AMD Phenom Released - Expectations are never Satisfied
AMD's Phenom which has been getting quite a big buzz in the processor market finally released yesterday i.e. Nov 19.
Phenom is the first quad core processor from AMD along with HyperThreading 3.0 and Cool-n-Quiet Technology. The Phenom has up to 3 levels of cache memory which includes 64k L1, 512K L2 and 2MB of L3 cache and supports SSE3 instructions. Expectedly, this four core processor is the fastest of all the AMD's desktop processors with its ability to exchange data with its DDR2 modules at 1066MHz rate. With the Cool-n-Quiet enabled on your processor, you can get higher power efficiency with the minimum noise levels.
Despite of all the buzz, it got in the market and everyone hoping that this might be a good answer to Intel's 45nm quad core Penryn chip, Phenom failed to live up to the expectation in the first edition. AMD released 9500 and 9600 Phenom's which are clocked at 2.2GHz and 2.3GHz. However, Phenom 9700 failed to make it to the market due to its unstable behavior as told by AMD. AMD 9600 which was priced to compete Intel's Quad Core QX6600 wasn't able to overtake its performance as expected. However, the biggest advantage of AMD quad core Phenom is that you don't need to upgrade your AM2 socket motherboard if you wish to turn your AMD machine into a four quad Phenom unlike Intel. This can be a real good new for AMD X2 owners who have been waiting for Phenom for so long although it will mean some performance limitations, yet it could be a big saving.
Finally, AMD Phenom seems to be promising product from AMD labs but a very tough competition lies ahead of it with Intel's Penryn processors getting ready for the big fight.
