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Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/1297
Tech Update: AMD core changes on the horizon
by Kristopher Kubicki on April 16, 2004 2:29 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
All original Athlon 64s were based off the Clawhammer core; 130nm SOI with 1MB L2 cache. The recent Athlon 64 3000+ was also based on the ClawHammer core, but with half the L2 cache disabled. These Clawhammer (also known as Model 4) Athlons will undergo significant change sometime in the next few weeks. In a nutshell, Clawhammer cores will all be replaced by Newcastle cores (130nm SOI, 512KB L2 cache). The future Newcastle based Athlon 64s are also known as "Model C" Athlons.
Socket-754 Roadmap Update for 2004 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Core | Clock Speed | Cache Size | Release Date | |
AMD Athlon 64 3400+ | Newcastle |
2.4GHz |
512KB |
Q2 '04 |
AMD Athlon 64 3400+ | ClawHammer |
2.2GHz |
1MB |
Already Available
|
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ | Newcastle |
2.2GHz |
512KB |
Q2 '04 |
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ | ClawHammer
|
2.0GHz |
1MB |
Already Available |
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ | Newcastle |
2.0GHz |
512KB |
Q2 '04
|
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ | ClawHammer
(Half L2 Disabled) |
2.0GHz |
512KB |
Already Available |
Even though the new 3200+ and 3400+ will benifit from the 200MHz upgrade on the Newcastle core, the 50% smaller cache size has many negative implications; content creation and encoding may suffer. We did not find any mention of the Athlon 64 2800+ transitioning to the new Newcastle core, or confirmation as to whether or not the upcoming 3700+ will utilize the Newcastle core. Since the newest 3400+ receives an extra 200MHz boost in clockspeed, it is almost certain the 3700+ will debut with a 2.6GHz or higher core if it based off the 512KB L2 Newcastle core.
Here is a quick update on what the new SKU changes will look like.
Socket-754 SKU Updates for 2004 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Old SKU | New SKU | |||
AMD Athlon 64 3400+ | ADA3400AEP5AR |
ADA3400AEP4AX |
||
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ | ADA3200AEP5AR |
ADA3200AEP4AX |
||
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ | ADA3000AEP4AR |
ADA3000AEP4AX |
This may affect some motherboards since they may not be able to detect the new Model C Athlon 64s without a BIOS update. The CPU core ID will change from F4A to FC0 with the new processors.