
We recently had the same, posted from Xbit:
Which is funny because this came after the thread I link below...
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?277951-Phenom-x8-indecisive-AMD

1 week ago we concluded these were just entries for AMD FX-series Stepping B0 Engineering Samples. Hell, it even says B0 in the description. The model numbers correspond to Engineering Samples from 4-5 months ago...

The names correspond to the freq the ES was supposed to run at, that's all. They will never come out and articles like this show exactly what the media does to write around small bits of information...geniuses at ECS labeling these early ES's as "Phenom II X8" because apparently that's what they thought they would be.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?277788-Phenon-II-X8-ECS-bios-Update

 

[de.das.dude]

BUT THEY WOULD stilll clock like chuck norris with the ref clock right?

 

[JustaTinkerer]

BUT THEY WOULD stilll clock like chuck norris with the ref clock right?

Would imagine so. That being said, the multi is going to be lower (I know you will know this but for others) eg: Entropys post said (maybe) AMD Phenom II X8 2420 would be 2.4GHz....thats only a multi of 12....if thats locked then even chuck norris would struggle to get 3GHz-3.2GHz. As I hear a FSB of 275+/- seems to be the upper limit.
The higher end like the AMD Phenom II X8 3020 with 3GHz would clock better with a higher multi of 15....just spitballing BTW could be off, but it should see closer to 4GHz.

(all information I have learnt through hearsay and I will not be held responsible for folks taking what I say as fact).

(Chuck Norris, LOL, that comment made me smile)

 

[fox102383]

lol

They are branding them with the name phenom II, hoping that after awhile everyone will forget about the turds they put out,Then they will bring out their revised line of Fx cpu's out later,when they feel that things have died down alittle bit! It's a marketing ploy!

 

[Dent1]

They are branding them with the name phenom II, hoping that after awhile everyone will forget about the turds they put out,Then they will bring out their revised line of Fx cpu's out later,when they feel that things have died down alittle bit! It's a marketing ploy!

Why would they need a marketing ploy when the Bulldozer FX have been selling very well? Infact they've sold better than expected. A ploy isn't necessary.

 

[kid41212003]

They didn't call it p3 because it suck compared to p2. Still it hurts me why they call these turd p2.

 

[BeepBeep2]

Hey guys...

These CPUs will never see the light of day, please refer to the post RIGHT ABOVE yours. ECS elstupidoheads named them "Phenom II X8" on their CPU Support list, but they are AMD FX Engineering Samples, B0 stepping. ...retail was B2.

Thanks

 

[JustaTinkerer]

Dont know how I missed your post...


To quote you from XTS

I guess we can all move along now

 

[newtekie1]

It beats us why AMD didn't take the opportunity (new silicon) to label these "Phenom III".

Probably because they already perform worse than the Phenom II line, so naming a worse performing processor as Phenom III would get them blasted in reviews and by the consumers.

 

[etayorius]

I dont get it, why call it PhenomII when its obviously that PhenomII out performs Bulldozer? They should just call it Phenom FX, what a bunch of morons in AMD PR.

 

[JustaTinkerer]

So I take it this conversation is just going to continue hypothetically.

NM sounded troll for a sec

 

[Nesters]

I dont get it, why call it PhenomII when its obviously that PhenomII out performs Bulldozer? They should just call it Phenom FX, what a bunch of morons in AMD PR.

Well, Phenom (8xx) also was just a higher clocked Athlon, which was outperformed by Phenom (same architecture tho, just L3 cacheless). But this, indeed, doesn't make sense.

AMD always finds a way how to troll!

 

[BeepBeep2]

Still laughing at the loads of people still thinking this may still become a reality still in any way, shape or form.

Still.

 

[JustaTinkerer]

Still laughing at the loads of people still thinking this may still become a reality still in any way, shape or form.

Still.

You never know, I mean I phoned CE Rory Read up and hes coming round to do my hair and fill me in on reading all the posts before I comment.

 

[dirtyferret]

too bad i retired my phenom II x4 955 build as my GF's computer and built an i5-2500k...actually after seeing these crap CPUs from AMD (8 core phenom, bulldozer, fusion's poor CPU performance)..it's not bad at all.

 

[seronx]

This forum is filled with idiots...

http://news.softpedia.com/news/AMD-...o-4-1GHz-with-Turbo-Core-Enabled-196873.shtml

Old news rehashed, once again the news here becomes Child's Play and unproductive

 

[TheMailMan78]

This forum is filled with idiots...

Welcome Aboard!

 

[seronx]

Welcome Aboard!

I know thanks and I always feel aboard a ship when I come here

OHH OOHH ECS and some other motherboard manufacturers are calling ENGINEER SAMPLES!!! Phenom II Processors oh ooooooooooooohhhh!!! THE SAVIOR OF MANKIND IS UPON US!!!

I request this article be renamed

"Anton and Wang Lei thinks Bulldozer Engineer Samples is the sign of the future Bulldozer products"

Hull.....

 

[JustaTinkerer]

I know thanks and I always feel aboard a ship when I come here

Why do you feel that way...your legs go to jelly and your sick over the side? Or is it the uniform?

J/K