Some other mojo
Core improvementsAMD wouldn't go into a great deal of detail when quizzed on any core improvements that related to increasing the instructions-per-clock-cycle count: making it faster on a given clock speed, if you will Ignoring the obvious performance-boosters such as extra L3 cache and higher clock-speeds, Phenom II has had, we believe, a reworking of the branch-prediction unit. AMD cites increased (clock-for-clock) POV-ray performance as a pragmatic demonstration of the optimisations made.
Pragmatism
Phenom IIs will continue to use the AM2- form-factor and, as with original Phenom, support DDR2-1,066 memory. That means that most AM2+ boards will require, at most, a BIOS update to fully recognise the new CPUs. We had no trouble in running a '940 on a Gigabyte 790GX board during exhaustive testing.
Late February will see the introduction of Phenom II CPUs that are endowed with an onboard DDR3 memory-controller, as per the Core i7. The dual-channel-supporting Phenom CPUs will be based on a new form-factor, AM3, but will still be compatible with DDR2 AM2+ boards, thanks to the hybrid controller on the CPU.
Nomenclature
So what to call the second-generation Phenoms, huh? AMD's gone for the obvious and labelled the duo as Phenom IIs, but just take a look at the model-numbering system - 940 and 920 - and it's clear that AMD's targetting Intel's Core i7 line, which also has a 920 and 940 processor in the three-CPU line-up.
We're just a little concerned that uneducated buyers may well believe that AMD's parts comfortably match Intel's with respect to performance, which they don't, and having identical model names is more than just arbitrary, clearly. Why not jump on the back of something good?
Pricing
The two new Phenoms will be substantially more expensive than the current crop, as shown on the table above. We expect the 940 to cost north of £200 when launched, putting it firmly in the middle of a range of Core 2 Quads and the bottommost Core i7. However, the complete platform proposition is quite different for the three processors, and we'll examine how with a look at the 'Dragon' offering from AMD, consisting of Phenom II CPU, 790GX motherboard, and Radeon 4800-series graphics card.
Pictures
So many words and so few pictures, so here is the AMD Phenom II 940 CPU:
Nothing to separate it from a 9950 BE.
